It’s not all happy endings in the finale of ‘Grantchester’. Here’s our review.

Grantchester ends with a wedding.

After last week, we might have hoped it would be Sidney and Amanda. Just a couple of weeks back we thought it might be Leonard. But no, it’s actually Mrs Maguire who’s getting married.

With husband Ronnie conveniently murdered last week, and with the banns quickly read, Mrs M finally ties the knot with old sweetheart Jack Chapman. It’s a turn of events that finally justifies actor Nick Brimble hanging around with scandalously little to do for the past six weeks.

A not so happy couple

So much for the happy couple, will there be any clergy left to take the service? This week starts with Sidney professing his love for divorcee Amanda, and typing up a formal resignation for the Church.

He tells Amanda, Mrs M (soon to be Mrs C, of course), Leonard, and Geordie that he’s quitting. It’s no surprise, though, to find that he ultimately can’t go through with it. There’s some considerable soul-searching to be done on the way, however. Indeed, the scene of Sidney in Church asking either God or thin air what is wanted of him is very moving. In the end, though, it’s Amanda that he gives up rather than the dog collar.

If this was a TV show made, rather than set, in the 1950s I think we would be expected to take God’s side. Even in a show airing on a Sunday night, I’m not sure what we’re meant to think in today’s more secular world.

Should we feel that Sidney has nobly chosen duty, doing right by his faith and the people who depend on him? Or should we despair for a man who has given up his chance for a real life because he thinks there’s a God?

Maybe the show deliberately leaves it in the eye of the beholder.

Where does it go from here? 

Other leading man, Geordie, is a man of no faith. Thus, we find his ‘story’ easier to have a view on. This is more comfortable ‘soap’ territory: he’s had an affair and has been kicked out and now he regrets it. This week, the strain leads to Geordie beating up a suspect… although the script rather lamely lets him off the hook when the suspect turns out to be guilty.

So, will there be any more trips to Grantchester? The Sidney and Amanda relationship has gone as far as it can, and there’s only so many times you can reheat the same dilemma between love and duty.

There’s still scope for those trademark romantic struggles, though, with Leonard, who this week finally kisses Daniel Marlowe; and with Sidney’s support of his homosexuality there’s more Church-based conflict on the horizon.

There doesn’t seem to be any slowing of the crime rate, even if this is the idyllic 1950s. So there are certainly stories that another series could explore.

Will we get it? God knows. Or he doesn’t, as the case may be.