The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of cosy mystery crime fiction books of short stories by the British author James Runcie, [1] beginning during the 1950s in Grantchester, a village near Cambridge in England. The books feature the clergyman-detective Canon Sidney Chambers, an Honorary Canon of Ely Cathedral.
The first volume in the series, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, was published in 2012. [2] [3] The book comprises six short standalone mysteries. The second, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night, was published in 2013. [4]
The books in the series include:
A total of seven books have been written so far, with the latest being a prequel. The series was inspired by James Runcie's father, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. [5]
In 2014, some of The Grantchester Mysteries short stories were turned into an ITV drama titled Grantchester . [6] Filmed on location in Grantchester, Cambridge, and London, the initial six-part series was shown in the UK in Autumn 2014. [7] A second series was broadcast in 2016, and has been ongoing since. [8]
Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh.
Agatha Christie's Poirot, or simply Poirot, is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. The ITV show is based on many of Agatha Christie's famous crime fiction series, which revolves around the fictional private investigator, Hercule Poirot. David Suchet starred as the fictional detective. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. The series also aired on VisionTV in Canada and on PBS and A&E in the US.
Grantchester is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about two miles (3 km) south of Cambridge.
Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett, known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small stories. He subsequently played the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who from 1981 to 1984.
Rebecca Louise Front is an English actress, writer and comedian. She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for The Thick of It (2009–2012). She is also known for her work in numerous other British comedies, including the radio show On The Hour (1992), The Day Today (1994), Knowing Me, Knowing You… with Alan Partridge (1994), Time Gentlemen Please (2000–2002), sketch show Big Train (2002), and Nighty Night (2004–2005).
Robson Golightly Green is an English actor, singer-songwriter, and television presenter.
Kudos is a British film and television production company. It has produced television series for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Amazon and Netflix and its productions include Tin Star, Humans, Broadchurch, The Tunnel, Grantchester, Apple Tree Yard, Utopia,Spooks, Hustle and Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. In 2007 it was voted Best Independent Production Company by Broadcast magazine. Formed in 1992, since 2007 it has been part of the Shine Group. In 2007 it also set up the film unit, Kudos Pictures. In 2011, the Shine Group was 100% acquired by News Corporation and was part of the 50-50 joint-venture Endemol Shine Group. On 3 July 2020, France-based Banijay bought the studio through former's acquisition of Endemol Shine Group.
Alexander Paul Weaver is an English actor and writer, best known for his role as curate Leonard Finch in the ITV series Grantchester (2014-present).
Tessa Peake-Jones is an English actress who has appeared in The Danedyke Mystery (1979), Pride and Prejudice (1980), When We Are Married (1987), Up the Garden Path (1990–1993), So Haunt Me (1992–1994), The Demon Headmaster (1996–1998), The History of Tom Jones: a Foundling (1997), Summer in the Suburbs (2000), Poppy Shakespeare (2008), Doctors (2009–2011) and Unforgotten (2015).
Gary Beadle is a British actor.
Zoe Telford is an English actress.
Morven Christie is a Scottish actress. She is best known for her roles as Alison Hughes in the BBC drama The A Word, Amanda Hopkins in the ITV drama Grantchester, and Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong in ITV crime series The Bay.
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was an American writer and short fiction anthologist. He published in almost every genre, but is best known for his work in the crime, mystery, western, and horror fields. His non-fiction work has been published in such publications as The New York Times and Redbook.
Julie Graham is a Scottish actress from Irvine, Ayrshire. Her credits include Taggart (1986), The Fruit Machine (1988), Nuns on the Run (1990), Harry (1993–1995), The Near Room (1995), Preaching to the Perverted (1997), Bedrooms and Hallways (1998), Some Voices (2000), At Home with the Braithwaites (2000–2003), William and Mary (2003–2005), Bonekickers (2008), Doc Martin (2011), Tower Block (2012), The Bletchley Circle (2013), Shetland (2014-2022), Benidorm (2016-2018), Doctor Who (2020), Queens of Mystery (2019–2021), Midsomer Murders (2023), and Ridley (2023).
James Robert Runcie is a British novelist, documentary filmmaker, television producer and playwright. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a visiting professor at Bath Spa University and was Commissioning Editor for Arts on BBC Radio 4 from 2016 - 2020.
James Geoffrey Ian Norton is an English film, television, and stage actor. He is known for roles in the television series Happy Valley, Grantchester, War & Peace and McMafia. He played the title role in the 2019 film Mr. Jones. He earned a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2015 for his performance as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley.
Grantchester is a British ITV detective drama set in the 1950s in the Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester. Its first series was broadcast in 2014. The first three series featured Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers ; subsequent series have featured vicar William Davenport. Each of them develops a sideline in sleuthing with the help of Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, played by Robson Green.
Thomas Michael Carter, known professionally as Tom Austen, is an English actor, known for his television appearances portraying Jasper Frost on The Royals and Guy Hopkins on Grantchester.
Daisy Coulam is a British television producer and screenwriter known for creating of the long-running murder mystery series Grantchester for ITV in 2014.
The Church of St Andrew and St Mary is a parish church of the Church of England located in the village of Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, England.