ITV's Grantchester welcomes Hollyoaks star to its cast for new series

It’s the end of an era – the Rev Will Davenport is about to move on to pastures new.

“I’ve had the most incredible time playing Will for the last five years,” says Tom Brittney. “I got to solve crimes with my best friend, and work with the best cast and crew I could ever ask for. I’ll miss it more than anything. But it’s time for the baton to be passed, as it once was to me.”

How will Grantchester cope without him? Well, it’s survived a previous clerical change, when Sidney Chambers (James Norton) left during the fourth season, but it’s always a worrying time when such things happen. Fans are left asking, ‘will we like the incoming replacement character?’ ‘Is the axe about to fall on the show?’ and other such questions.

We won’t have long to wait for the answers, but it’s Will’s best mate, police officer Geordie Keating, played by Robson Green, we should perhaps be most concerned about. He doesn’t take the news well.

“It’s all about Geordie projecting onto Will how it’ll all play out,” claims the veteran star. “He’s thinking Will is doing it for selfish reasons, rather than reasons of broadening one’s horizons. And Geordie is very spiteful and selfish about it all. He tells Will about the damage he’ll do to his adopted son Ernie and all his friends, and how it will affect Cathy and the family, how it will affect the other characters. Geordie thinks it’s such a selfish act. And therefore, when Will is asking Geordie for his blessing, Geordie doesn’t give it.”

Viewers will be pleased to know, however, that the characters don’t part on bad terms.

“The words were so beautiful,” explains Green. “It was me looking him in the eye and saying, ‘I’ll miss you.’ It’s like a living bereavement. But again, we’re not only saying goodbye to Tom, we’re saying goodbye to that beautiful character who’s brought so much to the series.

“And we’re saying goodbye to that relationship between two men who genuinely love each other. And so it wasn’t a difficult scene to do. It was so easy to play the reality of the situation because we were genuinely saying goodbye to each other. So there was no acting required. I was in bits.”

No doubt everyone watching will be too, which perhaps puts more pressure on Rishi Nair, the former Hollyoaks and Count Abdulla star, who will be playing the vicarage’s next resident, Rev Alphy Kotteram. Not that he seems daunted by the idea of filling such big shoes as those worn by Brittney and Norton before him.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Grantchester,” says Nair. “The welcome and support I’ve received from everyone has been overwhelming. The success of the show and the reason we are here for a ninth season is a testament to all the people that have previously worked on it. I cannot wait for the Grantchester fans to meet Alphy and to see all that’s in store for him.”

The feeling is, without a doubt, mutual. After all, as one door closes, another opens…