The ultimate bromance
Following a climactic Christmas special, crime drama Grantchester is back for a third series of tense village relations and murder mysteries. ELLA WALKER discovers, from stars James Norton and Robson Green, that there’s struggle and strife ahead
IT’S already possible to predict the one major cause for complaint that will assail the new series of Fifties-set Grantchester... No topless river scene.
However, the ever “unlikely” crime-solving partnership of Robson Green (Police Inspector Geordie Keating) and James Norton (vicar Sidney Chambers) are not in the least disgruntled at the prospect of keeping their clothes on.
“I’m not so disappointed – but I would have gone in!” says Londonborn James, 31, wryly.
The pair’s bare chests were available to ogle in series two of the hit ITV show – written by Daisy Coulam and based on the books by author James Runcie – and their ‘Mr Darcy moment’ is still cause for a certain amount of rivalry between the two leads.
“James was shivering away in that river scene! I just dived in really quickly because I wasn’t going to compete with that body!” says Robson, 52, with a laugh.
Instead, this new six-part series picks up where the Christmas special left off. Sidney’s forbidden love interest – divorced, single mother Amanda (played by Morven Christie) – has given birth to her baby, Grace, and the almostcouple are trying to work out exactly what they’re doing.
“He’s kind of exploring this thing with her, a not-quite relationship, no one’s sure what it is. His relationship with Grace is confusing because he’s there as a sort of father figure, but not a surrogate father, so it’s typically confusing and complicated,” summarises James.
The crux of this series, he explains, is love versus duty.
“We’re really going into depth about: What is a vocation for anyone? It’s quite an odd concept for a modern audience. “So few people go into the church nowadays,” says the actor, who studied theology at Cambridge and considers himself “fascinated” with religion. “In the Fifties, lots of people would; one son would go in the army, one son would go into the church – and so the calling was not as rare as it is now, so it’s quite hard to empathise sometimes with Sidney’s choices, because they’re so rooted in this vocation. “A lot of us are going, ‘What are you doing? Surely love conquers all?’ But he keeps getting battered around the head by his faith. What I would do, and what Sidney would do, is very different, but that’s the beauty of the writing, that’s what’s so much bigger than his love affair – his faith.
“What he begins to doubt is the institution of the church, but actually, his relationship with God is totally unwavering, and it’s too big, too powerful.”
Meanwhile, Geordie, who appears happily married to Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth), is in fact struggling with his feelings for police secretary Margaret (Seline Hizli).
“On the face of it, you find him well, but underneath, the only person who knows things aren’t that well is Sidney,” says Northumberland-born Robson.
“And Sidney’s going through his own dilemma, so they try and give each other advice – which is a beautiful thing – but they can’t because they’re not qualified.
“No matter how they try, they’ll always fire the bullet back and say, ‘Well, you can’t say that because you’re corrupt yourself!”’
Expect the mismatched duo to continue to wrangle with their dysfunctional friendship, in between the odd murder, of course.
“The likeable, very unlikely, very endearing relationship between Sidney and Geordie, it’s what drives the show,” says Robson, who’s starred in TV hits Soldier Soldier and Wire In The Blood. “There’s an osmosis between the two of them. It’s so rare in your career that you come across that.
“(Sidney’s) duty is to God, it defines who he is, whereas Geordie truly believes you cannot solve anything by confiding in an invisible friend. You have these opposing views but this inherent need for each other.”
While Geordie and Sidney may be struggling to pick the right path, for