Grace viewers raged ‘it’s driving me mad’ as they shared a big complaint about the ITV drama’s return. 

The first episode of the highly anticipated fifth season of the crime drama, based on Peter James’ novel Roy Grace, hit the channel on Sunday night. 

Actor John Simm, 54, reprised his role as detective superintendent Roy Grace.

The star is joined by the likes of Richie Campbell, 38, Laura Elphinstone, 41, Zoë Tapper, 43, and Sam Hoare, 43. 

While the first instalment played our on our screens, many took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts.  

It appears that not everybody watching was impressed with the episode – and actually confessed they want Vera, which ran between 2011 and 2025, to come back instead. 

Grace viewers rage ‘it’s driving me mad’ as they share big complaint about ITV drama’s return for its fifth series

The first episode of the highly anticipated fifth season of the crime drama, based on Peter James’ novel Roy Grace, hit the channel on Sunday night – but some fans demanded to bring Vera (pictured) back 

One wrote: ‘#Grace This is stupid. Bring back #Vera.’

Another said: ‘#grace used to enjoy this but it’s now jumped the shark. Totally implausible plot. Too many coincidences and “lucky breaks”. And unrealistic.’ 

A third chimed in: ‘Afraid I really didn’t think last nights #Grace on #ITV was very good. Instead of sticking to the basis of each book of #PeterJames they are now hashing different ones together and it doesn’t make sense at all.’ 

A fourth tweeted: ‘This is bloody stupid. Bring back #Vera.’

Another added: ‘#grace this is boring so far.’

‘#Grace i’m done, turning over,’ a fifth fumed. 

However others did enjoy it.   

One wrote: ‘So good to have #Grace back on Sunday evenings!’

And it appears that not everybody watching was impressed with the episode – and actually confessed they want Vera, which ran between 2011 and 2025, to come back

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Another chimed in: ‘I cannot express how excited I am that #Graceis back on my screen.’

A third added: ‘Great start to the new series of #Grace.’

Vera (Brenda Blethyn) was a crime drama that followed the story of a retired detective chief inspector called Vera Stanhope.

It ran on ITV between 2011 and 2025. 

Before the show wrapped up, actress Brenda revealed why she finally quit her role as the iconic character. 

Explaining why she quit, she said: ‘It was a lovely summer back in 2023, and I came to realise I hadn’t had a summer with my husband for 14 years.

‘Naturally, I missed my family. And my dog Jack, although he was with me in the North East, but I didn’t see him much because I was working all day.’ 

 She added: ‘I love my Vera family, but I love my other family too. 

‘And when you consider I was already thinking about packing work in when I was offered the job back in 2010, 14 series of working on Vera is pretty good going!

‘I wasn’t actually going to do any more after series 13, but of course ITV said they needed to wind the series up. 

‘So I said: “Oh, go on then, I’ll do a couple more episodes.”‘

Grace hit our screens in 2021 and has gone on to have five successful series. 

The show is written by Russell Lewis and directed by John Alexander and Julia Ford. 

Grace airs Sundays on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.