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New vicar Will Davenport has to deal with romance along with the dead bodies in his first full series of Grantchester
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Grantchester’s racy vicar Will Davenport roars into the thick of the action on his beloved BSA motorbike as the new series begins with the death of a student.
The first scene in this six-part series sees Will barrelling along a country lane, dinner jacket blowing in the breeze, en-route to a Spring ball at the all-female Newnham College, Cambridge. But while the setting is idyllic, matters are about to turn sinister.
The morning after the ball, student Jessica is found floating in the River Cam, still in her party clothes. ‘Will and DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) quickly establish she didn’t simply fall in while the worse for drink,’ says Tom Brittney, who’s character Will took over sleuthing duties from bicycle-riding Sidney Chambers, played by James Norton (see TV Talk, left). ‘There’s a blow to the side of her head and the post mortem reveals she received the injury before entering the water.
‘So they go in search of a murderer among her fellow students and others present at the ball.’
Other cases in the series include a murder in a cinema and a death at a drugs trial, but there’s more to occupy Will than cracking crimes and delivering sermons. Journalist Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse) takes a shine when introduced to him on the morning after the ball. The pair become more intimately acquainted as the series goes on.
There’s also the prospect of romance for Will’s widowed mother Amelia, played by Jemma Redgrave, while Geordie is trying to reignite the spark with wife Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth).
‘He’s living in a small house with Cathy and their four kids and, as they’re both working, they don’t find much time for each other,’ explains Robson. ‘So, without telling Cathy, he asks her mother to come and look after the house. The first thing she says when she gets through the door is, “This hallway could do with a good scrub,” so there’s conflict ahead!’
Curate Leonard Finch (Al Weav
er) is still battling his demons, though a recent holiday to Morocco has done him the power of good, even if he does tell vicarage housekeeper Mrs C (Tessa Peake-jones) his deep tan is the result of a trip to Bognor Regis!
The action is set in 1957, when prime minister Harold Macmillan famously said the nation had never had it so good and the series reflects the times, says writer Daisy
Coulam. ‘Grantchester is a Garden of Eden when we return to it, a place of optimism, peace and prosperity.’ But, she adds, ‘Every Eden has its apples and snakes. And everyone can be tempted to fall.
‘There are plenty of snakes in series five – and plenty of chances to fall from grace too.’ Tim Oglethorpe Grantchester, Friday, 9pm, ITV.