ITV viewers were left complaining and advising the channel to move crime drama Grace to a later time slot as it aired 'graphic' content on horrifying rapes before the 9pm watershed on Sunday night.
A year on from its last series, which ended with a shocking plot about the trafficking of human organs, Grace, adapted from the hit novels by acclaimed author Peter James, was back for a third run this weekend, occupying the 8pm slot recently held by much loved Sunday night show Vera and the final series of Endeavour.
Unlike the other two ITV dramas, which tend to hold back on the gore and graphic details, Grace went for the jugular within minutes of its return to screens, when detective Roy Grace had to get to the bottom of the rape of a young woman in a hotel by a sex attacker who used a sex toy as his weapon. And it was a comment one of Grace's colleagues made about the perpetrator which raised a few eyebrows.
In a scene outside the police station, the character remarked: "What kind of a sick mind dresses up a full latex body suit and assaults his victims with a dildo?!" The case dragged up old memories for Grace, who recalled a very similar investigation a decade earlier, involving an criminal known as 'the Brighton prowler,' who was never caught.
As Grace cut to its first ad break, viewers were quick to air their grievances on Twitter, with one posting: "Crikey #ITV does the watershed not exist anymore?" A second, making the exact same point, tweeted: "I mean seriously. It is abit far for 8pm," with a third commenting: "I'm always shocked that @ITV airs #Grace at 8pm."
It isn't the first time that the pre-watershed of scheduling of Grace has seen ITV come under fire from viewers. Complaints flooded in over a scene in the first episode of Grace series two, as viewers saw a character watching what turned out to be a snuff video of a woman sat blindfolded on a bed, before the masked person she was with brandished a knife and screams were heard.
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