Grantchester

In 1953 at the hamlet of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers—a charismatic, charming clergyman—turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances. 1953, Cambridgeshire: In the idyllic village of Grantchester, Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers (James Norton) is supposed to serve as pastor to the small community. In addition to his spiritual duties, however, the charismatic young man is repeatedly drawn into a series of murder investigations led by down-to-earth Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) in nearby Cambridge. Initial skepticism gives way to a close friendship between the two – especially since their criminal cases are not only exciting mysteries, but also reflect issues that preoccupied people in the 1950s: class barriers, moral concepts, and personal freedom. These are issues that also determine Sidney's daily actions: his unrequited love for the “higher-ranking” Amanda, his sense of responsibility towards the community, and, last but not least, his friendship with Geordie, which is cemented by their shared war traumas and penchant for alcoholic beverages, despite all their other differences. "The cases the two deal with in the course of the series also lead back to the war and the legacy of hatred and violence it left behind. And they show the 1950s, despite all the outward joy of the mid-century style, as a time when, behind seemingly stable social roles, the yeast of social change is already quietly fermenting. This applies not least to gender relations, which repeatedly play an essential role—in various crimes that touch on topics such as domestic violence, premarital pregnancy, abuse, etc. but also in the private lives of the investigators, which, from season 1 onwards, provides material for overarching story arcs in addition to a “one case per episode” dramaturgy, which then quickly gain in importance over the course of the series." (Felicitas Kleiner, on: filmdienst.de) ---------- Anglican priest Sidney Chambers lives in the English parish of Grantchester in 1953. After the funeral of a man who is believed to have committed suicide, his lover asks Sidney for help. She believes that it was murder.