TV detective dramas usually reinvent their world each week, so that other than the detectives themselves there is no connection from one story to another.
With its star-crossed lovers and its ‘domestic’ elements, Grantchester has already set itself out as something a little different. This week we’re away from the village itself and instead find ourselves out and about in the streets and markets and especially the jazz clubs, of 1950s London; and at the same time we’re reintroduced to Episode 2’s part-time suspect Johnny Johnson.
By now we’ve suspended our disbelief to the point where we’re quite at home with the implausible crime-fighting duo of Cop & Priest. And there’s something rather wonderful about seeing them properly off-duty for a change (albeit not for very long).
Sidney’s well-established love of jazz contrasts nicely with Geordie’s preference for Gilbert & Sullivan, and later on as the drink kicks in we can all identify with Geordie’s professions of love for his ‘colleague’. Just for a moment they aren’t the policeman and the Vicar, they are just two friends out on the town.
The story itself is as twisty as one can realistically expect of a whodunnit told in half the runtime of a Lewis or a Marple, and involves a bent copper, an American jazz singer, Johnny’s father (an unexpected but solid bit of casting in Paul Egan), his sister and her boyfriend. But in fact, although murder is the hook, we’re by now as interested in the people as the plots.
As Geordie, Robson Green gives a reliable performance – it lacks the sparkle of some of his other work perhaps, but that’s most likely because he recognises his role as primarily that of Sidney’s straight man. Perhaps ‘feed’ would be a better fit, given the occasions where a chance remark ignites a sudden realisation in Sidney, as here during their breakfast at what appears to be a Clergy-only B&B. But laying crime aside, perhaps the most ‘important’ moments this week are those between Sidney and Amanda; and between Sidney and Guy.
Without Amanda in earshot Guy finally lets the mask of jovial friendship fall, and simply by ordering a drink for Sidney manages to undermine and dismiss him: “I got you a sherry. That’s what Vicars drink isn’t it.”
The message is clear: I’m no fool, she’s mine, keep away. As ever, James Norton does a fine job as Sidney, somehow conveying his inner frustration and misery through the set of his face alone.
With only one episode left to go, is it too much to hope that the final ‘Corpse of the Week’ might be Guy himself? What the Dickens would Sidney make of that?!
Aired at 9pm on Monday 3 November 2014 on ITV.
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