--
ITV announces the cast of new six-part drama Grantchester
As a priest, isn't everything our business? There's no part of the human heart which is not our responsibility Sidney Chambers
ITV have today confirmed James Norton (Death Comes to Pemberley, Rush) will play the role of Sidney Chambers in new six-part drama Grantchester produced by Lovely Day.
Robson Green (Reckless, Wire In The Blood) will join him as plain speaking, over-worked Police Inspector, Geordie Keating.
Set in 1953 in the beautiful county of Cambridgeshire, Sidney's unlikely partnership with gruff, down to earth Geordie is central to Grantchester. Geordie's methodical approach to policing complements Sidney's more intuitive techniques of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects.
They are partners in crime and forge a true friendship as each offers a different insight into the crimes they begin to unravel.
Morven Christie (Hunted, Twenty Twelve) will play beautiful heiress Amanda Kendall, whose love for Sidney, although reciprocated, doesn't have a future, as her father wants her to marry an aristocratic beau.
Tessa Peake-Jones (Marchlands and of course Raquel in Only Fools and Horses) will play Sidney's housekeeper, the indomitable Mrs Maguire who keeps him in check and does her best to keep his chaotic vicarage presentable and respectable. He also has gorgeous black Labrador puppy, Dickens, for company.
Kacey Ainsworth (EastEnders, Holby Blue) will play Geordie's loving wife Cathy. Cathy is a busy mother of three with a fourth child on the way.
Sidney's moustachioed curate, Leonard Finch, will be played by Al Weaver (Southcliffe, Secret State), whilst pale, interesting and stunning widow, Hildegard Staunton, is played by German actress Pheline Roggan.
Adapted from the novel, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death' by James Runcie, the series is written for ITV by Daisy Coulam, who has previously scripted EastEnders and Casualty.
The series has been commissioned from Lovely Day, a sister company of Kudos, and will be produced by Emma Kingsman-Lloyd (DCI Banks, Life of Crime, Lip Service) and executive produced by Lovely Day's Managing Director and founder Diederick Santer (Cutting It, Jane Eyre, EastEnders). The Lead Director for the series will be Harry Bradbeer (Prisoners' Wives, The Hour, The Cops, This Life).
Set against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester, the drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.
A tall and handsome man with a love of warm beer and hot jazz, Sidney is self-effacing, great company and a true romantic. He conscientiously undertakes his parish duties at the church of St Andrew and St Mary's, and has the ear of his congregation who respect his unique moral insights and dry humour. Sidney thinks the best of people, but intuitively asks all the right questions which often results in an epiphany!
Troubled by nightmares and recurring flashbacks to the time he served in the Scot's Guards, Sidney is the moral compass of the drama with a desire to put right the wrongs of the past we cannot erase our pasts however hard we try. Instead we must carry them with us into the future.
Filming of the six part series begins this month (March 2014) in London, Cambridge and Grantchester and shooting will continue until June.
The drama has been commissioned for ITV by Director of Drama Steve November and Controller of Drama Victoria Fea.
Grantchester is an exciting commission for ITV Drama and we're delighted to be working with Diederick Santer, said Steve. Daisy Coulam's scripts are vivid and beautifully written with some wonderful characters at the heart of the stories. There's an emotional truth and gravity to this series which makes it a very compelling drama.
Executive Producer Diederick Santer said: Grantchester is a real labour of love for me and Lovely Day. Sidney is a charming, but complex character, a man of faith burdened by his past despite a distinguished wartime record, he's funny, dashing and inquisitive. He loves being a parish priest in the exquisite village of Grantchester, but somehow it's not enough and he still finds time to fall in and out of love and solve crimes. James Runcie has created this brilliant character and this glorious world, which Daisy Coulam is now bringing to the screen in her wonderful and lavish scripts, and I can't wait for ITV's audience to get to know him too.
Also joining the cast are Fiona Button as Sidney's younger sister Jennifer Chambers, Ukweli Roach as Jennifer's boyfriend, Johnny Johnson, Tom Austen as Guy Hopkins and Pip Torrens as Amanda's aristocratic father, Sir Edward Kendall.
Note to Editors:
Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death' is James Runcie's first novel in the projected series of six books, entitled The Grantchester Mysteries. The series has been commissioned by Bloomsbury who began publishing a volume each year from 2012 until 2017.
James has a second novel in print Sidney Chambers and the Peril of the Night' and the third novel is due for publication this year. Each volume contains six inter-connected stories that feature the clergyman detective.
James has written several other novels including: The Discovery of Chocolate; The Colour of Heaven; Canvey Island; East Fortune.
James is the son of ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.
Lovely Day is a production company founded by Diederick Santer in 2010, with Kudos. Working with UK and international broadcasters, and with the finest established and up-and-coming British TV talent, Lovely Day is fast becoming a trusted maker of distinctive, loved and popular TV drama and comedy ent
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- 
