Fan Spotlight on Gray Wright, the Epitome of Disaster

Fan Spotlight – I, Jack Wright
By TeeJay – Guest Contributor
26 Mar 2026

If you’ve watched some of the more recent John Simm interviews where he talks about his recurring role of Roy Grace on ITV’s popular crime series Grace, you might have heard him say that while he’s very grateful for the opportunity to embody the whip-smart detective, he also sometimes wants to break out of the goody-two-shoes mould and play something very different.

One such chance came along when he was offered a role on the 2025 UKTV series I, Jack Wright. And when you dive in and meet washed-out music producer Gray Wright, the appeal of the role quickly becomes apparent. Because, really, the man is a bit of a mess.

But let’s first a step back and look at what the series is all about. I, Jack Wright is centred around wealthy businessman Jack Wright, or rather his remaining family since one not so fine day, Jack is found murdered. In the wake of the shocking news, it gets even more shocking when Jack’s last will and testament is being read to his relatives, because it very much does not say what everyone expects it to say.

As the result of a last minute change of heart, Jack decided that his spouses and his children are to end up (mostly) empty-handed and his rather considerable inheritance is to be distributed otherwise. It throws the whole family into disarray – feuds and personal grudges suddenly sparked and conspiracies and scandals simmering underneath it all, ready to boil over.

John Simm plays Jack’s oldest child Graham Wright – Gray to most people. Now in his 50’s, Gray is an impassioned musician and music producer, struggling to keep his record label afloat. But as much as he tries, he’s increasingly failing at it since he’s neck-deep in debts and owes £50,000 to a local creditor whom he can’t quite pay back.

Desperate to get his head out of a tightening noose, now that he knows he can’t count on a cushy inheritance, Gray’s last resort is begging family and friends for a desperate financial injection. It’s evident that this isn’t the first time that he’s asking for help of this sort, but he has cried wolf one too many times and is now running headlong into walls because people are done with him and his irresponsible crap.

What is fun to watch over the course of the six episodes, is that Gray really is the disaster child in the family. When we first meet him, he calls his father a bastard who deserved to die. Subsequently, we see him getting punched squarely in the face (twice!) because he owes a sizeable sum of money to a fed-up loan shark. He snorts a line of coke right at his father’s funeral, the shiner from the previous encounter prominently telling the tale. Not to mention that alcohol problem he has…

Not only does he not have much of a filter when he speaks, Gray is essentially an egocentric, vain little shit. There’s a prominent tattoo on his neck that spells ‘ADORED’. He has his own album releases and gold records plastered all over his walls, he named his own music label after himself (Fade 2 Gray, if you want to know) and when there are several emergencies in the family, his first thought is, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’

As we see Gray’s path unfolding, we get to peel back some of his layers, because we learn that a continual absence of love, care and attention weaves itself throughout his childhood. Even now, a deep resentment for his parents and how they raised him seethes underneath it all. We see glimpses of it when he calls his mother a bitch right to her face or leaves her a voicemail that it’ll be her fault if he gets killed by the creditor he owes.

You’d hope that someone so embittered by how he was raised would strive to do better with his own children, but Gray Wright wouldn’t be the epitome of disaster if he didn’t also epically fail at parenting his own daughter Emily. Now approaching 30, Emily isn’t exactly on speaking terms with her father – mostly due to Gray being an absent parent whose egocentric streak repeatedly got in the way of a healthy father/daughter relationship.

Now, all of this may sound like Gray is thoroughly unlikeable, but he really isn’t. He’s very much a victim of circumstance and a long series of bad decisions. At his core, Gray has his heart in the right place, but his fucked up childhood and inability to take responsibility for his own failures tends to get in the way. Yet, somehow, after everything, it still makes you root for the hopeless little plonker.

It wouldn’t be quite as rewarding if there wasn’t also a personal journey for Gray in all of this. If there’s anything that he takes away from this unravelling family crisis, it’s that the fall is unforgiving when you don’t have a safety net, and that you should hold on to some family ties because they might just save your life. As for whether all of it was a wake-up call for him that he will walk away from with some actual learnings, well… I suppose that remains to be seen.

Thankfully, a second series of I, Jack Wright is underway as we speak and John has confirmed he is reprising his role as Gray Wright. Starring alongside John Simm are Nikki Amuka-Bird, Gemma Jones, Daniel Rigby, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Zoë Tapper, Harry Lloyd, Liz Kingsman and many more.

If you wish to catch up with series 1, it is available in certain countries via Britbox, U&Alibi, Now TV and Apple TV. UK viewers can rejoice since it’ll be coming to BBC One later in 2026.

There are actually a number of little John Simm-related things to unpack here if you dig a little beneath the surface of Gray Wright.

Fans might have spotted a fun little detail in Gray’s flat where they used an old shot of John from the 2004 Kill Bill Vol. 2 premiere in London where he’s wearing that Bollocks t-shirt. Interestingly enough, that photo is often misappropriated as a photoshopped version where the t-shirt says “Vote Saxon” to allude to John’s role as The Master on Dr. Who.

The first interesting titbit about the venue on the above mentioned poster: The Haçienda was a very influential club in Manchester that shaped the 1980’s and 90’s music scene known as “Madchester” – mostly associated with indie rock, acid house and dance music. So Gray playing there is actually an important milestone and explains why he uses it for bragging rights. 

There’s an even closer connection to John Simm here too, because the Haçienda is prominently featured in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People that John starred in as Bernard Sumner, the Joy Division/New Order guitarist. So whoever came up with this particular piece of set decoration, it may or may not have been done strategically as an homage to 24 Hour Party People or a nod to John’s role in the movie. Also makes you wonder what the full story here is. Gray Wright live at The Haçienda, introducing his debut album titled “Bollocks”? 🙂

If you looked closely, you might have spotted that Gray has two relatively prominent tattoos. One is on his right hand of what looks like a scarabaeus beetle. While one may theorise that perhaps this has some kind of higher symbolism of self-renewal and transformation, it was pointed out to me by a fellow fan that it may also just be a tad more on-the-nose and just John Simm wanting to show off his eternal love for The Beatles. Or, you know, perhaps a bit of both.

Gray’s other tattoo is the word ‘ADORED’ on the side of his neck. And while that can also well be tied to Gray’s undermined feeling of self-worth, it might be another personal John Simm connection in that he’s a big Stone Roses fan and “I Wanna Be Adored” is one of their most renown singles.

Speaking of fan-relevant nuggets: Avid viewers of ITV’s Grace might also enjoy one particular scene where Gray calls Zoë Tapper’s character “luv” and she snappishly tells Gray that she’s “not his love”, seeing how the two of them play the most perfectly in love couple on Grace. That certainly elicited a chuckle from me…

That said, I will leave you with this 4-minute cross section of our little lion man’s journey throughout series 1. (Warning, contains spoilers! Also a shameless plug since I made that fanvid…)