This article contains mild spoilers for Grantchester season 7 episode three.
The third episode of Grantchester season 7 highlights mental health, society’s continued failures to help the homeless, and the struggles of a cancer patient. The episode also highlights Tom Brittney’s emerging talent as a director.
How did this come about? Brittney’s interest in directing was teased on the MASTERPIECE Studiopodcast last year. ‘It’s quite funny, actually, because often he’s directing himself,” said Grantchester creator Daisy Coulam. “So he’ll be behind the camera in his dog collar, and then he’ll step in front.” Brittney first admitted to wanting to direct while drinking and hanging out during the Season 6 development process. Initially, he proposed sharing the director’s chair with Al Weaver, but for logistical reasons, that plan was scuppered. Directing 7x03 was the easier path forward.
Will’s manpain about breaking up with the already engaged Maya (Ellora Torchia) may seem like an unnecessary plot point to introduce Episode 3, but it’s key in terms of allowing Brittney to have more time to orchestrate what’s going on behind the scenes by having the supporting cast carry the episode.
Al Weaver as Leonard really benefits from the script decentering Will. The case of the week starts with Leonard finding an unhoused man dead outside The Cherry Orchard Cafe as Leonard’s getting ready to open up. He feels guilty about the man dying alone and not getting help beforehand, so it is Leonard who assists Geordie to help unravel the mystery of what happened. Leonard goes with Geordie to interview other people sheltering outside to identify the victim. This article won’t spoil the whodunit, but the suspected killer ends up coming back to the scene of the crime later on and orders coffee from Leonard. The case developments make Leonard realize that he wants to do more with the cafe; he wants to be able to help the less fortunate as he used to do as a curate.
Leonard also plays a key role in the storyline that is the emotional heart of the episode. Mrs C. (Tessa Peake-Jones) who is usually prone to bouts of anger, really isn’t acting like herself. She’s forgetting pies in the oven, insulting children, and not cleaning up the vicarage kitchen. Mr. C suspects she’s having an affair based on her appointment book. Leonard spies on her receiving a visit from a man and then confronts her. She admits that she hasn’t been having affairs but is undergoing tests regarding her ovarian cancer diagnosis. In fact, she’s so scared to tell her husband about the news that she tells Leonard what’s really going on instead. More than ever, it’s clear Mrs. C sees Leonard as the son she never had.
Her outburst at the fancy restaurant is the best scene in this episode, and it makes clear that the trust Brittney has forged between longtime colleagues and friends is key in how these scenes are staged. Mrs. C has decided to live as if there is no tomorrow. She has also, in one episode, gone from the most religious and traditional of all the characters to the most atheist. Although fans will remember the “up your bum” outburst most, the key to that scene is the staging. There’s controlled chaos in the background as the other dinner guests have to react to Mrs. C breaking the social contract. The camera focuses on Mrs. C before moving to show the diners’ confusion and disapproval.
The episode also reveals that the very religious Mrs. C viewers know and love was not always this way. She got pregnant at 14 and had an illegal abortion (the UK law would not be reversed until 1967). Although she survived the procedure, she was unable to have another child. Mrs. C. sees ovarian cancer as punishment for what she did as a teenager and believes God has abandoned her. Mrs. C’s prayer turned shouting match at God is set up in a way that outmatches all of the previous scenes where characters have prayed for a solution to their problems.
Even though Will isn’t at the center of this episode, he is doing more than moping. Bonnie (Charlotte Ritchie) asks Will if he can talk to her son Ernie (Isaac Highams). Ernie carved the initials “E.E.” in the church pew. Mrs. C calls him wicked for doing so but it’s clear that Ernie was trying to mourn the loss of his dad in his own way. Will shows Ernie his motorcycle and they pretend to ride it. Will eventually convinces Ernie that his dad’s illness was not his fault. The birth and death years are added to the initial carving to form a permanent memorial. Directing child actors is always a special challenge, and these scenes are particularly impressive for Brittney’s directorial debut.
Beyond directing himself, and working with children, this episode is also a master feat in logistics as Brittney revealed in an interview with UK magazine 1883. "For Grantchester, normally, like with the last season because we were doing eight episodes, we do two, four-episode blocks. So you’re filming four episodes at the same time. If you’re filming at the police station, you can be doing five scenes that day, all from different episodes…” Brittney said. “It can become a mess in your head. But then with this series, we’re doing six episodes again, and there was a director who was doing the first two episodes and I’m doing episode three. And so he would direct in the morning and I’d direct in the afternoon.” It’s likely that many of these scenes for 7x03 were shot over several days if not weeks of filming.
Brittney isn’t the first actor on Masterpiece to step behind the camera and direct. Shaun Evans has directed three episodes of Endeavour: “Apollo” (6x02), “Oracle” (7x01) and "Striker" (8x01). In fact, Brittney has said Evans’ was his inspiration on the same MASTERPIECE Studio podcast episode referenced earlier: “I knew that being the lead in a show, and knowing that Shaun Evans in Endeavour was doing it is that I thought… I might as well take a punt at asking because it may be the only time I get to step on the directing ladder.” It’s clear that Evans and Brittney share a love of their respective roles and have taken ownership and leadership on set to the next level.
Based on 7x03, it’s safe to say that if Grantchester does get renewed fans should hope that Tom Brittney gets another chance to direct an episode. His knowledge of the story and the internal workings of the series clearly shines through. In addition, it would be nice to see women and BIPOC actors from MASTERPIECE shows follow the actor-director path.
