room for the television movie Bermuda Grace, which will air later this year in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

The cast and crew for the Canadian-British production reported for work at 7 a.m. for make-up, costume check and equipment set-up.

It was also the first day on set for some of the lucky Bermudian extras who were chosen after a recent audition which drew more than 400 hopefuls.

The $3.5 million production could become a major TV series if the networks involved -- Britain's ITV and NBC in the US -- believe it has what it takes to keep viewers glued to their sets week after week.

The story centres on Philadelphia policeman Sam Grace, who teams up with an English detective on the Bermuda Police Force, Travis Watkins, to solve a serious crime.

American actor William Sadler, who landed the role of detective Grace, said his character comes as a welcome change.

"It's my first chance to play a gritty but funny and romantic leading man,'' Mr. Sadler said yesterday. "I tend to be cast as a villain or the hero's best friend.'' He has portrayed "heavies'' in such films as Project X, Die Hard II, Hard To Kill, Rush and Trespass, which have screened on the Island.

Mr. Sadler also had the dubious honour of portraying the grim reaper in the sleeper hit Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

"It's really great to play a character who hates violence,'' Mr. Sadler said of Sam Grace. "He's good at it, but he hates it. It's fun to get the girl, be the attractive one and be funny.'' Although The Royal Gazette was unable to interview the other half of the Bermuda Grace team -- David Harewood, who portrays Trevor Watkins -- one of the film's producers offered his own view on the actor's talents.

"He's one of the new crop of young people just really beginning to come through,'' said Mr. Will Davies. "We believe he's going to be a very big star.'' He said Mr. Harewood had done a lot of television work in the UK, including some children's series.

For Mr. Davies and his fellow writer/producer Mr. Will Osborne, Bermuda Grace marks their first film project with fellow Britons.

The pair, who divide their time between Los Angeles and London, have only made Hollywood feature films until now.

"We came to Bermuda for a weekend, and we thought we had to have a reason to come back on a more permanent basis,'' said Mr. Davies, a former feature reporter on The Daily Mail in London. "So we worked extraordinarily hard to come up with the idea.'' "In fact, Bermuda is about the only place in the world which has a completely legitimate mix of British and American. Normally you have to come up with some bogus reason why either an English cop would go to America, or an American cop would go to England.'' Mr. Osborne, a former London barrister, said he and Mr. Davies had scripted a number of big-screen hits since they teamed up seven years ago, including the comedies Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot and Twins.

Fears that the movie would portray the Island as a crime-ridden country were quickly brushed off by the film-makers, who said Bermuda Grace would be "a million miles'' from the likes of Miami Vice.

"They're more Agatha Christie-style stories than hard, street-crime types,'' Mr. Osborne explained. "There's far more intrigue.'' "For the series to work, Bermuda has to be, and remain, very glamorous and very upscale,'' Mr. Davies added. "The basic joke is that Sam Grace has spent 20 years being shot at on the streets of this rust-belt town in North America, and now he's finally in a place where he's never going to get shot at.'' The film's director, Mr. Mark Sobel, said although a murder is included in the movie's storyline, the crime takes place in Sam Grace's hometown of Philadelphia.

"We've made Philadelphia look very bleak ,'' he explained. "We didn't have any colours in the shots and everyone was dressed in tones of grey so when our hero Sam Grace arrives in Bermuda it's like Dorothy stepping into the Land of Oz.'' Mr. Sobel, who directed the pilot for the popular TV series The Commish, said Bermuda Grace would also be an excellent promotion vehicle for the Island.

"Anytime we can change (a scene) to exterior to show off a little more of the Island we've been doing that, so it should be a pretty lovely-looking film,'' he said.

After filming in The Royal Gazette building yesterday morning, the action in the afternoon moved to Supreme Court.

LIGHTS . . . CAMERA . . . Lead actors for the TV movie Bermuda Grace, William Sadler (centre) and David Harewood (far left facing camera), pictured during yesterday's filming in the press room at The Royal Gazette .