Grantchester season 8: Tom Brittney Interview

Grantchester returns for its eighth series on ITV1 and ITVX.

The hugely popular show produced by Kudos (a Banijay UK company) stars Robson Green returning as DI Geordie Keating and Tom Brittney as Reverend Will Davenport.

Will is the happiest he’s ever been but his world will be rocked by a terrible accident.

He’s always preached the word of a compassionate God – but how can he now, when his despair leads him on a dangerous downward spiral?

Geordie has found a new contentment in his relationship with Cathy, but when they are both confronted with shocking announcements at work their happiness is threatened. As Mrs C, Leonard, Jack and Daniel rally around, both Will and Geordie find themselves in unfamiliar, emotional waters and murder is always around the corner.

The eighth season of Grantchester will range from Speedway to spies, exploring the lives of invisible women and the very visible problems caused by Leonard’s new vocation which may, once again, find him battling the law.

Exploring faith, forgiveness, and redemption – this explosive series tests Will and Geordie to the limit.

Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts) returns as Bonnie, alongside Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs C, Al Weaver as Leonard Finch, Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating, Oliver Dimsdale as Daniel Marlowe and Nick Brimble as Jack Chapman. Special guest actors for this series include Shaun Dingwall (Top Boy, Noughts & Crosses), Jeff Rawle (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Doc Martin) and Jemima Rooper (Gold Digger, The Girlfriend Experience).

Tom Brittney on Grantchester

Series eight opens with a time jump forward, with Bonnie and Will about to have a baby. Tell us where we find Will at the start of the series.

Will is a happily married man; he and Bonnie couldn’t be happier. They’re best friends. But Will is struggling a little bit with disciplining [his stepson] Ernie and being a tougher parent, because obviously his father was the worst kind of parent and he wants to be the opposite. So Bonnie gets frustrated a little bit, saying, ‘You need to be a father. You need to properly tell him what to do. Otherwise, he’ll be trouble.’ So there are teething issues with that, but, all in all, Will is loving life, until something happens that takes Bonnie away and then leads to it all coming crashing down.

So Will is beset by this great tragedy in which somebody loses their life. How does it affect Will?

From the moment we first met Will, he’s always been struggling with his demons. What drives him in life is being the best man he can – everything he does, every case he helps Geordie with, every problem that he solves, he feels like he’s getting better and better as a person, morally. And then this thing happens that just seems to erase all of that in one instant. Everything he’s worked so hard for is gone just like that. It just destroys the way Will thinks of himself, because this action, whether it was an accident or on purpose, in the eyes of God and everyone else, he believes it’s unforgivable, and it really sets him down a dark path.

It leads Will to have a crisis of faith. What can you say about that?

Now that this thing has happened, he’s questioning whether God or anyone can ever love him again. He just shuts them out and it pushes him further and further away from everyone to the point where we don’t know if he’s ever coming back.

How does Geordie try to help?

A couple of series ago, Will was helping Geordie when he was going through his darkness. Will was there for him and really tried to pull him back to the light. And so Geordie does the same for Will. He’s his best friend and his father figure. Geordie understands the guilt that Will feels, because he’s gone through it himself. It doesn’t mean that Will listens. The tragedy of this series is that everybody thinks they’re losing the Will that they love and Geordie has to watch it happen while also trying to deal with his own issues with his job and possible retirement. Geordie doesn’t realise how far down the path Will goes.

You and Robson seem to have forged a close friendship offscreen as well as on. What can you tell us about that?

We are best friends. Genuinely, we have a little bit of an age difference, but it doesn’t exist when we’re together: we’re both children and best mates on set just messing about. We laugh all the time. But also, outside of work, we always try to see each other. I go up to his house in Northumberland sometimes just for a sleepover, to hang out with him and his partner. We’ll watch Jackass on TV and eat sweets. I love it and I hope we’ll always make that effort.

What can you tell me about the cases this series?

They’re a lot more personal this series than before. They’re not just strangers within the Grantchester community who are getting murdered; they all have a link in some way, which then compounds what happens to Will even further, because it’s seeming like he just has the mark of death upon him. He feels he is a corrupt individual now who is only going to cause death and misery. Whether he actually has any responsibility at all for what’s going on, he’s making it his problem. It’s different from previous series, because normally there’s a distance between Will and the murders; he can detach from them emotionally a bit more, but that becomes impossible for him to do.

You’re working with real babies this season as well as Dickens the dog. How was that?

I both love it, and it has also made me put a pause on thinking about being a parent for a little bit. There are a couple of babies that I’m holding this series and it made me so broody. They’re lovely. But, also, when it’s not your baby and you have to do 30 takes with this baby that quickly gets very bored and starts to scream, it’s not so much fun. Will’s dog, Dickens, was very well behaved this series, although in every scene with Dickens I probably have a whole handful of sausages in order to bribe him. He’s got a very good agent, while I get greasy hands and have to change my costume.

What do fans say to you about the show?

I get told off quite a bit! They say, ‘Will had better look after Bonnie.’ I say, ‘I’m not actually Will, but I promise I’ll pass that on.’ And people say, ‘I wish you wouldn’t smoke so much,’ but it’s the 60s and everyone did smoke quite a bit back then. But people really care and I’m excited to see what they make of this series. I love seeing people on Twitter really getting invested in the storylines.

What do fans get from watching Grantchester?

It’s more than just a murder mystery, which sets it apart from other long-running shows. It’s about these characters that you care so much about. Fans love to see our characters involved in this dark crime and they love the scenery, the fact it’s filmed in this idyllic part of the countryside. It looks so beautiful on screen. The thing I’m most proud of being part of this show is that the Grantchester writers make us really care about the characters.

Grantchester returns to ITV1 and ITVX Thursday 11 January 2024 at 9pm. In the US, watch it on Masterpiece PBS.