Grantchester: Season 1

Set against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester, the drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.

A tall and handsome man with a love of warm beer and hot jazz, Sidney is self-effacing, great company and a true romantic. He conscientiously undertakes his parish duties at the church of St Andrew and St Mary’s, and has the ear of his congregation who respect his unique moral insights and dry humour. Sidney thinks the best of people, but intuitively asks all the right questions which often results in an epiphany!

His partner in crime is over-worked Police Inspector, Geordie Keating, a man two inches shorter than he’d like to be, with scuffed shoes and hair not as familiar with a comb as it should be. Geordie speaks plainly and his down to earth approach to policing complements Sidney’s more gentle technique of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects. Their unlikely partnership becomes a true friendship as each offers a different insight into the crimes they begin to unravel.

Troubled by nightmares and recurring flashbacks to the time he served in the Scot’s Guards, Sidney is the moral compass of the drama with a desire to put right the wrongs of the past – “we cannot erase our pasts however hard we try. Instead we must carry them with us into the future.”

Sidney’s private life is complicated, as his love for beautiful heiress Amanda Kendall, although reciprocated, doesn’t have a future, as her father wants her to marry an aristocratic beau. For the foreseeable, Sidney lives with his housekeeper the redoubtable Mrs Maguire who keeps him in check and cleans his water closets. He also has gorgeous Labrador puppy, Dickens, for company.