A time for change!
Robson Green reveals things aren’t what they used to be in Grantchester
Grantchester may be a sleepy village with an alarmingly high murder rate but there are big changes afoot this year. With James Norton announcing his departure, we know Sidney will be moving on, and that a new chaplain, Will Davenport (The Syndicate’s Tom Brittney), is taking his place. But DI Geordie Keating is staying put!
‘It’s 1956, and everybody is moving with the times except Geordie!’ says Robson Green, who plays him. ‘He wants to go back to the old days because he believes children don’t respect their parents any more and criminals don’t respect coppers… He puts the blame solely at the feet of Elvis and his gyrating pelvis!’
This week there are visitors in town, as a civil-rights activist from Alabama, Rev Nathaniel Todd, arrives in Cambridge as part of a fundraising tour.
Complications
When a fellow activist is murdered, Geordie steps in to investigate, and the visiting preacher is one of his suspects. But then Geordie’s job becomes more complicated when he realises his right-hand man has fallen for Todd’s daughter, Violet.
‘Geordie can’t believe it. He thinks by having passionate feelings for her, Sidney is implicating himself in the crime,’ explains Robson.
‘He starts to get a sense that Sidney is going off in a different direction…’
Details of when and how Sidney leaves are being kept under wraps, but Robson reveals it’s an emotional moment.
Departure
‘There wasn’t a dry eye on set!’ he tells us. ‘Even the director was sobbing. That scene is beautiful and very dramatic.’
Meanwhile, Geordie must not only come to terms with the departure of his best friend, but his wife, Cathy, is becoming more independent, too.
‘She gets a new job, which comes with freedom, a greater sense of self and new friends,’ says Robson. ‘It’s all very strange for Geordie – he has to do the cooking!’