As the sixth season of Grantchester begins, Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) talks about practicing what you preach and working as a vicar. He tells Leonard Finch (Al Weaver) that they must do as much as they talk. Leonard recommends taking a holiday. Sure enough, Will decides to take a holiday and goes to Merries Holiday Park. Geordie Keating (Robson) and the family come as well as Mrs. C (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Jack. Once Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) shows up, Will complains he forgot to cancel Bible study, but Geordie isn’t going to let him call back home now. Will insists he doesn’t talk about work that much, but his friends suggest otherwise. Daniel learns Leonard is looking for his Maxim Gorki.

Daniel tells him to hell with Maxim because they’re getting drunk and going on a pedalo. Seconds later, Roy (Andy Nyman) and Babs Reeves (Annette McLaughlin) show up and welcome them to Merries. Moments later, Sunny (Jordan Alexandra) shows up and agrees to show the group to their chalets. Before long, everyone gets changed and ready to party. Later, Will heads to their next event and learns Daniel and Leonard are going to be late because they’re snoozing. Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) and Geordie are late for the same reason. Jack and Mrs. C use the same excuse before they finally arrive. Roy introduces Merries House Band. During dinner, the group is approached by Sid (Nick Holder) and Margie Danker (Rachael Stirling). Margie complains about the northerners coming before Sid invites them to join them at a table tomorrow.

Mrs. C and the others pretend to love the idea, but their facial appearances say otherwise. Will complains he didn’t cancel the scouts before the others try to get him to relax and tiptoe through the tulips. Then, they recommend Will find a lady friend since it has been a while. A photograph arrives and takes their picture. Once he has finished, he recommends Sunny since she could be the nice girl for Will. He insists she isn’t his type, but the others don’t understand that. After the house band finishes, Roy brings regulars, Margie and Sid, on stage and says they’ve been married for two years today. Margie is hesitant but she eventually walks onto the stage and spins for Sid. He gives her a ring and tells her she is the light of his life. She rushes off the stage and complains about everyone staring at them.

Roy tells jokes while Leonard gets up and tells the photographer, Bryan Stanford (Michael Abubakar), he can’t put up with this much longer. Sid crashes to the ground and everyone quickly tries to help him. Later that night, Will sits outside, smokes, and hears scratchy music coming from the intercom. In the morning, Cathy and Esme (Skye Lucia Degruttola) find out the group is playing Simon Says, but Esme isn’t interested. Then, they find out there is going to be a delay for breakfast. When the authorities arrive, Will decides to go inside while Geordie says outside. He finds Roy dead on the stage. Will returns to Geordie and tells him the wife is in a horrible state. Geordie isn’t interested since it isn’t any of his business.

Will says the police haven’t sealed off the scene. He pushes and pushes until Geordie decides to get involved. Geordie goes inside and tells the police they should photograph the body before moving it. Detective Constable Gerry Wicks (Sam Phillips) introduces himself and asks who they are. Geordie tells them who he is before learning the wife says Roy had a bad ticker due to too many beers and cigarettes. Gerry argues he’d stake his life on it being a natural death before Will finds soil on Roy’s shoes. Geordie believes he was dragged in. He becomes more suspicious when he finds lidocaine but learns Roy had a slipped disk. Babs isn’t sure whether it was hurting him last night because he went there to rehearse his performance. Babs encourages them to be discrete about the investigation. Will immediately asks her husband’s horrible jokes about his horrible wife. She insists it isn’t real and a joke isn’t a joke unless it is close to the knuckle.

She storms off. Outside, Geordie complains that they can’t go five days without a carcass. They find that Babs is stoic as she encourages her workers to give everyone a merry time for Roy. Mrs. C, Cathy, and the others want to more about Roy’s demise, but Sunny interrupts and asks them to join the conga line. Sylvania and the others go join them while Geordie and Will talk about the music blast last night which was ten past midnight. Bryan tries to get Daniel and Leonard to join the conga line. The conversation soon turns to Daniel’s Argus camera. When Bryan says he just had some photos accepted for an exhibition, Leonard says they’d like to take a look. Daniel’s name is called on the intercom system, so he has to join the conga line. Bryan stays and talks to Leonard about Gorki.

They agree it is dull before Leonard’s name is called and he is officially introduced to Bryan Stanford. Geordie and Will try to recreate Roy’s death. Will finds something and calls Geordie over to look at it. However, Sunny walks in and tells them guests aren’t allowed in there. Geordie searches for the key and finds it moments later. Sunny decides to leave and Will complains about her smiling always. Meanwhile, Leonard checks Bryan’s work. Leonard finds a picture of Firenze on the wall and they begin talking about the places they’ve traveled. Will finds hours of cinefilm and Geordie looks at an envelope with Margie’s name on it. The envelope contains pictures of Margie with men, so Geordie believes Roy was setting her up with his male guests. He likely takes pictures of them with Margie and blackmails them.

They find a picture of Sid as well. Will dances with Margie and asks her about the photographs Roy Reeves took. She gets upset and rushes off so Sid wants to know what Will said to her. Will follows them outside and Sid demands to know what he said to her. Sid soon learns that they know about his wife and he claims he saved her from the bastard. He tells Marg she has nothing to be ashamed of but she gets upset and runs off. Will asks Sid if he despised Roy. He admits he came back to rub Roy’s nose in it because he tried to ruin him. Sid says he got the girl and the happily ever after. He says good riddance to Roy. Meanwhile, Leonard and Bryan talk about feeling different. Bryan complains about everyone having fun around him and Leonard admits it is inane.

Leonard insists being different isn’t as bad as being someone you’re not. He tells Bryan he’ll go to Firenze one day, sell his pictures, and become rich. Bryan tries to kiss him but Leonard quickly pulls back and says no. Both apologize as Leonard runs out. Will and Geordie talk about Sid bringing his wife back to Merries. Sylvia and Jack want to learn more before Bryan interrupts to tell Geordie he set up the projector. Geordie explains he has to watch a bit of film. While Cathy scolds Geordie, Leonard tells Daniel about his encounter with Bryan. Daniel isn’t upset and encourages Leonard to take it as a compliment. Esme seems to be smitten with the lead singer from the house band. Geordie talks to Wicks about the possible murder of Roy Reeves. He agrees to let Geordie look it over although he doesn’t think it’ll make a difference.

Will approaches Babs and asks if she was aware of her husband’s dealings. She knew he was blackmailing the guests. She explains the place belonged to her father, she married, and it belonged to Roy. Babs claims Roy ruined it. When she leaves, Geordie arrives to tell Will that Roy ingested the lidocaine. Will says Roy was fine on stage and there had to be someone who knew him before Sunny interrupts and asks him to dance. Will says no and that upsets Geordie who encourages him to change his mind. Will goes outside to talk to Sunny and apologize before she leads him away from the party. Both get undressed and prepare to jump in the nearby lake. Once they’ve finished swimming, they sit around a fire and Sunny admits her real name is Pamela Smith. She thinks everyone is pretending to be something they’re not and that includes Will, but he denies it.

He tries to guess his secret but can’t. Will admits he is his work and his work is him. Geordie watches the video on the projector while Will and Sunny continue their chat. She says she loves her job and making people happy. While Will loves his job, he thinks there has to be something else. She thinks he knows what it is and they kiss. Geordie interrupts them before they return to watch the video together. It shows a man dancing with Sunny. She admits he said he would destroy the tape. Geordie believes she didn’t like what he was making her do. He wonders if that was enough to make her kill him. She denies it although she thought about killing him hundreds of times. Will asks if she slept with him and whether she was only trying to blackmail him. Later that night, Bryan storms in and finds Daniel and Leonard in bed together.

He wants to talk to Leonard but gets upset and storms out when he sees them together. Geordie asks Will if he is upset. He denies it. As the video continues, they find out that Sunny was dancing with Roy. Will wonders who took the video since Roy is in it. The next day, they go outside and watch Sylvia participate in a leg competition. She wins and that upsets Margie who says they give it to the old girls out of sympathy. Geordie and Will pull Bryan aside so they can ask him about videotaping Sunny’s encounters. Bryan says Sunny never went that far and only danced with them and kissed them. Will asks about the night Roy died since he was filming it. Bryan gives him the tape of what he recorded before asking to talk to Will alone since he is a clergyman. Bryan tells Will about seeing his curate in bed with another man.

Bryan believes he should report it, but Will says he’ll speak to Leonard about it. As Will walks away, Bryan tells him action has to be taken and he has to be dealt with. Will walks out before joining Geordie and watching the video with him. They find nothing so Geordie says they should watch it again. Cathy enters and demands to have dinner and for Geordie to take her outside and tell her how much he loves her. Leonard tells Daniel that Bryan keeps staring at him, but Daniel wants him to stop worrying about it. Babs tells Sunny to go on and she’ll be great before telling Will that Roy promised he’d make her a star. Will believes she was making a play at him. Babs wonders if Sunny just liked him. Will apologizes to Sunny and tries to smooth things over. She says she liked him. He doesn’t like that she used the past tense. She tells him she’ll see after Babs introduces her. She takes to the stage and tells a few jokes.

Geordie tells Will the lidocaine had to be in the stout. They return and watch the video while paying close attention to Roy’s glass. It switches and shows Roy on stage with a full cup. He either got a top up or someone gave him a full glass. Geordie approaches Sid and accuses him of putting the lidocaine in his own drink before giving it to Sid. Will stays with Margie and remembers everything Sunny said about her. Will follows her outside and they find Geordie accusing Sid of Roy’s murder. Will says otherwise and says it was insensitive for Sid to bring Margie there since everyone there knew about her past. He thinks that might’ve been the final humiliation that pushed Margie over the edge. Will believes she tried to kill Sid but Roy took his pint and died instead. She admits she went out again that night because she needed to get rid of the vial.

She dragged Roy into the ballroom and put the vial on him. She knew when she saw him that she had killed the wrong man. Margie complains that Sid brought her there to score points. She says he made her feel worthless and never gave her love. Daniel meets with Leonard who says they can’t even be themselves on holiday. He goes on to say Bryan would be a fool to take it further, but Leonard is upset they can never hold hands and be themselves. Daniel worries holding hands every day would become dull very quickly. Leonard cleans ice cream from his face in public. Next, we see that the families are preparing to leave. Bryan gives Will the pictures he took before he goes.

Will says he spoke to Leonard and he’ll be taking up the matter on their return. Bryan says he felt it was his duty and a moral obligation. He agrees to let Will handle it from here. Leonard approaches once Bryan leaves and asks what he wanted. Will says nothing about it. Pamela approaches Will and admits she is going to leave at the end of the season. She believes he works because he loves it and there isn’t anything missing. Pamela kisses him and admits she thinks she could’ve fallen in love with him. As they leave, Bryan processes his photos and finds one of Daniel and Leonard together. Bryan hangs up the pictures before the episode ends.

 

Grantchester Review

The opening episode of Grantchester’s sixth season was lukewarm with a few high points scattered throughout. The investigation and ensuing revelation were predictable and unable to match the quality of the prior seasons. Nevertheless, the episode did several things well. First, it did okay establishing a recurring storyline for the rest of the season.

We’ll have to wait and see how Leonard and Will deal with Bryan who is scorned after being shunned by Leonard. I can’t see how the Pamela relationship goes any further than this episode. We have to imagine Will traveled a long distance to reach Merries so the idea of a sustained relationship seems out of question. The episode was a decent start, but I am confident this is going to get better as it goes since it always does.

Although it did several things right, the episode wasn’t great. I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Upcoming recaps of Grantchester will be available on Reel Mockery here.