Airdate: Grantchester

Later this month ABC premieres new ITV series Grantchester, based on the books The Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie,

Starring James Norton and Robson Green, it is set in a 1950s Cambridgeshire village, pairing a sleuthing priest with a reluctant detective.

It’s 1953, and Sidney Chambers (James Norton) is vicar of Grantchester, a village just outside Cambridge. Sidney’s is a quiet life. Or at least, it has been – right up until the moment that murder comes his way…

Joining Sidney as he journeys into this dark world is the affable but world-weary Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green). They are partners in crime and forge a true friendship as each offers a different insight into the crimes they begin to unravel.

Sidney Chambers has lost track of time, having spent a glorious morning with his fun-loving friend (and the woman with whom he is secretly in love) Amanda Kendall (Morvern Christie). Racing to church, Sidney arrives just in time to minister at the funeral of a local solicitor, although his poor time-keeping earns the disapproval of his punctilious housekeeper Mrs Maguire (Tessa Peake-Jones).

With the death a suicide, Sidney does his best to comfort young German widow Hildegard Staunton (Pheline Roggan), but is soon called away from his normal duties when the glamorous Pamela Morton (Rachel Shelley) asks to draw Sidney into her confidence. She reveals that she was having an affair with the late solicitor – and that far from being a suicide, she has reasons to believe that he was in fact murdered.

With Pamela unable to go to the police, she asks Sidney if he would be able to look into the matter for her – after all, people confide in vicars, don’t they? However, Sidney’s investigation quickly draws him to the attention of DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green), who doesn’t really appreciate the clergyman sticking his nose into things he doesn’t understand. But Sidney isn’t to be shaken off too easily – particularly when he begins to uncover evidence that the suicide was staged.

However, whilst Sidney is focused on getting to the bottom of the alleged murder, his own world is shaken apart when he receives news that Amanda has become engaged – it seems that Sidney has missed his moment. With his heart breaking, and his theory about the murder seemingly coming up short, will Sidney be able to work out who killed the solicitor before the killer strikes again?

8:30pm Saturday February 28th ABC.