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Grantchester in the Media: All the News You Can't Get from Mrs. Maguire


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Thanks, M. Darcy.

 

I remember liking the show a lot when it originally aired, but when so much time goes by between seasons it's hard for me to pick up the thread again enough to care. I shouldn't have to rewatch all the previous episodes of a series in order to enjoy it. Harumph.

 

It's also possible my brain is stuck in binge mode nowadays and I'm too impatient to put in the time anymore.

Interesting  - I was sure MT would show it.  I bet that means Lifetime is going to also be showing And Then There Were None - I thought it was just a mistake on the ebook cover.  Not a good thing for MT if they are not showing two of the big BBC productions. 

 

 At least we only have to wait a few weeks and not the normal months to see Dreamy McVicarson again .  Heh, though there goes my plan to reread War and Peace before MT showed it.  Yeah....that probably wasn't going to really happen :-)  

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Not a good thing for MT if they are not showing two of the big BBC productions.

I should maybe post this in the more general Masterpiece forum, Alistair Cooke's Library, but I'll carry on here for the moment.

 

I'm also wondering if Masterpiece is going to show Life In Squares (about the Bloomsbury Group) and/or Lady Chatterley's Lover (both with James Norton, so: Topic!). I remember back in the day (the late 70s), PBS would announce the titles for the entire season of Masterpiece in the fall, and you could plan your winter reading accordingly (or not). But then, as I've long said, "I think Masterpiece has run out of masterpieces." I mean, I like "Last Tango in Halifax" and all,  but it's hardly a masterpiece. See also: "Home Fires." And I really tried with "Indian Summers" but I couldn't; it just made me want to watch "The Jewel in the Crown" again some more. Two big thumbs up for "Wolf Hall," though.

I read on twitter last night that we will be seeing the new episodes this year.  Hopefully we will find out an actual date soon.

 

I'm really looking forward to the next season of Grantchester.  Love the show.  But I read the first three books in the series and they are really different from the tv show.  I wonder if the show will continue to go a separate path or if it will somehow come back to the plot in the books.

^ adorable!!!! I'm kind of bummed about James' response to whether "the german lady" (her name is Hildegard!) is coming back. He kind of avoided in way that makes me think she won't be back (at least for now).

:( @ Amanda being in the picture still. I knew she still would be, but I don't like her character and I don't like her and Sidney together.

Edited by HoodlumSheep
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My only regret with Hildegard is that Norton didn't definitively state that she wouldn't be back. I found her relationship with Sidney shallowly written and generally found the character soporific. She didn't feel like a real character to me. She existed to be a foil to Amanda and show qualities better suited to a vicar's wife (patient, soothes the savage breast of Mrs. M., handles Mr. Brandt and his wisterias). That said, she certainly didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of Sidney's boorish behavior, so I hope if she comes back eventually, Sidney's actions aren't swept under the rug.

 

I guess I hold the UO opinion of liking Amanda.

Table for two! I actually love Amanda. I don't think she and Sidney would be good as a married couple because dear god, if Hildegard has the perfect temperament to be a vicar's wife, Amanda quite possibly has the worst temperament for it. But I love her friendship with Sidney and their sense of playfulness. I also think she gets unfairly castigated for a lot of things. I don't expect her to step outside her social constraints anymore than I expect Sidney to.

 

I don't like Amanda because she's trying to have it both ways with Sidney: She knows he has feelings for her yet she keeps him at arm's length because she's engaged to someone else.

I couldn't disagree more! :) To me the trouble seem the opposite: She's getting married, but still wants him involved as a close friend in ways that are painful and borderline inappropriate (the jazz club). It probably would've been less painful for Sidney if she did keep him at arm's length! Then he wouldn't have been invited to the engagement dinner, for example.

 

It would be better for the both of them in the long run if she cut ties more thoroughly, but I don't really blame her. She couldn't make the first move for obvious reasons like social class and being a woman in the 1950s, but she doesn't want to lose her friendship with Sidney. Even if they will never be a love match. And it's not like Sidney is much better. He was essentially paralyzed for his entire relationship with Amanda and didn't feel like he could make the first move either. Hell,  he shows up drunk at her house in the last episode, and still can't articulate what he wants when Amanda is imploring him to.

 

My hope for season 2 is that they find a new status quo that allows them to still be friends and have moved on from the unrequited love.

 

And she asks him to perform the ceremony.

She was desperately uncomfortable throughout that entire scene and was tripping over herself trying to give Sidney the opportunity to refuse. The person who was insisting Sidney perform the ceremony was Guy. In fact, Guy even says Amanda didn't want to ask!
 

I hope they don't drop Sidney's ptsd either. I feel like the finale had this strange "we're kind of wrapping up this storyline" feeling to it

I hope they don't either. It's not the kind of thing that goes away after a tearful bedside conversation. We still haven't learned how he got injured, so it's possible we'll see more of his war background. And he earned a medal (the Military Cross, I assume), but I it was unclear to me if that was for the incident we saw in the first season. Maybe that will come into play.

 

The trailer for season 2 has arrived.

Edited by Gin and Tonic
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In case this hasn't already been posted, the last few episodes of the Masterpiece Studio podcast have been about Grantchester. The most recent episode is an interview with James Norton and Robson Greene. It was recorded before season 3 was confirmed so there's some speculation about what might happen in season 3 but nothing that is based on filming.

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Apparently filming has just finished for series 3... Potentially spoilery link of pictures:

Also, there is a Christmas special... Here's hoping that PBS will air it on Christmas (or thereabouts) like it does with the Call the Midwife special...

On 11/28/2016 at 11:00 PM, photo fox said:

Well, that's unfortunate.

You can say that again.  This show has really gotten derailed by the production's bizarre obsession with that particular character

 

On 11/29/2016 at 1:34 AM, MissLucas said:

I don't understand how Runcie lets them get away with that. I'd be livid. But he's got enough experience in the business that I have to assume he's okay with it

.Unless he is a producer on the show I doubt there is anything he could do about it.

Boy, this sucks.  Well, I stopped watching last season , so I'll just continue not watching I guess.

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Yeah, Runcie's not a producer. I was referring to signing off the rights to tv. He's been a tv producer himself and knows the lay of the land. He has also enough clout as a writer to have added certain clauses giving him a voice when it comes to the writing. So I have to assume he's okay with what is going on.

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Some spoilers for the Christmas special, as well as some cute pictures of James Norton and Robson Green fooling around in the fake snow.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3996152/Vicar-Sidney-Chambers-hits-bottle-Grantchester-Christmas-special.html

As far as I can tell, looks like PBS isn't airing the Christmas special any time soon :(

I've been watching Happy Valley whet James Norton plays a really bad guy.

After you get over identifying  James as the beautiful and good Grantchester, he acts his ass off as the (still) beautiful, but very horrible Tommy Lee Royce. 

It's a tough watch cuz of the violence, actual and implied, but Sarah Lancashire is awesome on Police Seargent Catherine. 

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as of 8 hours ago, season 4 is up in the air 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/grantchester-could-return-fourth-series-10901682

because "Norton is a hot property now and might not be available"  .. They suggest it could be back with a new lead or leads, as Death in Paradise apparently did ... (or they're trying to get Norton to reconsider his future and/or salary demands) 

Not everything shows up on IMDB but here's his 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3584268/

the finale left me wondering about his future in acting 

Spoiler

given his perfuntory and shallow acting/characterization of losing-girl, losing/regaining vocation, relationship with Georgy, etc. etc.   ... nuf  

I think Norton is in that sweet spot Cumberbatch inhabited a couple of years ago. Hot tv-property bound to leap to the big screen provided the right part comes along and I wouldn't blame him in the least for doing so. (I'm actually wishing for that to happen because being tied to that cheap Thorn Birds rip-off isn't doing him any favors.)

As for replacing the leads on Grantchester - the show has already veered so far from the books that it really doesn't matter anyway.

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I think to the larger public Norton is still mostly unknown. None of the TV shows he's done approach the exposure that Sherlock gave Cumberbatch. But I don't disagree he's at the point where now's the time to capitalize on getting movie roles. His traditional good looks could pigeonhole him, so it will be interesting to see what he does.

Norton can definitely act - it's the abysmal soap opera writing that hasn't done him any favors on Grantchester.  For his career he should walk away from Grantchester.  Though he clearly enjoyed making the show and goofing around with Robson Green, so  if they can work the scheduling out and pay him enough......?

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Lots of rumors going around in the British press over the fate of the show, with talk whether Grantchester could go on without Norton.

http://decider.com/2017/08/02/grantchester-season-4/

Obviously British drama hits have carried on successfully when actors left - like Downton Abbey or Death In Paradise. Could they do that with Grantchester?  I guess they are weighing that now.

Would you guys be willing to accept another actor as a new vicar in Grantchester?

Eh... if we still got Leonard, Mrs. M-- er, Mrs. C, and Dickens, I'd give it a shot.

But unless they're completely recasting Sidney (which would just be weird), I'm not sure how they'd explain his absence. After the crap he just pulled, I don't think he's getting a promotion any time soon. And if he's going to flip flop again and they're going to say he left the church after all... I mean, I guess they can't assassinate his character worse than it has been the last couple seasons, but please no. And as much frustration as I've felt toward Sidney, I'd still hate to see him killed off...

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Oh, I'm totally down with them getting rid of Geordie, too! Though I guess Masterpiece Mystery might take issue if they stopped with the case of the week... 

Maybe it could be a season-long arc solving the murders of Sydney and Geordie as the new vicar and copper settle in to their lives at Grantchester. (I'm kidding.)

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