Product Review

ITV series Grantchester ushered us into a traumatised nation still reeling from the Second World War wondering if they were the victors then where were the spoils? Reverend Sidney Chambers lives an apparently idyllic existence in the sleepy Cambridgeshire hamlet of Grantchester in the early 1950s. Yet having killed more Germans than diphtheria his lust for blood and the peace to be found between the legs of a woman and at the bottom of a whiskey barrel lead him into a series of ill judged adventures as a crime solving cleric. Tending his flock while nursing a hangover he still finds time to crack murder cases like Miss Marple with the help of his adorable bumbling sidekick and alleged “Detective Inspector” Geordie Keating. Can Sidney win the hand of his beloved Amanda, address the existential crisis in his parish or, failing that, go three days without a drink?

TV critic James Donaghy is your guide through the first two series. All 12 episodes of PTSD, repressed homosexuality and mindless slaughter are relived for your reading pleasure.


To prospective readers: PLEASE do not read if you dislike puerile humour, have any common decency or concern for your fellow man. This will not be your thing. The rest of you nerds: have at it.