Grantchester: Episode 1.1

Grantchester: Episode 1.1
ITV
6 October 2014
Historical Drama, Crime Drama
DVD
B+

Regular cast:

• Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating
• Morven Christie as Amanda Kendall
• Robson Green as Geordie Keating
• James Norton as Sidney Chambers
• Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs. Maguire
• Pheline Roggan as Hildegard Staunton
• Skye Lucia Degruttola as Esme Keating

Also Kevan Looseley would be an uncredited Policeman for all of Series One.  Sia Berkeley would be Annie in one more episode, while Chris Bearne would return twice as Mr. Brant.

What's not to like?  A sweet, handsome, intelligent Anglican priest solves a murder in a scenic village near Cambridge in the '50s.  There's both romance and bromance, the latter with a local cop who seems happy to team up and the final scene is like a sunnier version of Casablanca.  There's even a Thelma-Ritteresque maid and a cute dog, and I say that as someone who usually isn't swayed by cute dogs.  (Always swayed by Thelma-Ritterisms though.)  This premiere is funny, suspenseful, and not overly gory.  I'm committed to Series One unless it seriously declines.

Daisy Coulam adapted this from a mystery novel by James Runcie and seems to have written all the episodes so far.  Harry Bradbeer, on the other hand, directed only the first two episodes.