DEAD SIMPLE Coming to Theatre Royal Glasgow

Following the critically acclaimed hit premiere stage production of Peter James' The Perfect Murder, the best-selling work of the No.1 novelist will return to the stage in 2015 with the adaptation of his most famous and popular book to date Dead Simple. A host of famous faces - including Gray O'Brien (Coronation Street) as Detective Roy Grace, Jamie Lomas (Eastenders, Hollyoaks) as Michael Harrison, Rik Makarem (Emmerdale, Torchwood) as Mark Warren, Michael McKell (Doctors, Emmerdale) as Bradley Cunningham and introducing Glasgow actress Gemma Stroyan (Taggart) as Ashley Harper - bring the next claustrophobically thrilling instalment of Peter James' work to life at the Theatre Royal Glasgow from Monday 18 until Saturday 23 May 2015.

Michael Harrison thinks he has it all; great career, good friends and a beautiful fiancée. But when his stag night prank goes horribly wrong, Michael finds himself alone, buried alive and staring death in the face. As time runs out and the terror grows, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace tries to solve his mysterious disappearance, but begins to fear that Michael will never be found in time.

The Glasgow run of Dead Simple coincides with the release of Peter James' eleventh novel in the Roy Grace series, You Are Dead, available from Thursday 21 May 2015. Peter James has gone straight in at No.1 in the Sunday Times bestseller charts seven times in the last four years with his Roy Grace series. The international bestselling crime thriller novelist has won numerous awards both in the UK and in the USA and in 2012 Peter won the coveted US Barry Award for Best British Crime Thriller. He has sold over 15 million books of his Roy Grace series, and is published in 36 languages. Dead Simple has itself sold over 2 million copies around the word and has been a No.1 best seller in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Holland and Russia.

Author Peter James spoke highly of the Dead Simple casting:

"As a writer, all my characters begin in my mind. I flesh them out for the printed page. But nothing can compare to the joy of seeing them turn into real flesh and blood. We were blessed with both casts of The Perfect Murder and we are just as blessed now with the cast for Dead Simple. All of them are actors I really admire and respect, and to see them come together, for the first time, at the read-through of the play was a truly magical experience for me."

Olivier Award winner Ian Talbot directs an all-star cast including TV heartthrob Jamie Lomas who has starred for the last year in Eastenders as the murderous Jake Stone and before that played bad boy Warren Fox for five years in Channel 4's Hollyoaks.

Stewarton born Gray O'Brien, the award-winning star of Coronation Street, TV series Titanic, Peak Practice and Casualty as well as Sleuth in the West End, will follow up his critically acclaimed performance in The Perfect Murder by playing the famous Detective Roy Grace in this gripping thriller that has all the classic suspense, twists and turns of a best-selling Peter James novel.

Fellow Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduate Rik Makarem is a previous winner of the prestigious Laurence Olivier Bursary in association with the Society of London Theatre. Rik is best known for starring for four years in Emmerdale but has also starred in the BBC's Torchwood and ITV's Foyle's War. His theatre credits include Passing By at the Tristan Bates theatre and The Dishwashers starring alongside David Essex.

Michael McKell is perhaps best known for his three year starring role in Doctors as well as playing DC Nick Henshall in Emmerdale, D.I Trevor Hands in ITV's Murder Investigation Team and Channel 4's Totally Frank. On stage Michael has starred in Blood Brothers, Ben Elton's Tonight's the Night and the Olivier winning Crazy for You. His film credits include Essex Boys with Sean Bean.

Gemma Stroyan is excited to be performing in her home city and returning to the Theatre Royal stage where she previously starred alongside Siobhan Redmond in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Gemma has appeared in STV's Taggart, Yo! Diary for the Comedy Unit and CBBC, and as the voice of Visit Scotland for radio. Gemma's theatre credits include Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors and most notably her role of Emilia in Othello at the Riverside Studios, for which she was nominated for an Off West End Award. Most recently, she appeared as the Wicked Queen in Snow White for Spillers Pantomimes.

The cast is completed by Joshua Brown as Davey Wheeler, Marc Small as Detective Sergeant Glenn Branson, Sarah Baxendale as Zoe Frame and Alan Freestone as Robbo.

Dead Simple is the second of James' novels to be adapted by Shaun McKenna and produced by Peter James and Joshua Andrews in association with Paul Tyrer and Jamie Clark at the Booking Office. As well as The Perfect Murder, Andrews has recently co-produced the sell-out run of A Streetcar Named Desire with the Young Vic - the fastest selling show in the theatre's history - which opened to rave reviews and starred Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby. An 'NT Live' broadcast of A Streetcar Named Desire was screened live in cinemas around the world earlier this year.

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