At the beginning of the episode, Sidney Chambers (James Norton) and Geordie Keating (Robson Green) speak about the changing nation. Geordie prefers the old days and blames the radical changes on Elvis. Their conversation is stopped so they can arrest Jim Parsons (Andrew Burford). Parsons makes a run for it and Sidney gives chase. Parsons is eventually captured. Geordie tries to convince Sidney to stop being a hero. Sidney speaks in church. At another time, Mrs. Bennett (Sarah Crowden) chats with Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones), Sidney and Leonard (Al Weaver) about cleaning duties. After the argument ends, Sidney complains to Leonard about it all. Sidney tells him about the talk regarding religion’s role in civil rights.
Leonard encourages him to skip it and go to the pictures. Soon, they meet with Professor Henry Barkley (Samuel West). Leonard complains to Sidney about having to donate to Barkley’s cause. Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) catches up with Leonard. Sidney is introduced to Will. Reverend Nathaniel Todd (Paterson Joseph) enters a short time later. Sidney speaks with Violet Todd (Simona Brown). Nathaniel interrupts. Outside, Todd and his group are protested. Barkley introduces Todd to the crowd. He tells the crowd about the lynching of a black boy in his town. Gregory Jones (Dominic Herman-Day) stands up and speaks out against Todd. Chaos ensues a short time later. Will and Sidney try to keep everyone calm by letting them know that it was just fireworks.
The group escapes the church. Charles Todd (Tok Stephen) learns that he has been shot or stabbed. Geordie arrives at the scene. He questions Leonard and Sidney. Todd doesn’t want the body moved. He has to leave for his own safety. Geordie tries to keep them safe by taking them to the station. Sidney asks Todd why his son was afraid and wanted the talk canceled. They have been receiving threatening messages. Todd wants to bathe his son. Geordie allows him to do so. Gregory is questions about the Phineas Society, which allegedly wrote the threatening letters. Gregory isn’t afraid of being charged. Geordie wants to give the family more protection. Sidney agrees to stay with the family to protect Violet. Later that night, Madhia (Sandra Teles) tells Sidney and Violet about her relationship with Nathaniel.
Sidney tries to convince Violet that Geordie is one of the good ones. She thought things would be different there. Geordie cooks for the family. He dances with his kids. Madhia tells Sidney and the others that someone is in the house. Sidney looks around and finds a knife on the bed. A symbol is sketched on the wall. Geordie spends time with Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth). They argue about money before Geordie receives a call from Sidney. He arrives at the scene and retrieves the knife. Violet is transported away from the home. Leonard is forced to stay at Daniel’s. He makes sure to tell everyone that Daniel (Oliver Dimsdale) is away fishing. Violet finds Sidney drinking and listening to music. He tells her that Mrs. Chapman hates everyone. He encourages Violet to tell him about prejudice. They also speak about Charles.
Sidney tries to convince her to cancel the tour. She admits that they should, but won’t. Sidney confesses that he drinks too much. Later, Sidney tosses and turns in bed. He visits Violet and comforts her. They make out and the door is shut. Leonard returns in the morning. Todd has another engagement. It is clear that Robert Deveaux (Antony Acheampong) is skeptical of Sidney. Geordie questions Gregory again. He confesses to writing the letters. He was invited to the speech by Barkley. He made up the secret society because girls like dangerous men. Geordie tries to stop the rest of the speeches. He confronts Barkley about inviting Gregory. Will speaks with Sidney at the church. Sidney speaks with Geordie. He isn’t surprised that Geordie is making the Todd family suspects. Geordie immediately realizes that Sidney slept with Violet.
Will emerges. He hands over the murder weapon. He was given the knife by someone who wants to remain anonymous. Will is interrogated. He refuses to tell Geordie who gave him the knife. Will is locked in a cell. Sidney visits him later. Sidney encourages Will to give up the information. Will confesses that it was Robert Deveaux who gave him the knife. Geordie thanks Will. Robert is questioned a short time later. He is shown a note that wasn’t sent by Gregory. Coloreds is spelled in the American language. He denies killing Charles. He also admits he wanted to marry Violet and would never kill her. Geordie and Sidney scour through possibilities. Sidney listens to Robert, Todd and Violet argue. Violet complains to Sidney about her father wanting to keep her quiet.
Sidney doesn’t want her to think he took advantage of her. She tells him that Charles danced with Madhia on the night before he died. Geordie, Cathy and the kids try to enjoy the fair. Sidney visits Blakley and asks him how long he has been married. He wonders if Blakley was upset because Madhia liked dancing with Charles. He punches Sidney and they begin to fight. Blakley gets the better of him, but Madhia saves him. The police enter and arrest Blakley moments later. Geordie wonders if Sidney is trying to get himself killed. Nathaniel is told about Blakley. Violet packs her bags and prepares to leave. Sidney tries to convince her to come with him for the blessing. At the fair, Leonard reads a poem. Sidney tells Violet to take the stage and speak her mind.
She finishes her speech and leaves.
Grantchester Review
Grantchester is back and the opener of season 4 was pretty good. The story was indeed cliché. We’ve seen it tons of times in other shows. Nevertheless, there is something unique about Grantchester that sets it higher than many of the rivals. Will Davenport is a tad odd at this point. If he is going to take over, we’re going to need to get used to him. The character feels a little forced. Hopefully that will change in the future. The opener was great despite being unoriginal. It scores a 7.5 out of 10.
Catch up with earlier recaps of Grantchester now!
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
I thought the way in which “Sydney” left Grantchester was a disaster. It had no relationship to the stories before, and it was an obvious bow to the “diversity” craze being foisted on everyone in the entertainment industry. If Sydney was going to leave his post, and leave everything he valued behind, it did not make any sense that this would happen because he had suddenly fallen love with an African American girl involved in the civil rightd movement. This after the intense internal struggle he had gone through when he gave up Amanda and her daughter because he could not leave the role of the priesthood behind. This was a struggle all the viewers had witnessed and our hearts were broken too for the two of them. Now he gets involved in the civil rights movement and suddenly falls in love with the African American girl, throws everything up and leaves Grantchester. It would have made more sense and been much fairer to viewers if the producers had suddenly just made an announcement such as”the role of Sydney Chambers will now be played by…” Instead we’re expected to acceptthis gratuitous “politically correct” ending. I don’t think I’ll bother to watch this any longer.I don’t like watching shows when I don’t trust the producers.
Couldn’t agree more. The first episodes of this season are terrible for this very reason. He doesn’t even get a fitting end.
The episode just did not make any sense! In a matter of a few weeks(?) Sidney gives up his entire life and friendships in Grantchester? It would be more in character for Sidney to pray and contemplate all aspects of this decision as he did with Amanda. It just seemed like a really cheap shot to have him move across the pond and out of the series. No originality!
Agree. The first few episodes of this season are horrible. It actually gets better when he finally leaves. Pretty sad, huh?
People whose lives lack diversity, whose close friends are white, or straight are the ones most likely to feel that stories depicting gay characters, or people of color are contrivances of the studios, or in your words “foisted upon us.
It is not obvious to me that anything is being foisted upon us, not like shows like Merlin where we see a black servant in Camelot, and her brother who assumes a place at the round table. Now that is a contrivance. But 1960’s England seeing black characters is not unusually, especially in the setting of a church, where it is extremely likely that a black minster from the United States would be engaged as a speaker.
Nor is it a stretch that this particular vicar, Sydney Chambers, who has embraced since season 1 a gay curate in the parish, or who loves jazz would fall in love with a black woman. This is a man who has been at extreme odds with himself, and with his calling, also from season i, so again not much of a stretch that he would follow the woman he loves to America.
Nothing is being foisted on you, or any of us. Actually, what has been foisted on the viewing public from the genesis of film and TV were unrealistic portrayals of Blacks, Latinos, Chinese, Indigenous People in film. What has been foisted on us by producers and directors determined to portray a diverse world utterly devoid of diversity, casting white actors as Chinese characters, or Black, or Latino characters: Mickey Rooney as the Chinese neighbor in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” a cartoon, a caricature so ridiculous that what should have been a masterpiece of cinema is painful in the extreme to watch, or Kathryn Hepburn portraying a Chinese woman in “Dragon Seed” . . . indeed every major character being portrayed by white people in that film, Natalie Wood portraying a Puerto Rican, and on, and on, and on.
And when Hollywood and Pine Studios was not foisting these ridiculous, unrealistic, inauthentic portrayals on us they were giving us stories like “The World Of Susie Wong,” or “The Blind Side” with a white savior there giving aid to the poor helpless Chinese girl, and helpless Black kid. And if we are not bombarded by white saviors then what we have left is blacks, Latinos, and people who look like they could be from the Middle East portraying thugs, gang members, and terrorists.
Perhaps like Robson Green’s GI Geordie Keating you long for a simpler time when all you saw on your TV were white people, where the only diversity that makes sense are people of color as servants, thugs, and terrorists.
When the world changes people always feel something is being foisted upon them, when perhaps what is happening is that there is finally some growth, some actual reality, an authentic story.
Something to think about perhaps?
There is a little word that defines the drastic, sudden changes, decisions people sometimes make to the horror / consternation of those closest to them. That word is epiphany.
What may seem a sudden departure from who a person is when they have an epiphany is, if one could delve into the heart and private thoughts of a person, something we as viewers get to do with the Sydney Chambers character, is actually a quite natural progression.
Of course, Sydney did not marry Amanda because it was to great a challenge to his faith, who he felt he was at his very essence. There was no such conundrum with the young American woman. She was single. Throughout the series he struggles, is tortured with unhappiness, with memories of the war, with the status quo of 1950’2 – 1960’s England, the racism, the homophobia; so what seems sudden is actually a very natural progression for this character to fall in love with a beautiful, strong, quite but charismatic Black American, and to think that perhaps he can make a difference in the struggle in America, her struggle.
This story line makes much greater sense then if he should suddenly and simply transfer to another parish within the UK, where his ghost would simply follow.
I hope the producers of Grantchester will give us a a limited series of four to six characters telling Mr. And Mrs. Chamber’s story in America, min the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. That I would love to see.
The problem for me is that it was so rushed. He really shouldn’t have came back for this season at all. Two episodes just weren’t enough to develop any connection with these characters. Whether she was white, black, or blue, doesn’t matter. The problem is that the writers felt obligated to give Sydney a finish. To do that, they half-assed it and rushed it along. It might have been great with a few more episodes of character development.
I felt that was a problem. They had a few more episodes to play around with things.
I agree. I do wish they had taken more time to develop the story line, at least four episodes. One thing Ireally appreciate about British television is that they do not depend on the star power of the actors to carry the full weight of a show, but put much of the weight of the show, and its ability to draw, and continue to draw the viewer in on the strength of the writing. That is why in Britain they are willing to allow actors to move on when they feel they want to explore their craft elsewhere, and in the United States they prevent actors from pursuing other roles, holding their contracts over their heads.
I think the greatest problem with season four is not just the rather abrupt departure of the Sidney Chambers character but that the new vicar makes an appearance, disappears, then suddenly reappears at the end of an episode which feels rather stark with Leonard following DI Keating.
I thought that rather odd, and I kept waiting for Sidney to enter the scene. The should have focused less on the murder / mystery aspect of the show and brought the new character in with a fleshed out story line.
I agree with that. I think the show will be just fine if they continue it though. Leonard was very interesting this season. I actually started liking the new vicar near the end of it all too.
I love the British shows. Like them much more than the American ones these days.
If you have not already, check out “Fleabag” on Amazon Prime, and “Endeavour” on PBS Mystery.
I have thought about watching Endeavour. Just never got around to it. It looks good. Will check them both out when I get time. Thanks 🙂
The whole episode 1 of season 4 was annoying. The black reverend’s attitude, along with those of his children and the other man with them, was too “chip-on-the-shoulder” for someone on a speaking engagement in a foreign country. Sidney has given up his true love and suddenly he falls in love with a black American girl to the point of distraction.. He had agonized over having physical relations with Amanda for a very long time, and yet he jumps into bed with someone he’s known for a few days. None of this makes any sense, not to mention the fact that Violet and Sidney have absolutely NO chemistry at all and Violet is rather off-putting, to begin with. Sidney is now ready to leave his whole Grantchester life and move to America with a woman he’s known maybe a few weeks.One of these situations would have been questionable enough, all of them in one episode is implausible and totally unbelievable.
I agree. The first several episodes are horrible. It gets better when Sidney finally leaves. Not great but the last episodes are much better.
I’m a novelist. The most difficult part in writing a novel is coming up with an ending that rings true to the main character and plot. There’s no question in my mind the screenwriter for “Grantchester” is exceptionally talented. Having said that, in my heartfelt opinion she missed the mark on this one. Not only was the departure of Sydney Chambers rushed, but to dismiss Amanda with a short line suggesting she’s ancient history renders a disservice to the viewer. Many if not most “Grantchester” viewers invested at least a modicum of emotion into Amanda and Sydney and their relationship. Sydney strikes me as a man of depth and integrity who wouldn’t out of the clear blue choose another woman over Amanda (and let’s not forget Grace) without first seeking Amanda out to make sure he isn’t about to make the mistake of his life. Epiphany or no, we watched Sydney make the most agonizing decision of his life in choosing the C of E over Amanda and Grace. Nothing about his character suggests a shallow man who would on impulse leave the world he knew for a woman he hardly knows or any cause or movement, however worthy.
I agree 100%. It has to be difficult to find a suitable ending that will satisfy everyone. Probably impossible honestly. Wish they wouldn’t have rushed so much here.
The only thing I agree with the comments here is that the storyline was rushed, much like the final season of “The Game Of Thrones”, and would have made more sense if given time to develop. I am also. Sydney did not pick The American over Amanda and Grace. To marry Amanda he would have had to give up his collar. The Church of England does not permit a man to marry a divorced woman, especially when that man is a minister within that church.
Sidney was in love with Amanda, but in the end he chose the church. If the viewers do not understand how that church works, or fail to appreciate why a man would pick the church over a woman, then no amount of episodes will satisfy.
People have been known to fall in love, and make quick and what seems to others impetuous decisions when they do; especially when that person is an extremely unhappy person. From season one we see that the Sydney Chambers character is extremely unhappy, feeling somewhat lost, quickly becoming an alcoholic.
It surprises me that people, especially anyone lauding themselves as a novelist, would not realize how naturally this story flowed and fit with the character of the tormented minister.
All the other stuff, how there was no chemistry between the actors, or how they felt a black minister engaged to speak about the civil Rights Movement in England had a chip on his shoulder, is the sort of thing a white person who has never had to fight for his rights would feel.
Your problem is that black people are not behaving the way you prefer they behave. It is a bit amusing, and bemusing to see how even now, in 2019, over fifty years after the civil rights movement, white people still have white-people opinions how Blacks behave, should behave, would behave.
It’s so good to see that racism is alive and thriving.
You’ve mentioned black a good 10 times in your comments. I think you might be a little too hung on that. Just because people didn’t like Sidney’s departure doesn’t make them white nationalists in white hoods.
His departure was terrible. It nearly ruined a good show. Honestly, it would have been better if he just left before the season even started.
Sidney had always slept with black/African American women. Obviously, these other commenters didn’t have a problem with it then or they would have said so. This leads me to believe that they’re not hatemongers.
Just my opinion of course.
As a former seminarian I understand quite well how the church works. As a GRIT (Girl Raised in the South) I know my geography and seriously doubt Sidney would have unearthed an Anglican Church in Alabama during the early 60s. In the fairly large Southern city I reside in, we have one Anglican Church. We have an Episcopal Church with a Scottish rector which is getting there I suppose.
I made no mention of race in my earlier post because imho race is irrelevant to the discussion. I’m in agreement with Reel/Mockery that the person who replied to my comment appears to be a bit hung up on race. I have no racial ax to grind with Grantchester or anyone else.
Moving on, Sidney’s Dark Night of the Soul felt rushed and contrived. When Sidney chose the C of E over Amanda, he was no stranger to the tediousness of church affairs. S4E1 suggests Sidney left Grantchester in part because he became fed up with the everyday minutiae of church life. That would follow him anywhere.
There are a number of scenarios for bringing Sidney’s legacy to closure that ring truer to his character–at least in my mind. In one, Sidney runs into Amanda at a coffee shop or park in Cambridge. She has Grace with her and a small child that’s obviously his. This is Sidney’s Dark Night of the Soul. Ultimately he chooses to leave the church and he marries Amanda. He could teach theology at Oxford or Cambridge. If I’m not mistaken in an earlier episode Sidney played around with the notion of leaving the church to teach.
Not to belabor the point, but what was Amanda? Chopped liver? If Amanda is chopped liver, I suppose that makes Grace liver pudding. The new vicar already has big shoes to fill made even more challenging by the way Sidney left–as if he never knew Amanda at all. While granted this isn’t Will’s fault, the chance for a happy ending to a love story that’s an intrinsic part of Grantchester and the novels the series is based on got thrown away.