Meet the Real Vicar of Grantchester
After experiencing the long-running TV mystery series’ filming on church grounds since 2017, the real vicar of Grantchester has insider stories to tell! In a conversation with MASTERPIECE, Reverend Rachel Rosborough reveals what she has in common with the show’s fictional vicars (far more than you’d guess!), whether she’d be a good detective, and more.
What are you most asked in regard to the TV show’s filming in Grantchester?
People ask if it’s really my home that’s used [for the vicarage]. It is, but only the outside is filmed, not the inside, so people are fascinated by that. … There’s this amazing company that supplies what looks like real climbing branches and silk wisteria. It’s all attached to the guttering and side of the house. It’s lovely to watch them do it, actually. It really does transform the place.
And I’m asked about whether I’ve met the actors. And they are great, actually. I would say cast and crew have worked really hard, in my experience, to be part of the village and get on with people. And we’ve had some social things in the pub afterwards with them and stuff like that.
Have you ever been an extra during filming?
A number of times! My husband and I, the first time we did it, we were just congregation members. We were sitting there when James Norton was filming his final scenes, so we heard his last sermon. It was funny because I wear glasses, but I can’t wear them for filming because they’re modern frames. I had to take them off. Every now and again, somebody would ask me something. James [Norton] was up front and he asked, I don’t know, a point of clarification or something, but I didn’t know he was looking at me, so it was all a bit kind of confusing.
Are there any similarities between you and Rev. Will Davenport? For instance, do you have friends in the police department?
I do! The very weird thing is that he’s probably amongst our closest friends in the village; he’s a retired detective. So, we have joked that if we had the wherewithal, we probably ought to put some spoof sketch together where we go around solving crimes. … I don’t have a dog. I don’t have a motorbike, but I had a moped. And I’m occasionally known to be in the pub. We’re spoiled for pubs in Grantchester.
Along with pubs, your village seems to also have a fair number of murders—at least on TV.
Yeah. Thankfully, the crime rates in Grantchester are probably the most different thing to the show. We don’t have a lot of crime.
Would you be a good detective?
I would, actually. I’m endlessly interested in people and so I tend to find things out. But I don’t think I would want to do it particularly. I think it’d be very hard work. But yeah, as a vicar, I find things out.
When the crew shoots on church grounds, what has to happen on your end?
We basically make the church and churchyard available Monday to Friday for a week. We close to the public and there’s a lot of equipment. It’s never impacted weekends for us. They’ve always cleared up really well and gone away again by the time we meet on a Sunday. … The locations crew always ask, are we allowed to do this, that, or the other in church? And generally, we are able to say yes. Once they needed to have three motorbikes in the church. Was that going to be okay? And I was like, okay, yeah. We just try to make it work really.
We hear there’s a life-sized image of Grantchester’s main characters in the church vestibule.
They’re just at the back of church—it’s like a pull-up banner. It’s from when James Norton was leaving and Tom [Brittney] was arriving. So, there’s actually the three of them [including Robson Green]. People really like going in and seeing some evidence of the TV show. … While we move them around the corner for weddings and funerals, one bride actually did confess that she really is very fond of James Norton, and would it be inappropriate to be looking at the banner while she was getting married to her husband?
What’s been the effect on your church of so many years of filming there?
Definitely more visitors and mainly international visitors, particularly Americans. … And that’s great for the church. I mean, the church is open every day during daylight hours and it’s just lovely to have a church that’s got people coming in. Our visitor’s book is full of lovely comments, not just about the TV show, but about their experience of coming into an open traditional English church. I suppose there’s lots of village churches in the country and not many with a TV show named after them, so that’s good.
And of course, financially we benefit from it. Not only to do work like improve our lighting and sound system, but we’ve also been able to give a proportion of that income to charity. So being able to be a bit generous as well as improve things for us is great.
The Reverend Rachel Rosborough is currently Vicar of St. Andrew and St. Mary’s, Grantchester and of St. Mark’s, Newnham. In September 2023, she will be moving on to become Vice-Principal at Westcott House, Cambridge.
