Grantchester Season 6: Everything We Know About the Next Season
Grantchester returns to MASTERPIECE on PBS for its 6th season, premiering Sunday, October 3 at 9/8c! Find out more as series creator, head writer and executive producer Daisy Coulam reveals exciting news about future storylines. Plus, she and cast members Robson Green (Geordie), Tom Brittney (Will), Tessa Peake-Jones (Mrs. C) and Al Weaver (Leonard) tease the upcoming season, share hopes for their characters, and react to our suggestions for a new sleuth at the vicarage…and a potential murder victim!
- 1.
What we can look forward to in Season 6?
ROBSON GREEN: Well, let’s just say Geordie and Will, two kindred spirits, go AWOL and go down a really destructive path together. So who’s going to save their two souls?…The great thing with Daisy, just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it does, and it’s all to do with her writing. She’s a genius.
DAISY COULAM: Season 6 is going to be kind of game-changing for a lot of our characters—we’re going to put them all through the wringer this series. And it’s a big series for Leonard, where we’re going to take him to some quite dark places. Basically, we’re going to do a couple of quite big stories for our central characters that pull everyone into them. So it’s not separate strands—each strand will affect all of our lovely characters. It’s going to be emotional for all of them! I’m quite excited, actually, about the series. I feel like it could be the height of Grantchester.
MASTERPIECE: What new developments might we encounter now that Will is finally sexually liberated?
DAISY COULAM: Maybe I should just say that there’s going to be a woman who impacts his life, not in a relationship way, but in more of a family way, and that’s going to be quite fun…So there’s going to be relationships, a lot of love affairs and maybe something serious. Who knows?
TOM BRITTNEY: I don’t really know. We have only just started speaking with the producers about storylines, and from the little bits they’ve told me, they’ve got a pretty good season in store so far. All I know for sure is that Leonard is going to get a really good storyline, from what I’ve heard. Obviously, every other character will, as well, but there were some bits that came out in the last series that I think can really be pushed further in this next series. Yeah, I’m excited. And I’m excited to see what happens with Will now that he’s sexually liberated!
AL WEAVER: Obviously it’s one of those things that you don’t know how much you can say, but suffice to say that Leonard’s whole world blows up. I’m really, really excited to get cracking on it!
- 2.
What are your hopes for your character in Season 6?
AL WEAVER: Well, I’d like to see him be happy, eventually. But it’s a two-prong question, because there’s me, Al, what do I want as an actor from the stories, which we discussed. I had some ideas, and they thought about the same thing, so that’s where we’re going with him in Season 6. And it is really, really exciting. It’s such a good journey and I’m really happy. And it also kind of makes sense for him. I think it’s going to make sense, but he’s got to grow. And there’s some really good stuff coming up in the next season. I can’t wait to film it.
TOM BRITTNEY: It’s so tough because, as much as I know Will inside and out at the moment, I also really love being surprised by the writers. And it’s hard when they say, “Where do you see Will going?” or “What would you like to see happen?”…After what happened in this last series, it has brought Will and Geordie back together in the end, I’m looking forward to just that fun element. I think because of what was happening this series, it took a toll on our friendship. I’m looking forward to having it back and stronger than ever, and seeing where that takes us.
TESSA PEAKE-JONES: I have wondered about something in her past coming back, something perhaps that she’s never spoken about that comes back to haunt her. Whether somebody comes back to the village, or perhaps does a slight blackmail with her, or there’s some part of her life she’s never shared that then comes. It would be nice to think there was some sort of, not exactly secret, but something she’s walked away from, that perhaps comes back to meet her. And that might be interesting, partly because it would be great to play the guilt of it, and to see how she’d worked her way around it.
- 3.
Can Mrs. C start solving crimes, too? Would she be good at it?
TESSA PEAKE-JONES: Well, she’s quite bright. She knows Grantchester very, very well, as she’s been there all her life. So I think if it was [a question of] where could somebody hide a piece of evidence, she might be quite good at that. She’s quite organized, she’s very bossy. She might boss people into giving clues up. So, yeah, I think she might well be quite helpful!
AL WEAVER: Would she be good at solving crime? I think she would, actually, because she wouldn’t take no nonsense. It’d be like good cop, bad cop. I’d be the good cop. Actually, I did sort of suggest the storyline involving me and Mrs C on a bit of a detective hunt around the village, so fingers crossed, they put that in…Obviously, because of the structure of the show and the nature of it, it’s Robson and Will doing their thing. But, we can be inventive, I think.
DAISY COULAM: Oh my God, she would, actually. She would have some good insights. Okay, yes. I’ll try and weave that in. No, you’re absolutely right, because she would see things other people wouldn’t see, I think. She’s quite perceptive.
MASTERPIECE: Imagine being questioned by her!
DAISY COULAM: You would cave in a minute, yeah. Oh, she’s so brilliant. Love her!
- 4.
If you're looking for a new murder victim, might we suggest St. John Gurney-Clifford (SinJin)?
DAISY COULAM: Yes! He’s got a big cross on him, hasn’t he? But what a lovely man the actor, Dominic Mafham, is. I think what we’re very lucky with on this show is that it has good reputation amongst actors as being a nice place to work. So everyone that comes on board, we seem to get nice people. Everyone’s kind of jolly. But yeah, St. John, maybe we should. And then how many suspects would there be? Like hundreds.
TOM BRITTNEY: He could be murdered. I don’t know if there’s any theories about him—I know I had my own theories about what he would turn out to be. And although at the end, I seem a little bit more forgiving and more open to seeing what he’s like, I wonder if there are any dark parts to this person, and that maybe Will was right. I’d also like Will to be proven wrong, and that he turns out to be a really lovely man who treats my mother really nicely. That would be good. But, hey, Grantchester does love their twists.
