Vicar’s hunch propels mystery series
On the surface, Grantchester seems to be typical of Masterpiece Mystery! fare: In 1953 in a village near Cambridge University, a young vicar solves murders that seem to pile up every week.
In fact, the first of the series’ six episodes — premiering on Sunday on PBS — fits that description almost too well.
Closer attention should be paid, though, to the details, as there are plenty of reasons to keep watching.
Sidney Chambers (James Norton), the vicar of the church at Grantchester, in Cambridgeshire, officiates at the funeral of a lawyer named Stephen Staunton. There is no question, it seems, about the manner of his death: A note stained with his blood was found with the body. But Pamela Morton (Rachel Shelley) is certain that it wasn’t suicide. And she ought to know her husband’s business partner’s state of mind: They were having an affair.
The local constabulary considers the case closed, but Chambers convinces Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) that there is more to Staunton’s death than meets the eye.
The two men quickly bond
Grantchester over a love of good whiskey, despite Keating’s initial presumption that Chambers is a teetotaling “dog collar” who knows little of life. In fact, Chambers fought in the war; is haunted by that experience; prefers whiskey — neat and in quantity — over a delicate glass of sherry any day; loves jazz; is pained by his ongoing feelings for his first love, Amanda Kendall (Morven Christie); and is not a virgin.
On the second episode, Chambers is goaded by his sister Jennifer (Fiona Button) into attending Amanda’s engagement party to handsome Guy Hopkins (Tom Austen). As any fan of British mysteries must know by now, a house party inevitably leads to a murder, and this one is no exception. The victim is the nasty Lilian Calthorpe (Carolina Main), and the chief suspect is a musician named Johnny Johnson (Ukweli Roach)— who is also suspected of stealing Amanda’s engagement ring and is dating Jennifer Chambers.
Episode three brings a guest appearance by Jean Marsh of Upstairs/Downstairs as an elderly woman opposed to her middleaged daughter’s plan to marry a man deemed a “rotten apple” by Chambers’ opinionated housekeeper, Mrs. Maguire (Tessa Peake-Jones).
The plots of the three episodes sent to critics are agreeably complex and credible, and there is great fun in the interplay between Keating and Chambers.
But the real substance of the series is found in the details about prejudices in the years after World War II.
The series is based on the novel Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie, who fashioned the character in part after his father — Lord Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury in the 1980s.
It is close to the eighth wonder of the world that the British can re-tread TV mysteries so often and still find ways to make them fresh, at least from time to time.
Grantchester is a period piece that is fascinating to view through a contemporary lens. Daisy Coulam’s adaptation is superb.