James Norton
Robson Green
Morven Christie
Tessa Peake-Jones
Al Weaver
Pheline Roggan

Daisy Coulam

2015- (U.S.)
Drama, Mystery
PBS
TV-PG

ITV’s “Grantchester,” airing on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery! in this country, is all very well and proper. You can tell that it has been made by professionals: nothing’s out of place. And it has a look that’s very common for British period mysteries. Yet in the first episode, there’s no hook, until the end. There’s nothing to sink your teeth into. And isn’t that what we want from a mystery?

James Norton does a solid job of playing young Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers, who doesn’t hold fast to conventional thinking. He drinks whiskey, likes jazz (Sidney Bechet) and women (well, a woman), and finds that he enjoys being an amateur sleuth. He seems to enjoy that more than being a vicar. Norton seems interested in what he’s doing, and he’s a reliable actor. (You should watch “Happy Valley” to see him play a character who’s the absolute antithesis to this one.) So, I trust him enough to keep watching.

After this young vicar agrees to preside over the funeral of a man who committed suicide, he becomes entangled in that man’s affairs. Sidney’s told by the man’s mistress that the man wouldn’t have committed suicide. That starts the ball rolling. If the man didn’t commit suicide, then who killed him? The man’s wife, the man’s best friend who’s also the husband of his mistress, or maybe the mistress herself? (Perhaps none of them.) Sidney takes his suspicions to Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green), who would rather be left alone. But we all know what happens from there.

“Grantchester” is set against the backdrop of the 1950s, so many of the male characters (including Sidney) fought during World War II. He’s haunted by it, of course. In addition, the dead man’s wife is a German, so she’s not to be trusted.

There’s a story here; it’s just that the writer and director need to find a way to convey it compellingly and deliver a crime in each episode that’s worth investigating. I couldn’t even tell that this was a procedural until the crime was solved at the end of the first episode. They don’t go for a “Law & Order” kind of pacing and style, but that’s actually a good thing.

While the first episode doesn’t sock you in the gut, it does enough to warrant giving “Grantchester” a second look. Mysteries, even procedurals, can take some time to get going – to find their footing. I just hope that this one doesn’t take too long. …

Well, the second episode doesn’t build upon the first. It lags. So I won’t keep watching. “Grantchester” isn’t bad; it’s just too dull for me. I’m not interested. And I tried.

Verdict: OK

About: (Source: grantchester)

Set in the English countryside’s most idyllic village, Grantchester follows two unlikely allies as they solve a series of cases that reveal the dark side of early 1950s England.

Handsome, young vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton) shares his spiritual duties with a love of jazz, complicated relationships with women, and an enthusiasm for amateur sleuthing. When the concern of a parishioner compels him to dig deeper into a grisly suicide, he gets on the nerve of a tired, local law enforcement officer—Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green). Fortunately, the cleric and the cop bond over their war service, their love of a good pub, and their competitive instincts—in this case, for backgammon.

Grantchester is based on the acclaimed novel Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie, which was called “the coziest of cozy murder mysteries” by the New York Times Book Review. Runcie styled Sidney after his late father, Lord Runcie, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1980s. Like Sidney, the elder Runcie was a war hero before he entered the ministry, and he was a compassionate and amiable parish priest. Unfortunately, he never took up crime-solving. Grantchester corrects that oversight.

The series stars James Norton (Chambers), who recently appeared on MASTERPIECE’s Death Comes to Pemberley as the underdog defense lawyer, and was also seen as the psychopathic villain in Happy Valley. Co-star Robson Green (Keating) is already revered for a number of MASTERPIECE starring roles, including the seductive hero opposite Francesca Annis in the runaway hit Reckless. Also featured are Morven Christie (Case Histories) as Amanda Kendall, Sidney’s first love and soul mate; Tessa Peake-Jones (Poirot) as Mrs. Maguire, the vicar’s morally judgmental landlady; Al Weaver (Sherlock) as Leonard Finch, the church’s new assistant curate; and German actress Pheline Roggan as Hildegard Staunton, the strikingly beautiful widow of the series’ first victim.