Lord help us! After 11 seasons, 75 episodes, and three handsome vicars, Grantchester is saying goodbye. And Masterpiece‘s much-loved mystery series has an explosive conclusion in store following the previous episode’s cliffhanger ending.
Throughout 1963, Alphy (Rishi Nair), the reverend as skilled at unraveling mysteries as he is at delivering sermons, has been questioning whether he was meant to be a clergyman, and in the finale, he’s pushed over the edge by Dexter Sutton (Sonny Ashbourne Serkis, Andy’s son), the fugitive who shot Geordie Keating (Robson Green) at the end of the last episode. “At that point, Alphy’s lost his faith in God,” Nair explains. “I was surprised at how dark Alphy went, but I was also really excited by it.”
At least part of the reason for that inner conflict has to do with Mira (Nimmi Harasgama), the mother who left him on the doorstep of a foundling home run by a white reverend when he was a baby. Getting to know her has generated more questions than answers about his identity and his Indian heritage, and it’s taken a toll. “He’s had to deal with that trauma,” Nair says, “and I don’t think he was quite ready to do that.”
To remind him that he’s still deserving of love, Alphy may need Geordie, the police detective who has evolved personally and professionally thanks to his friendships with sleuthing vicars. Love will also impact decisions made by others in the titular English village, including Geordie’s colleague Larry (Bradley Hall) and his pregnant wife, Jennifer (Melissa Johns), and former curate Leonard (Al Weaver) and his partner, Daniel (Oliver Dimsdale).
Melissa Johns and Bradley Hall (Courtesy of Kudos and MASTERPIECE)
Nair, who joined Grantchester during its ninth season, is sad to see it end but “felt like maybe it was the right decision. The show’s in a really good place, and sometimes going out on a high is the smart move.”
Emotions on the set ran the gamut on the last day of shooting, especially for Tessa Peake-Jones, whose character, Sylvia Chapman, has grown from a vicarage housekeeper to clothing boutique entrepreneur alongside Geordie’s wife, Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth). “They arranged it so that we could all be filming on the same day,” Peake-Jones says. “And when they finally said, ‘That is a wrap,’ we held in a circle and we just cried.”
That’s in line with the series’ sentiment. “The show was always about the hope and the friendship that you can find,” remarks executive producer and head writer Daisy Coulam, who solicited input from her cast for the show’s finale. “We [asked], What would you like in that last episode? We wanted it to be a celebration of everyone.”
Grantchester, Series Finale, Sunday, August 2, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)