At least one section of the population won’t be feeling entirely gloomy as January engulfs us – and that’s fans of ecclesiastical crime. In the same week that sees a new series of Father Brown, the BBC daytime hit with Mark Williams as GK Chesterton’s sleuthing priest, the penultimate run of Grantchester arrives on ITV. All we need now is for 5 to screen repeats of Murder Before Evensong and we’ll have a full house of dog-collared detectives.
The new episodes of Grantchester see Alphy Kottaram (Rishi Nair) fully up and running as the titular Cambridge village’s latest sleuthing vicar. Much of the last series involved the white parishioners’ reactions to having a South Asian prelate in their midst, but now it seems that Alphy’s heritage is no longer an issue, and the new vicar can get on with his most important duty. No, not tending to his parishioners’ souls, but helping solve the rural community’s unfeasibly high murder rate.
Alphy certainly seems to spend more time at the police station than in church – he might as well be seconded full-time to Robson’s Green’s DI Geordie Keating. If you were one of his flock, you might want to have a word with the bishop.
Alphy spends more time assisting DI Geordie Keating than he does with his flock (Photo: ITV/Kudos)The latest murder occurs at the village’s Easter fete, where a worshipper protesting about the occasion’s perceived frivolity (“Easter has been hijacked!”) is shot dead. The murder-mystery element involves a melange of assumed identities, secret love affairs and greed, but the crime side of the plot feels largely perfunctory; it’s like a more forgettable episode of Midsomer Murders. In any case, what fans really want more of are the main characters and their personal travails.
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So often these centre on Leonard Finch, the former curate so affectingly played by Al Weaver. Having been rejected by his father for being gay, Leonard now learns that his dad has passed away and that the funeral has already taken place because Russell Finch didn’t want his son to attend. Among his few personal effects is a full hip flask, and (spoiler alert) future episodes see Leonard’s life spiral out of control as he takes his cue from this drinking vessel.
Vicarage housekeeper Sylvia Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) – who plays a similar role in this show to Mrs Hall, the Skeldale housekeeper in All Creatures Great and Small – is having an existential crisis, while Geordie claims that “nobody listens to me anymore”. Life appears a lot brighter for Alphy, however, as a perky new librarian, Meg (Christie Russell-Brown), catches his eye.
Neil Barry as Silas and Maggie O’Neill as Mavis at the Easter fete (Photo: ITV/Kudos)Grantchester has certainly been blessed with some unusually handsome vicars in James Norton’s Sidney Chambers, Tom Brittney’s William Davenport and now “dishy Rishi” Nair’s Alphy. The Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This may have introduced the “hot rabbi” and Fleabag might have had a “hot priest”, but Grantchester has had a healthy turnover of hot vicars since 2014.
Like Father Brown, the show has become a global hit – here, a seemingly irresistible combination of a handsome parish priest, lovely countryside and a bucolic Britain that overseas viewers may imagine still exists. British audiences have, however, halved since the drama’s debut in 2014, perhaps sated by the glut of cosy crime dramas jostling for attention.
For whatever reason, Grantchester will end after its next series, which seems a bit unfair on Nair, who – like an 80th-minute sub in a football match – will only have limited time to put his stamp on the long-running drama. Perhaps more to the point, there seems to be little point in investing in a character with such a limited shelf life.
‘Grantchester’ continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV1
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