Robson Green talks about the ‘new’ Grantchester
JAMES Norton and Robson Green are the unlikely 1950s crime fighting duo, Vicar Sidney Chambers and Police Inspector Geordie Keating, in the third season of Grantchester (ITV Choice, Tuesdays at 8pm). Robson Green answered these questions:
How does it feel to film a new series of Grantchester?
When the first script of a new series arrives you know it’s going to be quality because it’s written by Daisy Coulam. Then you want to find out how the journey is going to further develop with the various relationships on screen. Has it still got those likeable ingredients? Does it still have those dramatic arcs within each relationship that the audience care about? And like any script you get, because you see yourself in it, you think, ‘Where is it going to take my character? Is there a development?’ Not surprisingly, there was. Grantchester is so refreshing. It develops in a way the audience will care about and leaves them wanting more. Which is essentially what you want with a long-running series.
How is Geordie’s marriage to Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth)?
Geordie is paralysed with the burden of guilt and obligation and has an overwhelming sense of routine. He feels the relationship is stale and redundant. But he’s looking at the wrong aspects of the relationship.
Geordie begins a campaign that sets out to destroy everything that is precious in his private life. Looking at the public face of Geordie, everything he has seems to be bright, rosy and healthy. But there’s an undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable. He begins to destroy the one thing he holds dear, which is his family.
The overriding arc of the whole series is that both Sidney and Geordie have a crisis of self. They try to advise one another on how to deal with this. But they both very quickly realise they’re not qualified to give that advice. It’s love versus duty, loyalty versus love, which are very powerful emotions and issues. One minute we’re dealing with betrayal, another with abandonment. But at the heart of it all is love.