It was a mixed blessing when Rishi Nair received word that Grantchester had been renewed for an 11th season. In that same call, the British actor, who was going into his third year of playing crime-solving vicar Alphy Kottaram, learned that it would be the last for the much-loved Masterpiece mystery series on PBS.
“It was kind of bittersweet,” Nair tells TV Insider. “In any field, it’s the people that make your experience there, and the people at Grantchester really are like a family. But in terms of the show, I felt like maybe it was the right decision. The show’s in a really good place, and sometimes going out on a high is the smart move.”
Before Grantchester’s final sermon, however, Alphy will hit his share of lows in the remaining eight episodes, set in 1963. The previous season concluded with the young and restless vicar going to meet the mother who gave him away when he was a baby. Since then, Mira (Nimmi Harasgama) has been spending time with her son, but complications ensue when she comes to Grantchester. At the same time, Alphy finds himself haunted by a recurring dream in which he’s praying for someone who’s dying.
“Alphy’s one of those people who always presents himself as a very glass-half-full, positive person,” Nair says. “That mindset is tested because he loses his faith, and that’s kind of what his whole life is about.”
Courtesy of Kudos and MASTERPIECE
Executive producer and head writer Daisy Coulam describes Alphy’s journey as a quest for identity. The child of Indian parents, he was raised in an orphanage run by a white reverend after his mother left him on the doorstep. “He’s always felt that he is a part of the church, and suddenly finding his mother, it makes him question everything,” Coulam says. “I suppose it’s the question of the series: Where do we find belonging and where do we find meaning?”
Amid his search for emotional sanctuary, Alphy still will be helping Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) solve murders around their Cambridgeshire community. In the premiere, death interrupts an American-style drive-in movie night, for which the series hired classic U.S. cars from the era. “They’re not the easiest to drive, but they look cool,” Nair says.
Geordie, meanwhile, has his own concerns. The senior detective faces an important career decision and deals with marital discord at home as business picks up at CeCe’s, the fashion boutique his wife Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) opened with vicarage housekeeper Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones). Former curate Leonard (Al Weaver), who always seems to be on a perpetual search for purpose, befriends a troubled boy. And Jennifer (Melissa Johns), who’s still going by Miss Scott at the station house, tries to keep her marriage to police detective Larry (Bradley Hall) a secret so that she can continue to work there, something married women couldn’t do at the time.
Al Weaver (Courtesy of Kudos, ITV, and MASTERPIECE)
Over 11 seasons, Coulam, who adapted the show from James Runcie’s books, has taken it far beyond the source material, delving deeper into existing characters and creating new ones as the community of the titular English village expanded. Along the way, Grantchester has become a comfort-TV staple of PBS’ summer lineup. The series will end its run with 75 episodes when it signs off in August.
It’s an experience that Nair, who is also an executive producer this year, will carry with him. Among the mementos he took from the set when shooting wrapped was one of Alphy’s clerical collars, which now sits on a shelf in the actor’s living room, next to a photo of him with the cast. Coulam, during our Zoom interview, turns on her camera to show that she brought home something from the wall of Geordie’s office: the framed needlepoint of the biblical verse “Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.” “I thought Robson was going to take it,” she says, “but he took his hat and suit.”
Another thing Coulam will take with her: the memories of the people she’s worked with. That stands out as much as any individual episode or storyline. “I’ve had so many conversations with people who, whether they’re actors or writers, said they had a lovely experience on the show,” she notes. “We created a community that people actually wanted to come back to year after year. So to say that for 11 years we managed to give people a good time, it’s quite a nice thing, really.”
Grantchester, Season 11 Premiere, Sunday, June 14, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)