From villain to vicar:

Grantchester is grounded in 1950s reality says the show’s star who has a religious background.

James Norton talks about the return of Grantchester.

Many actors wouldn’t stand a prayer of going from vicar to villain in the space of a year – but not James Norton.

One minute Norton was in his element scaring viewers as killer Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley; the next, audiences were falling in love with him as Grantchester’s devilishly handsome minister Sidney Chambers.

Grantchester – back for a third season – is, however, not all sweetness and light, says its 33-year-old star who, ironically, graduated from Cambridge University with a first-class honours degree in theology in 2007.

“If you described Grantchester to someone and they hadn’t seen it, they might assume it simply has that cosy, nostalgic, crime story feel,” Norton says. “But as anyone who has seen the show knows, it is so much more. It has so many more layers and is so much richer, deeper and darker than that. They don’t shy away from the issues of the time. We did an episode, for example, about the death penalty and homosexuality being illegal in the 1950s, along with various other themes of the period.” Set in rural England in the early 1950s, Grantchester centres on the unlikely crime-solving duo of Sidney, an Anglican priest and former Scots Guards officer, and police detective Geordie Keating (Robson Green). This season the pair must solve personal problems

“They don’t shy away from the issues of the time. We did an episode, for example, about the death penalty and homosexuality being illegal in the 1950s.” – James Norton

as well as crimes. For Sidney, this means deciding if he can have a future with Amanda (Morven Christie) – now separated from her husband and living alone with her baby – without compromising his place in the church.

Meanwhile, Geordie’s attraction to co-worker Margaret threatens to destroy the family he prizes dearly.

“I think this new series is the best one yet,” Green says. “At the heart is that loving relationship between Sidney and Geordie. For Geordie, Sidney is the son he never had and for Sidney, Geordie is the friend he never had.

“It’s the shorthand that you can’t quantify that really works.

“We knew we worked well together immediately from the start and, if you combine that with good writing and a good production team, you’re on to a winner. A vicar and a detective works because it’s rooted in a dark truth.

“On the surface it’s quintessentially English – beautiful, tranquil, idyllic, pristine. But there’s this undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable, whether it be racism, bigotry or whatever – the darkness that existed and the denial people lived in,

in the 50s.”

Not forgetting, there are all those murders to solve as well.

A fourth season – Norton’s last (he is now starring in new crime drama McMafia) – is currently being filmed.

“The public has welcomed Grantchester with open arms. We have a really loyal fan base, especially for James Norton,” Green says. “Who wouldn’t want a vicar like Sidney Chambers? We get crowds, especially when we film in Grantchester itself. There are crowds every day there.”

Norton, though, is a little bemused by his own popularity and credits his parents – who have turned Grantchester into something of a family drama – for keeping him grounded.

“I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by great family who don’t allow my feet to leave the ground, but if they do I get firmly slapped back down,” he says.

“It’s also the people you work with. Robson Green has banked more TV hours in the UK than mostly anyone else. And yet he’s one of the most grounded, loyal, feet-on-the-ground people I know.

“He always has a word for everyone – so unjudgmental and inclusive. I look and learn from people like him. He was bombarded one day with fans and I said, ‘How do you deal with this?’

“And he said, ‘These people are the reason you are able to go on these amazing journeys and play these roles. They enable that career. So it’s a contract. You give them time because they give you this career’.

“It was a wise moment and I banked it. He’s a good man.”

“On the surface it’s quintessentially English – beautiful, tranquil, idyllic, pristine. But there’s this undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable.” – Robson Green