Tom Brittney Will Bid Grantchester Farewell In The Show’s Ninth Season
Grantchester is saying goodbye to one of its vicars – and welcoming a new one.
As filming kicks off on the ninth series of the ITV drama, Tom Brittney has confirmed that this season will be his last outing as Reverend Will Davenport.
Tom has played the crime-fighting vicar since 2019, when his character replaced James Norton’s Sidney Chambers as Grantchester’s resident man of the cloth.
His character soon struck up a friendship with police inspector Georgia Keating, played by Robson Green, and started assisting him in various tricky cases, just as Sidney did.
Reverend Will’s departure means that there’ll be a vacancy in the vicarage for a priest-slash-sleuth – but not for long, as Hollyoaks star Rishi Nair will be joining the show as Reverend Alphy Kotteram.
“I’ve had the most incredible time playing Will Davenport for the last five years,” said Tom, who is “stepping back from his role to focus on new projects” according to ITV.
“I got to solve crimes with my best friend, and work with the best cast and crew I could ever ask for. I’ll miss it more than anything. But it’s time for the baton to be passed, as it once was to me, and I’m so excited for Rishi to join the Grantchester family.”
Rishi said he was “absolutely thrilled” to be a part of the show, adding: “The welcome and support I’ve received from everyone has been overwhelming.
“The success of the show and the reason we are here for a ninth season is a testament to all the people that have previously worked on it. I’m really excited to get started and cannot wait for the Grantchester fans to meet Alphy and to see all that’s in store for him.”
According to ITV, the ninth season will kick things off in 1961, when Will is “approached with a life changing offer” that could take him away from Grantchester (and, indeed, his pal Geordie).
When Geordie arrests an intruder breaking into the vicarage, he meets Alphy, who “has an instinctive distrust for authority and absolutely no desire to get involved in murder investigations”.
However, this being Grantchester, it’ll surely only be a matter of time before Alphy realises he enjoys sitting in on police interviews just as much as writing sermons and singing hymns.
Indeed, ITV has promised that “Alphy and Geordie will discover they have a lot more in common than they first think, and Alphy will find that in Grantchester, murder is never far away”.
Before all that, though, fans can still look forward to Geordie and Will solving more crimes in the show’s eighth season.
The show kicked off in the US this week on PBS’s Masterpiece channel, though ITV is yet to confirm a UK start date.