'It's an entertaining two hours of a crime thriller'

The Theatre Royal is hosting another world premiere this month when a new Peter James stage adaptation, Picture You Dead, opens on June 17. JEFFREY DAVIES caught up with Casualty actor George Rainsford who takes on the iconic role of DSI Roy Grace

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DETECTIVE Superintendent Roy Grace is back! Back in the West Country in a new Peter James stage adaptation - a world premiere production of his best-selling book Picture You Dead.

When an unsuspecting couple buy a potentially long-lost masterpiece from a car boot sale, they discover that their dream find is about to turn into their worst nightmare, and only DSI Roy Grace can stop them from paying the ultimate price.

Set in Brighton, Picture You Dead sees DSI Roy Grace investigate a cold case that leads him to the secretive and rarefied world of fine art, but underneath the respectable veneer lurks a murky underworld of greed, deception and murder.

Never seen before on stage or screen, Picture You Dead’s story was inspired when author Peter James met real-life former master art-forger (and now acclaimed copyist) David Henty. Henty was arrested in the 1990s for forging passports and learnt how to copy major artworks while in prison.

George Rainsford, one of this country’s favourite TV doctors after playing Ethan Hardy in more than 300 episodes of medical drama Casualty, returns as Peter James's famous literary detective DSI Grace when the thriller and ‘theatrical masterpiece’ takes to the stage of the Theatre Royal.

Adapted for the stage by award-winning writer Shaun McKenna and directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, the stellar cast also stars Strictly Come Dancing winner, presenter and stage actor Ore Oduba, Emmerdale’s Fiona Wade and Jodie Steele.

Hot on the heels of the latest instalment of the acclaimed ITV1 series Grace which stars John Simm, what can audiences expect of this world premiere stage adaptation?