Grantchester (TV series) - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

Grantchester series 1 on dvd

Grantchester is an ITV detective drama, set in the 1950s Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester, near Cambridge. It was first broadcast in 2014. The show features Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton), who develops a sideline in sleuthing with the help of Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green). The series is based on The Grantchester Mysteries, collections of short stories written by James Runcie. The first series was based on the six stories from the first book, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death. A second series was commissioned in late 2014 and broadcast in March and April 2016. A third series will air in 2017.

Plot

Anglican priest and former Scots Guards officer Sidney Chambers (James Norton) and the overworked Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) forge an unlikely partnership in solving crimes. Keating's gruff, methodical approach to policing complements Chambers' more intuitive techniques of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects.

Cast

James Norton as the Reverend Sidney Chambers (Series 1—present), an Anglican priest and former Scots Guards officer

Robson Green as Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Series 1—present), a World War II veteran and police detective

Morven Christie as Amanda Kendall (Series 1—present), an heiress who works at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London

Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs Maguire (Series 1—present), Chambers' religious housekeeper

Al Weaver as Leonard Finch (Series 1—present), a naive, closeted, gay curate

Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating (Series 1—present), the detective inspector's wife

Tom Austen as Guy Hopkins (Series 1—present), Amanda's aristocratic fiancé, and later husband, who is wary of Amanda and Chambers' closeness

Seline Hizli as Margaret Ward (Series 2—present), junior office clerk at the police headquarters

Pip Torrens as Sir Edward Kendall (Series 1, Christmas special)

Pheline Roggan as Hildegard Staunton (Series 1), a young German widow who develops a close romantic relationship with Chambers

Fiona Button as Jennifer Chambers (Series 1), Sidney's sister

Oliver Dimsdale as photographer Daniel Marlowe, the love interest of Leonard Finch

Production

Filming began in London, Cambridge and Grantchester from March to June 2014.

Grantchester itself was used for extensive filming with the Church of St Andrew and St Mary for the church interior and churchyard scenes. A private home in Lemsford, Hertfordshire, was used to double as the vicarage. The Windmill pub in Chipperfield became The Red Lion. King's Parade in Cambridge was transformed into a 1950s street scene with period cars and buses; a restaurant is dressed with tables, chairs and menus that reflect the decade in which the show is set. Horsted Keynes railway station, on the Bluebell Railway, in West Sussex was used to double for the exterior of Cambridge station.

Filming was also done in Kent at Chatham Dockyard, featured in episodes five and six, doubling as various London locations, including the exterior of Kings Cross Station, Borough Market, and the exterior and interior of a warehouse and ropery. The London Convent and Gloria’s bedroom scenes were also filmed in Commissioners House.

Filming for the second series took place in London, Cambridge and Grantchester in Autumn 2015. Guest stars for series 2 included Neil Morrissey, Claudie Blakley, Nigel Planer, Andrew Knott, Nicky Henson and Oliver Dinsdale.

Critical reception

The first episode was generally well received by the critics. Michael Pilgrim of The Daily Telegraph wrote: "Delightfully neat and economical of plot, it’s Cluedo with cassocks and just enough noir for the modern palate. Victoria sponge with a tablespoon of battery acid." He added that "There could be a worse antidote than Grantchester" in a grim October in the early 21st century. Christopher Stevens of The Daily Mail considered it "an imaginative effort to solve the crossword by plucking hints from just about every classic crime series in television history", "shamelessly" borrowing from Inspector Morse, Miss Marple and Father Brown. He found the episode to be laden with nostalgia but judged it "an earnest attempt to construct an old-fashioned murder story, without naked corpses on the mortuary table or self-pitying depressive detectives, or any of the current fads in crime TV." Ellen Jones of The Independent thought the programme "delightful, a new treat for fans of period-set, gently paced detective series like Endeavour, and also for fans of top TV totty James Norton."

The first series was given a Metacritic score of 70, indicating generally favourable reviews based on 10 American reviews.

Broadcast

The first series was broadcast in the UK on ITV starting 6 October 2014. The show premiered in the United States on 18 January 2015 on Masterpiece Mystery on PBS. It premiered in Australia on 28 February 2015 on ABC. A French version premiered on France 3 from 12 July 2015. Series 2 was broadcast on PBS in the US from 27 March 2016.

Episode list

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.

References

Grantchester (TV series) Wikipedia

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