Grantchester's holy sleuths are brimming with bromance and charm

Against the bucolic backdrop of 1950s Cambridgeshire, Canon Sidney Chambers doesn’t just preach about truth. He actively seeks it out, teaming up with earthy inspector Geordie Keating to unravel a series of murky murders in and around his leafy parish. But, initially, there seemed to be another mystery surrounding Grantchester: why had ITV scheduled it for Monday nights when Sunday, that traditional day of rest and period drama, would seem to be the natural home for such an assured blend of mannered sleuthing and errant flock-tending? (The answer, of course, is that X Factor currently monopolises the weekend, shunting dramas like Grantchester and Lewis away.)

Based on an ongoing series of books by James Runcie, Grantchester has endured a turbulent ride in the ratings, initially going head-to-head with BBC1’s New Tricks (which isn’t, technically, set in the 1950s, but may as well be) before being further besieged by Channel 5’s heavily hyped Gotham (a crime drama that purports to be a Batman story even while it brazenly takes its cues from Dick Tracy). But it was worth having a little faith. As Grantchester approaches the end of its first series, ratings have stabilised as the cast and world have expanded. One of Sidney’s defining character traits is his love of jazz records, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before the show found its groove.

It’s even more of a miracle considering James Norton’s most recent role. As Tommy Lee Royce, the psychopathic ex-con who committed appalling acts of violence in Happy Valley, Norton could reasonably claim to have created 2014’s most hated TV character. Swapping Royce’s donkey jacket for Sidney’s dog collar so quickly could have caused viewer backlash, an instinctive gut reaction that might have torpedoed Grantchester. Norton’s skill has been to create a clear distinction between the two characters.

It probably helps that Norton looks pretty handsome in a cassock. With the greatest respect to Father Brown (currently being played by Mark Williams) and Father Dowling (embodied by the late Tom Bosley), Sidney Chambers is the one clerical sleuth who puts you in mind of a Diet Coke advert. The producers have not been shy to highlight their star’s hunkiness, inserting scenes of Sidney confidently wielding a scythe in his overgrown churchyard – foreshadowing! – and frolicking with Dickens, his impossibly cute black Labrador puppy.

There’s also a strong bromance at the centre of the show, with Chambers routinely extricating himself from duller parish duties to sneak off for an afternoon of beer and backgammon with Geordie (Robson Green, an old hand at this sort of thing). Last week’s episode, where Geordie’s youngest child looked unlikely to survive a life-threatening illness, foregrounded the tensions between a salty copper with little time for church-going and a man of faith drawn to explore the darker side of human nature. The uncertain fate of Geordie’s son stretched their relationship to breaking point. But it also made it seem more plausible, grounding it in a sense of reality.

The fact that every episode of Grantchester so far has wrapped up with a sermon, nodding to the motives behind the crime, might seem like an obvious contrivance, a launchpad for a handy montage of the aftermath for the various victims, suspects and red herrings. But it works well, and makes you realise how often other crime shows bodge their endings. It also places Sidney’s vocation front and centre. He might drink whisky rather than the traditional vicar’s sherry, and carry a torch for an attractive German widow, but Sidney’s faith is portrayed as strength rather than a weakness, which seems almost revolutionary in these secular times.

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