It
all starts when the heavily indebted Stephen Staunton commits suicide, except
he didn’t. With some prodding a parishioner who happened to be the deceased’s
mistress, Chambers is soon convinced it was in fact murder. Initially, this brings
him into conflict with Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, who has no patience
for a naïve vicar poking his nose in an open-and-shut case. However, Keating
soon discovers he and Chambers are sort of birds of a feather. They have both
seen the dark side of life and use distilled beverages to take the edge off.
Poor
Chambers’ backstory will plague him throughout the first season of Grantchester. During the WWII, he fought
with the Scots Guards, but something happened during his service that continues
to haunt him. While he was picking up the pieces, Chambers reconnected with his
ambiguous girlfriend Amanda Kendall, but she is about to announce her
engagement to a man more to her aristocratic father’s liking.
When
he isn’t brooding over Kendall or solving a murder, Chambers just might have
something brewing with Staunton’s German widow, Hildegard. Unfortunately, Ms.
Staunton temporarily returns to the continent for the second episode, leaving
Chambers to face Kendall’s ghastly engagement party solo. How bad is it? Johnny
Johnson, the jazz club manager boyfriend of Chambers’ sister is framed for
murdering one guest and stealing a fistful of jewels, including Kendall’s
engagement ring, so pretty darn bad.
The
third and fourth episodes could be considered Grantchester’s issue-oriented mysteries, but it would be spoilery
to explain the hot button topic in the first case. There seem to be indications
a nasty old lady was dispatched because she was standing in the way of her
grown daughter’s marriage, but there is rather more to it than that. Whereas it
quickly becomes clear the latter installment involves the criminalized status
of homosexuality in 1950s Great Britain, with Chambers serving as a lonely
voice of tolerance.
Easily,
the fifth episode is the highlight of the series. Somehow, Chambers convinces
Keating, the light operetta listener, to take a getaway trip to London so they
can hear jazz diva Gloria Dee at Johnson’s club. Of course, they pick the one
night there is a murder in the house. Rather awkwardly, it is Johnson’s sister,
but at least he is not a suspect this time around. Frankly, Chambers starts
getting rather annoyingly moody at this point, but Camilla Marie Beeput’s Dee
more than compensates with her sultry and swinging interpretations of standards
like “Franky & Johnny,” “Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home,” and “I Ain’t
Got Nobody.” You have to assume she will be back somehow in the next season.
It
all nearly comes off the rails in the season finale. Keating is shot rather
badly while investigating a lead with only Chambers for backup. Already wracked
with guilt, Chambers really starts to lose his cool with Kendall. Yet, the
nature of the mystery might help exorcise some of his ghosts.
Although
James Runcie’s source stories are considered to be about as cozy as mysteries
get, the television treatment is notably darker than you would expect. Chambers
is no Don Matteo or Father Brown. He likes women, drink, and jazz, preferably Louis
Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Frankly, Grantchester
clearly implies both he and Keating have a problem with their spirits (and
their spirits), but their comradery is what really drives the show. As Chambers,
James Norton is unflaggingly earnest and convincingly troubled. He also
develops some nice easy-going chemistry with Robson Green’s Keating, whose
attitude and bluster keeps things lively. (After Touching Evil and Wire in the
Blood, Grantchester probably
qualifies a light farce for Robson, the British mystery favorite.)
