Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

As with almost every episode of this podcast, I must caution listeners about spoilers — especially after that jam-packed final episode of the seventh season of Grantchester. If you have not watched this episode, go do so now, and then come back to this podcast. We’ll still be here when you do!

Okay. So.

Will Davenport got married!

CLIP

Will Now I er I know it’s not usual wedding speech material. But the moment I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Bonnie, was the moment I thought I was about to die…

Jace If you thought the rush down the aisle was a fast one, don’t worry — so did we. But we can’t pretend that we’re not thrilled to see Will end up with Bonnie, who is more than his match.

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Will I don’t know how to be with you, I… I don’t know how to be with anyone, I don’t even know what a good relationship looks like. But I want to try. If you’ll let me.

Bonnie We’re different.

Will If you mean posh, I haven’t got any money.

Bonnie Great. I’m not even sure I believe in God.

Will Oh, he doesn’t mind, neither do I.

Bonnie I’m not just a mum, or some widow to be pitied.

Will I know. You are so much more. That’s why I love you.

Jace With an unexpected wedding — and an unexpected serial killer investigation resolution, too — this was a finale like no other.

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Will Jim, are you saying that you killed those men?

Jim Professor Larson said they couldn’t be helped.

Will She’s wrong.

Jim I know. Maybe not in this life, but the next. That’s why I helped them on their way…clean-shaven, in my arms……ready to meet Our Father-

Will That is not your decision to make-

Jace To unpack the season — and look ahead, perhaps? — we’re joined yet again by series creator and head writer Daisy Coulam, and series lead Tom Brittney.

Jace We are joined again once this week by Grantchester writer and executive producer Daisy Cullum. Welcome.

Daisy Hello. Hello again.

Jace So we can say it now. Will got married, to Bonnie no less.

Daisy Yay!

Jace Making Will and Geordie actual family. How far into breaking series seven did the idea of marrying Will off come up?

Daisy Pretty early on, actually. We we thought, what better way to end a series seven, than with a beautiful classic British wedding in the garden with a marquee. And just finally, finally, Will is in a different space, he’s made a decision and it leaves us in a really interesting perspective for series eight because what is Will, the married man like? What is, well he is also a father to little Ernie. So it gives us a new dynamic. And as you say, Uncle Geordie is family at last, properly.

Jace I want to dive into a lot of what you just said.

Daisy Okay.

Jace I mean, to me, Will and Bonnie haven’t exactly had a smooth ride to the altar, but theirs feels ultimately like a marriage of equals, that they have this sort of understanding and acceptance for each other. Is she what Will has been missing all along in order to propel him from man-child to finally man?

Daisy Yes, I believe so. I think this is the love of his life and he almost let it get away. But he didn’t. And that’s great. So he, I think what I’m excited about exploring in season eight is well, well, the next step in the journey, what does it mean to bring up a child? What does it mean to to be a partnership? How do you navigate life? You know, marriage is great, but there are new problems. You know, there are new sorts of hurdles to get over and new challenges, which is great for characters, really, to challenge them.

Jace Will’s proposal comes after a near-death experience when serial killer Jim Baker, Tom Glenister, stabs him at the vicarage. Does this brush with death, considering how much murder Will has encountered as a crime solver, shakes some sense into Will about what matters most in life?

Daisy I think so. And I think the person he asks for in that moment is Bonnie. You know, he’s saying Bonnie, you know, basically that’s who is on his mind. And in that moment, it’s a clarity. And it I suppose it’s the clarity of a brush with death. But hopefully he would have got there sooner, but maybe it needed a quick knife to the stomach to get him to make that decision. I think it just needed a push in the right direction.

Jace I mean, the toast that Will makes at his wedding reception underlines, I think, the fear that he has lived with.

CLIP

Will And I was lying there, feeling sorry for myself and I realised that the things I regretted in life, were not the things I’d done, but the things I hadn’t. Because I’d been scared that I, I wouldn’t know how to love, or to be a father .or to even be myself without some cause to fight for.But now I look around me, and all I can see are beautiful examples of love. Of fathers.  And of people who can only be themselves. So, I want to thank you all for showing me the way. I want to thank you Bonnie and Ernie for giving me the chance to try.

Jace He begins the episode by invoking Icarus. Does he end it by learning to fly, to trust in love after being humbled?

Daisy I think that’s. Yeah. This is this one John Jackson’s lovely episode. And he did it. He did a lot of research. It’s the stained glass the actual stained glass window in Grantchester church, if you ever get to go. And he was very keen on this image of, I suppose, the flaming terrible on this stained glass window. There’s a flaming chariot. And and I suppose it’s Will saying that he feels he’s failed. He feels he’s failed at the beginning of the episode. And actually he hasn’t. He needs to trust, as you say, he needs to be to be himself, to accept himself as he is, failings and all. And that’s what Bonnie does, she accepts him as a flawed human being, which allows him to accept himself, which makes a happy marriage, I think. And and there’s a dog and a little boy in the family, too, so it’s perfect.

Jace Instant family.

Daisy Yeah.

Jace  I love the scene where Will finds Bonnie at the train station and begs her not to go and confesses his love for her. And I love that she’s in control here. She says, ‘I’m not just a mum or some widow to be pitied,’ and that it is Bonnie who kisses him. Was the notion here to sort of subvert the traditional proposal with the scene, to have her in control here?

Daisy Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And and to sort of for her to sort of in a way, she lays down things, doesn’t she? She’s like I, I, she lays down her soul really and says “don’t pity me” because all along the way he has, a little bit, treated her like a widow and sort of preempted her worries and her fears and he needs to acknowledge that she is more than that. That she is she is Bonnie. She is cooler than probably he will ever be, actually. And so, you know, he needs to work for it and I think he will.

Jace How much time do you see passing between the scene at the station and the wedding itself?

Daisy Well, at one point we were going to go across a whole year. When we write the story document, I got carried away and it was it was New Year’s Eve, 1959, and there was snow and the church bells are ringing. And and it was the idea that they were bringing in a new decade, a new a new life for Will and a new life for the country and the world. And then we’re like, ‘Well, we can’t really do snow because it’s going to be midsummer. And how about we just say, a few months later, you know, the passing of time?’ And so, yeah, it became a summer wedding. But yeah, it was. The idea was that it’s not totally shotgun, I would say before we should have done ‘Three months later,’ on the screen like a caption.

Jace No, but I, I, I like that it’s vague. And I love the notion though, of like them ringing in this new, this new decade. But yeah, like doing an entire snow scene seems not feasible.

Daisy Just for one scene, but yes, yes, for.

Jace An establishing shot.

Daisy But yeah, I just. Yes, exactly.

Jace A lot of series would have heavily played up the wedding of its main character. But Grantchester manages to pull off both a stealth proposal and wedding in one episode. Was it a deliberate effort to sort of sneak in the wedding under viewers’ radars?

Daisy Yes. Also a serial killer, let’s not forget.

Jace And a serial killer.

Daisy Yeah. And a stabbing. And and it’s quite is quite packed, that last episode, we wanted to yeah. We wanted it to be like a little treat really at the end of the episode, a sort of coda, a really nice one where with the promise of something quite different for the next series. And I think my, one of my favorite scenes is that last scene with them, Geordie and Will outside, you know, ‘Bloody vicars,’ and it just it’s so gorgeous and I love and when Geordie says, ‘I love you,’ that’s basically all I’ve ever wanted from this whole series was that moment. Every time I said, ‘Can they say, can you say I love you?’ Yeah. And then it felt like the right moment. Because it always comes back to Geordie and Will. Well, it’s always about these two and their love for each other as friends…and now, family.

Jace I mean, I was going to say we don’t end this series on the newlyweds, which I feel like most, most shows would do. But as you say, sort of with Will and Uncle George now in what is to me one of the most beautiful depictions of male friendship onscreen that I’ve ever seen.

Daisy Yes, aww, that’s nice.

Jace And Will telling Geordie that he loves him and Geordie countering with his ‘I love you too, son,’

Daisy Yeah.

Jace As they embrace. How challenging was this a final scene to write? Was this, as you say, the sort of culmination of everything you’ve wanted to say in the series?

Daisy Well, I didn’t write this episode. So it was John Jackson, who wrote that. But we we storylined and that scene into the story document ended on that scene with they tell each other they love each other and it’s because what we…this show, the other characters are equally important. But at the center it is that friendship Geordie and Will and before them before Will, Geordie and Sidney that was this sort of odd couple really and. I think if we didn’t get it on the wedding, it wouldn’t quite felt like our show? So I think, yeah, so we put that in and yeah, I finally got my…’Say, say I love you. just that overtly to each other’ it’s beautiful and yeah, and now they don’t have to say it next series, properly, but they, they will prove their love for each other.

Jace In a different way.

Daisy In a different way, in a more challenging way, actually. And so, yeah.

Jace I mean, to me, this this could have functioned as a final scene for Grantchester as a whole, these two men affirming their love for each other somewhere between friends and father, son, and an acknowledgment of that sort of found familial bond that they’ve forged here. Did you guys break this scene with the notion that it could be the final scene of Grantchester if, as you said, every season you sort of think this might be the last? Was this the idea that this could be the last?

Daisy There was the notion that it could be the last because you never know. We have such good actors. You never know with we’re going to get them for another series or whether they’ll be off in Hollywood or and so we at the beginning of the process, we wrote it as if it was our last episode. But then by the time we got to filming, we knew it wasn’t the last episode, but we kind of thought, well, anyway, it’s quite a, it’s quite a jolly sort of big way to end the series and to sort of hailing the new decade. So it worked on that level. But yeah, that’s why it feels quite it’s got it feels complete doesn’t it? I suppose.

Jace It does!  It does. Leonard finds a new vocation by the end of the series and is given Jack’s blessing to do whatever he wants with the Cherry Orchard — ‘Soup kitchen, shelter, gentlemen’s lounge. It’s yours. I’ll fund it.’ Leonard, we’ve seen struggle to find an identity outside of the church. Is this his way of moving back towards his true calling of helping?

Daisy Yes, yes, yes. And I think that’s. That was his sort of journey throughout what was to find something more, to find that to find that some way of helping people. Because Leonard is compassionate and Leonard has lived through a lot, has a lot of wisdom now from his time in prison and from his outing. And he has a lot to offer people more than a cup of tea and a cake and a bad poem. So this will be yes, season eight will look more closely at his new vocation, which is perhaps helping troubled people in a more proactive way. And yeah, which may get him in some trouble.

Jace Will and Bonnie aren’t the only romantic pair. When the dust settles on series seven, as Geordie and Cath reconcile, Leonard and Daniel find a new path and Sylvia comes clean to Jack. We talked about love earlier, but what does Grantchester ultimately have to say about love in its many different forms?

Daisy I dunno, I think about this notion of of love is love. And I think Grantchester is is set in 1950s, but love in its many forms, the love of a friend, the love of a sort of mother figure. The love of…it’s just love. And while you may be like Leonard and  have no family of your own, but you have Mrs. C and Will may not have a father, but he has a surrogate father in Geordie and I just think there’s something quite lovely about that. It’s messy and imperfect, but it’s still love.

JaceWe did mention Jim earlier, and the serial killer twist. It’s Will who invites him into the vicarage and who sort of gives him the opportunity to maybe even take over as the new Leonard here. I love the fact that this person is actually a serial killer who had murdered a slew of victims this season. Did you sort of envision Jim as functioning in some way as a twisted form of Will’s conscience over the, quote, ‘tawdry things that he’s done?’ Does he serve that purpose here?

Daisy Yes. And we wanted the idea that because Jim as a character is quite similar to Leonard, that slightly sort of bumbling, slightly awkward bit quite sweet character. And we were thinking, ‘Oh, I wonder if we can tease the audience into thinking he is the new Leonard and he will be you know, he’s invited into the church almost like, you know, a vampire invited into to the family, almost in a small way.’ So that was a sort of sleight of hand, I suppose. And then then he does become, he pricks Will’s conscience. He does say things which are true, you know, ‘Have I been living a sinful life?’ You know, he is, he’s you know, he’s dallying with these women and he’s not being truthful. And so he is sort of, he thinks he has a moral point, but actually Jim is using the Bible in. In a way to sort of justify his own mind, his own kind of. Demons. And in that final scene, I really like it when Jim finally admits what he’s done and you see the anger in him. It’s not about the Bible, it’s about his own anger and his own problems.

Jace Well, I will say, you definitely pulled the rug out from underneath me. I did not see that coming.

Daisy Did you not see it coming? Yay, that’s good.

Jace How did you manage to get in a final episode? As you said, sort of you almost kill off the main character, you marry him off and then sort of send him off into the sunset. It’s a stunning sequence of events. However, there is an eighth season. He does not die. He does get married off. There is an eighth series of Grantchester on the horizon. Did you go into series eight with the feeling that that might be the last one again?

Daisy I think we always do. I think we always do. And it’s in a way, it’s sort of liberating because you’re not…you’re kind of it gives you a chance to go, ‘Well, let’s make this the best series it can be. Let’s really sort of take our characters through a journey and not sort of hold off thinking, well, next series we can…’ So yeah, we start we series eight. We started out I can’t even remember when we start going out, it feels like time is slipping by, the beginning of this year? And it was. Yeah, we just again, it came together not as quickly as some of the other series. It was a bit more of a tussle at times, but it felt like we had a different everyone’s in a different starting place. Cathy and Geordie are back together, what does that mean? Eliot’s still in his domain, what does that mean, but having been, you know, cuckolded by another man. And there’s all these sort of things which we can just start running. But also it gives us in episode six, we still want to make it brilliant and meaningful. And yeah, so that was our thing. And to push Will in a new direction which we think we hope we do.

Jace I’m curious how does Will and Bonnie’s marriage play out next season? Is Bonnie on the outside of the crime solving plot or wrapped up in the thick of it? And what were the discussions like about that?

Daisy Well, I suppose Will’s story in the next series is much more of a personal, quite an internal journey, but basically he, yeah. He has quite a stretch in a way, tears him away from Bonnie and makes the relationship slightly trickier. But. Ultimately it will be fine.

Jace Given that, you know, in those early episodes then, was it challenging to write Will as a happy newlywed for a change, to sort of see him not as this sort of man child, but in sort of the fullness of life?

Daisy It’s…so Richard Cookson who’s written for two series, he’s writing the opening of next series and I’ve just read some lovely scenes with them. They are…they’re a dynamic duo. That’s what they are. They…she fits in, but she’s having to sort of slot into this slightly odd world of religion and services and, you know, WI markets and old ladies and, and she does a brilliant scene that Richard’s writing at the moment, which is how she kind of navigates Will through that. You know, ‘That couple that just split up, don’t mention that,’ you know, she knows the gossip of the village and it’s sort of. So there’s a really nice dynamic between them which will be tested, of course, because, you know, nothing good can last.

Jace No, I mean, to me, if there was any doubt that Bonnie was a more than capable partner for Will, it was at the reception when she sort of effortlessly and rather elegantly puts St. John  in his place.

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Ameila  Bonnie, you look stunning!

Bonnie Oh, your son’s a tough act to live up to.

Ameila Yes, he is. But I’ve never seen him look happier and that’s down to you.

St John Congratulations Mrs Davenport.

Bonnie Thank you, both for providing the flowers. They’re, they’re beautiful.

St John Oh, that’s alright we thought the wedding could do with a touch of class.

Ameila St John-

Bonnie I couldn’t agree more. Which is why we were delighted you could come…

Jace And that sort of sealed the deal for me. So I feel like she’s well equipped to handle whatever is maybe thrown at her next series.

Daisy I think so. I think so. She’s unflappable in a way. And, you know, she’s a grown up with a child. She won’t put up with his sort of childish ways. She, you know, he has to grow up. He has to be a man. Yeah, it will be interesting to watch them.

Jace I can’t wait for series eight. Daisy Coulam, thank you so very much.

Daisy Thank you. It’s lovely to talk to you.

Jace Let’s take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors…and when we return, series lead and director Tom Brittney returns to reflect on Will’s marriage, and look ahead to Grantchester’s eighth season…

Jace We are joined once again this week by Grantchester star and director Tom Brittney. Welcome.

Tom Thank you for having me.

Jace Let’s first deal with the elephant in the room. What sort of conversations did you have with Daisy Coulam and Emma Kingsman-Lloyd about the decision to marry off Will at the end of series seven? How was this information relayed to you ahead of shooting?

Tom I don’t know if I had much of a choice about the matter, and nor should I. I think it’s a wonderful ending. I have to admit, I didn’t know whether I would be killed off. I mean, it’s it’s either killing me off or marrying me. And we went for the marrying me. But I think it was a wonderful ending. And to go from, you know, the heaviness of what precedes it with with Jim and almost dying to then having this this second chance at life, I mean, literally having a second chance at life and Will, you know, having someone who’s willing to support him despite Will messing Bonnie around quite a lot. She’s willing to see him for who he is. And I think it’s a beautiful ending to that to this season.

Jace To the season, it does. It did surprise me in that we get a proposal and a wedding sort of within the last few minutes of the season. Do you feel that the decision to do so that Will would tie the knot in such an abrupt fashion, subverts the viewer’s expectation about how courtship narratives typically play out?

Tom Well, look, I mean, the honest thing is as Will has a habit of proposing. This is why I made the bad joke about being Ross from Friends of Grantchester, but which Emma Kingsman-Lloyd was not happy about because we are nothing like that show. However, Will has a lot of love to give and you know, he feels stuff intensely. But I think what’s good about this is they kind of had a courtship, you know, in some ways, without them even knowing, they became best friends first. And in the ‘50s, you know, that maybe wasn’t as common. Courting and marriage, there was more of a societal kind of pressure on it, I guess. I don’t know how courting happened back then as much, but the idea that you could become, you know, sort of really best friends first and then and then have this romance happen. I mean, it’s very quick, but I think the scene on the on the train station where he jokes about, you know, ‘I’m in love with you,’ and she just looks at him and he goes, ‘Too soon?’ But, you know, deep down, they know that they have love for each other as friends first and then this extra layer on top of it. It all seems to I think work quite well.

Jace And yet it takes getting stabbed and nearly bleeding out to make him realize that he does love Bonnie and does want to be with Bonnie. Why does it take that moment, that sort of brush with death to get him to finally act?

Tom When I think I think it’s you know, again, like I’ve said before, about when things become too real. Is is Will…Will just struggles with, he can he can you know, he is a good person and he can do this. He is a good person. But I think it was quite hard for him to accept the idea of being a good person in reality. And I think the the, you know, the love triangle thing he has with Maya, Ellora’s character, and it’s the fantasy versus reality. It’s he’s brushed against it and you can see what it is. But actually taking that leap and really embracing what’s in front of him and what his heart wants and needs and what is right that can not, I think, scares him quite a lot. But I think being stabbed and there’s that moment where Bonnie comes to the to the house and he he cares about her. I mean, he would care about anyone being potentially killed, but there’s this specific thing about her almost being in danger and then her being one of the first people there when he’s almost dying. And I think it just makes him realize, ‘You’ve been here all along and how stupid of me that if I die now, I may never have got to to love you.’

Jace So in many ways, Will couldn’t be further from the image of him we first saw, storming across the Cambridgeshire countryside on his motorcycle when he was first introduced. Do you see Will as finally having grown up at the end of series seven, not just sort of accepting responsibility, but making himself vulnerable enough to fall in love?

Tom I think he does. I think. I think, you know, Will’s always been quite an emotional person and vulnerable in some ways and quite open about it. But I think, you know, it’s like I said, you know, there’s one thing of kind of this surface thing, a not necessarily surface thing. But there’s one thing being vulnerable and actually allowing someone in, allowing, you know, being broken and damaged, but actually really allowing someone in fully and in a real way. And I do think that he’s at that place at the end. I mean, I’m sure he’s still got a lot of demons to sort out as Bonnie does. I think that’s also another thing is it’s you know, Will’s has a habit of accidentally kind of being a little selfish. And I think, you know, Bonnie has gone through heartbreak, and I think he’s maybe found someone…he’s found someone vulnerable, willing to be vulnerable herself as well, and they match each other in that. So I think there’s a you know, he’s done a lot of growing up. It just took a good old stabbing for him to realize.

Jace Well, it seems to connect in some way to that quote that’s framed in Edith Larson’s office. In this episode, ‘What harms often teaches,’ which seems to have a lot of meaning for the characters in Grantchester, particularly this series. I mean, is it the fact that he has sort of been harmed, that he has sort of learned through that that stabbing, that heartbreak, that those experiences? Is it that what harms does often teach and has had that effect for Will?

Tom I think I think definitely I do. And I think that’s a really good observation that that quote does work for pretty much every single character. You know, every single character has gone through some you know, whether it’s before the series even started that we find out with Mrs. C and her past or seeing, you know, Leonard going to prison, these things, these events have happened to them that have taught them so much about themselves and the world around them. But I think with anyone and this is outside of the show with anyone, I always kind of think of there being a fork in the road and how much control we have over it, I don’t know. But you know, there’s a world in which everything that’s happened to Will could just have made him a really horrible, hardened person. And there’s that, you know, there’s a world where being stabbed or just going through everything that he’s gone through would just make him, would change him in a very negative way. But I think it’s what harms what and what’s harmed him has taught him that he needs to just not shut the world out in that way or just have these strict rules and about how morals should be and everything like that and actually learn to be more accepting in some ways and yet be vulnerable. I think, you know, it’s could happen another way, but luckily it didn’t.

Jace This isn’t the first time a character of yours has been stabbed, though luckily Will survives the encounter, unlike Outlander’s Jeremy Foster. What is it like shooting a death scene or a stabbing scene like this, and what sort of choreography or specific blocking goes into it?

Tom You know, funny, it’s this. I think it’s the third time I’ve been stabbed.

Jace Oh was it?

Tom I know. I just realized that. No, I did a show called Unreal. I think it was on Hulu where, it’s a reality TV show behind the scenes thing. And my my character gets stabbed in his nether regions. So that one was tough to film. They’ve they’re all quite tough to film, really, because, you know, this this one actually was the hardest, like the blocking of it and the logistics of it were really quite tough. Outlander was great. You know, Graham McTavish just stabs me in the guts and I just have to pretend like I’m in pain and die. This one’s harder because, you know you’re stabbed. I had to fall back through this stunt and fall back onto the table, and then we had to work out the blocking there while I’m hanging on to life. It was great, actually, because we’ve got this behind the scenes footage, which I may post at some point, which is I’ve got a blood pack underneath my shirt. So we did that all in one shot. So Jim has this dummy knife in his hand and he stabs me. And then there’s someone offscreen, pumping blood around my stomach. And then they. And then you have to fall back and it’s, you know, and actually, we’ve got that in one take.

Jace Wow.

Tom Which I was really proud of. I mean, again, everyone coming together. That’s a little behind the scenes magic for you, listeners.

Jace The speech that Will gives at his wedding reception ties together all of the strands of the narrative as Will considers the nature of love in its many guises. For a show that’s as concerned with murder and morality as Grantchester is, does this speech reveal that Grantchester has been all along, a show actually about love, familial love, romantic love, platonic love?

Tom I have a completely it’s I mean, that’s the thing. It’s it’s one of those shows that, you know, of course, it’s a it’s a murder of the week show in that, but it’s never been a procedural show in the sense that, you know, you could you could get rid of the murder and you can still happily follow Mrs. C and and you know, Leonard and and that friendship and love and Leonard and Daniel and every single character and Geordie and Cathy. It’s always been about family and love and, you know, having that against sort of the darkness of murder and the darkness of loss and and that kind of thing, I think, really just emphasizes the love that we all have as characters for each other. And I think that’s always been the good juxtaposition of the show and what makes it so special.

Jace One stabbing later, Will manages to snag a bride and a child in one fell swoop. How do you see Will and Bonnie’s marriage playing out in the future, and how do you see it changing Will?

Tom Well, I see it. It’s not going to be easy as much as well, maybe slightly more of an enlightened man. In some ways. I think he’s still got stuff to deal with. And it’s like I said, this is about the relationship with Ernie is, you know, now he is actually legally a father. And I can imagine that being quite frightening prospect for Will there’s that it’s it’s all going and well being there is a sort of you know father figure in some ways but to be an actual father, I think that might be quite a scary prospect for him because I think it will probably make him think about the fact that. You know, is he like his father all along? Is that darkness still lurking within him. But I think he’s got he couldn’t have asked for a better rock than Bonnie to guide him through that and for them to help each other. And hopefully, you know, if their marriage continues, it will be a happy one. Not without its hurdles, but, you know, it’s never going to be easy for Will Davenport. Mm hmm.

Jace Will’s marriage to Bonnie also brings him closer to Geordie or Uncle George, who is technically now family. I love the final scene of series seven.

CLIP

Will You were right, you know. ‘Tell ‘em how you feel’.

Geordie Can’t go wrong.

Will I want to tell you how I feel.

Geordie It only works on women.

Will I love you.

Geordie You save it for Bonnie tonight.

Will I really love you.

Geordie Alright, I love you too son. Bloody vicars.

Jace What did the scene mean to you?

Tom Oh that scene was…that scene was so incredibly hard to film because I don’t know if you’ve realized, but I’m quite an emotional person in real life as well, and I do cry quite easily. And that was one where, you know, in real life, Robson is one of my best friends. And when we filmed that scene, it was like me and Robson talking to each other. And me and Robson do have this same kind of relationship, which is kind of best friends and brothers and father and son. And, you know, unlike Will, I have a great father in real life, but, you know, I mean, this Will doesn’t. And I think that that thing at the end of him saying ‘I love you,’ and especially two men in the fifties saying that and it just I couldn’t after that as well. Like we look up at the church – they’d call “Cut!” — and I just was in Grantchester in the same place when I did my first scene where I have the bag with a knife in where James where I go over to James and Sidney and Geordie. And I sat there looking and going ‘How far we’ve come as characters, as actors, as a family.’ It was just it was very emotional scene to do.

Jace So there were actual tears shed.

Tom Oh, my God. There’s a picture of I think of me when my face is just red and swollen from. I could not stop crying. It was one of those ones where, you know, you just see a film that where it’s like the ending of The Notebook. The ending of The Notebook is not just you don’t just cry a little bit, you sob. And it was I was just sobbing there. And. Robson — It was at the camera’s cut, And then Robson’s actually still hugging me and we’re like, you know, it was it was truly us as people in real life, like saying, ‘I love you,’ to each other. And it was yeah, it hit us hard…Robson was crying, too, by the way. I just want to add, Robson was crying as well.

Jace I figured he I figured he was as well. I mean, to me, the scene recenter is the action on the what is the central dynamic of the series, the friendship between Will and Geordie. Did it feel in some ways, like this very emotional scene could provide a fitting ending to Grantchester if there were to be no eighth series?

Tom Yes, I you know what? I if there were to be no eighth series, I think that would be a beautiful ending. But it’s hard not to kind of feel like, you know, that maybe they’ve they’ve reached a new point in their friendship and and you know, Mrs. C and her relationship with Leonard and everything is kind of got a new equilibrium. So you know if if if it is the last it would be a beautiful ending. If it’s not, then there’s more beautiful things to come. Who knows?

Jace Tom Britney, thank you so very much.

Tom Thank you so much.

Jace Normally in the calendar year, this is near the point where we say goodbye to our summer of Mystery! and look ahead to an autumn of drama. But this year — we’ve got news for mystery fans: we’re not done yet.

CLIP 

Max It is important Roy to recognize that things have changed.

Roy Very good.

Max I accept the fall. The fall was deserved. Perhaps at some level the fall was needed. What I cannot accept is how far it is being suggested that I have fallen. It’s disproportionate, it’s not right.

Jace With five more mystery series just over the horizon, the summer of mystery becomes an autumn of suspicion — and we’ll have conversations and interviews alike with cast and crew, right here on the podcast.  

MASTERPIECE Studio is hosted by me, Jace Lacob, produced by Nick Andersen and edited by Robyn Bissette. Elisheba Ittoop is our sound designer. The executive producer of MASTERPIECE is Susanne Simpson.