A stage production of Picture You Dead - adapted from the best-selling novel by crime writer Peter James - is coming to the New Victoria Theatre in Woking from February 18 to 22.

The 2024 National Television Award winning actor Peter Ash will return to the stage following his acclaimed and unforgettably emotional exit from Coronation Street in September.

Peter’s other credits include Footballers’ Wives and the lead role in the National Theatre’s War Horse.

Joining Peter is Fiona Wade who, following 11 years in Emmerdale, took to the stage earlier this year in the hit 2:22 A Ghost Story and will soon be seen in Going Dutch.

West End favourite Jodie Steele (Bonnie and Clyde, Wicked, Heathers, Six) will star as Roberta Kilgore, and one of the nation’s favourite television doctors, George Rainsford, (Casualty, Call The Midwife and All’s Well That Ends Well at the National Theatre), will return to reprise the role of Peter James’ famous literary detective, DSI Roy Grace, which he played in the 2023 hit production of Wish You Were Dead. George also starred alongside Fiona in 2:22 A Ghost Story.

Picture You Dead is the seventh Peter James book adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna. It is directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, who directed previous Peter James stage adaptations Wish You Were Dead (2023) and Looking Good Dead (2021-22).

Peter James said: “It is truly incredible for me to see the seventh stage adaptation of my books coming to theatres in 2025.

“I am so grateful to the hundreds of thousands of people around the country who have come to their local theatre and enjoyed the plays over the last ten years, and I am thrilled to tell you all that I think this new play is the best one so far.

“On top of that, I could not be more delighted by the fantastic cast that we have assembled to star in the world premiere production of Picture You Dead – they are all brilliant actors and it’s going to be a great and thrilling night at the theatre.”

The story of Picture You Dead was inspired by Peter’s meeting with real life art forger and now acclaimed copyist David Henty.

In Brighton, DSI Grace investigates a cold case that leads him to the rarified air of fine art, but beneath the respectable veneer lurks a dark underworld of greed, deception and murder.

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

Roy Grace is a crime fiction phenomenon - the books have sold 23 million copies worldwide, been previously adapted for six hugely successful stage productions, and been transformed into ITV's critically acclaimed primetime drama about the Brighton detective, Grace.

The fifth series is in production. Earlier this year Grace was declared by Queen Camilla to be her favourite literary detective.

Peter James has written 20 Sunday Times best-selling crime novels. The Picture You Dead tour is produced by Joshua Andrews and Peter James, cementing the adaptations of James’ Grace books as the most successful modern-day crime franchise on stage since Agatha Christie.