As the eighth series of Grantchester begins, Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) speaks in church about the bikers racing through the village. He mentions today’s charity motorcycle race. Bonnie Davenport (Charlotte Ritchie) has more tickets. Outside, Bonnie gives Will tips for dealing with the locals. Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jones) comes out complaining about Will allowing motorcycles inside the church. Mrs. C and Jack (Nick Brimble) reveal they’ve created a list of baby names. Stephanie Kidman (Antonia Rita) comes out with Jimmy Weller (Elliot Norman) talking about Will being handsome. Carl Taylor (Jayden Reid) shows Bonnie and Will his excellent sketches.

They discuss their team being named the Cambridge Crows. Later, Bonnie tells Will he isn’t allowed to win unless she is there. Geordie (Robson Green) and Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) bicker about whether Esme (Skye Lucie Degruttola) should get to like the leather jackets. Geordie complains about the hooligans. Another group of boys belittle Carl and Jimmy. Will interrupts after Jimmy tells Tommy Wilson (Charlie Suff) to go back to Newmarket. Geordie is impressed when Ron Weller (Shaun Dingwall) quickly gets the boys under control. Ron offers to work out handicaps since there are different riders of different skill levels. Will reminds him the race is for charity so there is no need. Ron says he got a promoter named Frank (David J Biscoe) to pop by.

The riders line up and a mystery rider named Lightning joins them. Carl’s bike malfunctions so he falls behind at the very beginning of the race. Will ends up crashing. He gets up and tells Geordie he made the noise Geordie makes when he tries to get out of a chair. Then, he learns that Jimmy is in front. Lightning wins. Bonnie tends to Will’s wounds after the race. In the morning, Will gets a call from Geordie because something has happened. Ernie Evans (Isaac Highams) tries to prevent Will from getting his bike keys. Once Bernie storms out of the room, Bonnie tells Will that he needs to be firmer because Ernie needs dad discipline too. Will meets Geordie and Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) at the crime scene where he learns that Carl is dead.

It looks like he had a party and was bashed over the head. They look at the last thing Carl drew at the track last night before he was killed. Will approaches Ron and Jimmy so he can break the news to them. Jimmy checks on his dad. He says they rode there after the race for sarnies and beers. It became a bit of a knees-up. Ron was there as well. As for Carl, he was the last to leave. Ron gets upset and immediately blames the Newmarket louts. Jimmy tells them about a fight they got into with Tommy and his friends. Tommy is brought in for questioning. He denies crossing paths with Carl last night. Tommy denies killing him although he admits a belting would’ve done Carl good. Geordie warns him this is as serious as it gets. He believes he is out of their jurisdiction, but they tell him that isn’t how it works.

Tommy eventually reveals that he was playing board games with his landlady. In private, Geordie tells Will that he blames the parents. Will wants to pick Geordie’s brains about discipline. Miss Scott (Melissa Johns) tells Geordie that DCI Elliott Wallace (Michael D. Xavier) wants to speak to him. Scott agrees to show Will where Carl’s bike is. DCI Wallace asks Geordie about qualifying for early retirement by the end of the summer. Geordie wasn’t planning on it, but Wallace seems to be pushing him into doing it. Geordie isn’t in a good mood when he finds Will working on the bike. He complains about Elliot Wallace who has only been there for five minutes. Will says someone put enough graphite on the spark plug to short it. It happened between arriving and the starter’s orders.

Carl must’ve saw it and rubbed off just enough to get the bike going. They discuss who might be responsible including Lightning who didn’t register for the race. Will catches up with Leonard Finch (Al Weaver) who introduces him to Keith Pruitt (Narinder Samra). Leonard gives Keith the speech. Keith admits he was worried about leaving prison. Once Keith leaves, Leonard tells Keith that he is number four. Will is impressed with the halfway house. Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) warns Will to run for his life or he’ll overstay his visit. Leonard tells Will that the neighbors have complained about the ex-cons. He asks Will to write an open letter to the papers talking about the positives of the halfway house. Will asks if he has tips for disciplining a seven-year-old boy.

Will visits Ron who gives him advice for disciplining Ernie. Ron didn’t recognize Lightning although he suspects it was one of the Newmarket louts. When he is alone, Will finds a leaderboard. He takes it Geordie and explains that the riders were marking up who did a ton. Will says Lightning did a ton on the Duxford Road on a Triumph Tiger. Will shows him a picture of the gang with two Triumph Tiger motorcycles. Miss Scott tells them that one bike is registered to Ralph Thompson, but he was drunk in the cells last night. The second bike is registered to Howard Kidman. Geordie and Will visit Howard Kidman and see him ride by on a bike. They try to get away, but Geordie manages to stop them. He is surprised when it turns out to be a woman.

At the station, Stephanie Kidman admits her dad her to fix the bike which is registered in his name. She denies tampering with Carl’s bike and killing him. Only Jimmy and Carl knew she was Lightning. Stephanie is on the promoter’s radar thanks to Jimmy. Carl didn’t like a woman riding. Once he got loaded, he really let it rip. He even wanted to tell Ron to kick her out of the garage. Will believes Stephanie liked Carl since she learned sign language for him. Steph admits she fancies him and wanted him to see what she could do. In private, Will tells Geordie that Steph didn’t do it. Will learns they need his help at the halfway house. Once Will arrives, he finds Keith drunk and being aggressive. They go inside where Will tries to calm him. When Keith breaks the bottle he is holding, Will punches him in the face.

Daniel thinks Keith should leave, but Leonard believes he is the type of person they’re there for. Cathy calls Geordie at the office to check on him. Will learns that Mrs. C found a stroller for himself and Bonnie. In the middle of the night, Will finds Ernie trying to throw away his jacket because he doesn’t want him to die. Will admits he has been risking himself without thinking. He agrees to put the bike on a long holiday. The next say, Geordie thinks he has found something in Carl’s last sketch. He believes someone else drew it and wants them to believe Carl was at the track when he died. Will reminds him that Ron checked all the bikes before the race. Ron is brought in and asked if Carl could’ve beaten Jimmy if his bike hadn’t stalled. Ron says Carl had a special quality.

He is asked whether Jimmy has it. Ron doesn’t. He complains about Jimmy putting Stephanie on the promoter’s radar. Ron says Carl was the only one worth watching in the race. After the interview, Will and Geordie speak to Jimmy who says his dad is tough although it is for his own good. They accuse him of trying to level the field against Carl. Jimmy admits Carl got all the attention anyway and Frank didn’t care about him afterward. When Jimmy got home, Carl confronted him and he hit him with a crowbar. Ron is at the station when Jimmy is brought in wearing handcuffs. Jimmy tells Ron that he is never good enough. At home, Will tells Bonnie he doesn’t want his mistakes to hurt Ernie or their baby. Bonnie thinks she will have to quit Tuesday’s bible group. Bonnie gets a call from her father who says her mom had a stroke.

Geordie tells Elliot he isn’t ready to retire yet. Elliot tells him it wasn’t a choice. Bonnie ends up saying goodbye and leaving. Will goes for a motorcycle ride and runs into a pedestrian. He runs over to check on the man who appears to be dead.

 

Grantchester Review

The opening episode of Grantchester’s eighth series was decent with some highs and some lows. The investigation and murder case weren’t particularly great although the motorcycle race was fun. Well, parts of the race were well done even though a lot of things about it were so unbelievable.

Then, the episode started filling itself with one cliché after another and many of them were predictable. For instance, it was easy to see that a woman would be under the lightning helmet and that Carl would be dead. Geordie’s current situation with Elliot has been done countless times and we already know he isn’t going to be retiring at the end of the series.

It seems the writers have completely run out of ideas for Leonard since he got out of prison. He initially had a café of sorts, but he is now running a halfway house. There should at least be some consistency there, but they’re just trying different things until something finally sticks. The biggest thing that stuck out as being promising was the fact that the series still tried to bring the emotions at the end of the episode.

Overall, the episode was just okay although the ending has potential to create an interesting series. After eight seasons though, it seems the writers are starting to run out of ideas here. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Grantchester can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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