‘Grantchester’s Tom Brittney on That Surprising Finale: ‘We Had as Much Secrecy as Marvel’
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Grantchester Season 7 finale.]
The vicar of Grantchester is a bachelor no more.
In a whirlwind season finale of the Masterpiece Mystery! series on PBS, Tom Brittney’s young and restless reverend, Will Davenport, married Charlotte Ritchie’s spirited widow, Bonnie Evans. The wedding was filmed on location in the English village where the show is set, and Brittney tells TV Insider that it took some subterfuge to keep the surprise ending under wraps.
“We had a fake bride, and between scenes, I would put on my cassock, so it looked like I was just officiating another person’s wedding,” he says. “Then we would sneak Charlotte into the church, away from the photographers who come to take photos of us while we shoot. We had as much secrecy as Marvel.”
Not to mention desserts that looked delicious even if the cast couldn’t eat them. “And I still hold on to some anger towards that,” Brittney quips. “But me and Al [Weaver, who plays Leonard] have quite a bad habit of eating any food that’s on set, so they’ve often had to spray it with a slightly poisonous spray, which makes it look very nice but makes it very inedible.”
At least the characters enjoyed the reception. Will’s wedding means that his crime-solving colleague and best friend, police detective Geordie Keating (Robson Green), is now a relative by marriage since Bonnie is the niece of Geordie’s wife Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth).
Geordie, who was the best man, toasted the newlyweds by saying, “The only thing better than having Will as my friend is having him as part of my family.”
But, as Will recounted in his own speech, it took a near-death experience for him to realize that he loved Bonnie. Earlier in the episode, he was brutally stabbed by a prospective seminary student who turned out to be a serial killer.
“The moment I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Bonnie was the moment I thought I was about to die,” he told the assembled guests. “I was lying there feeling sorry for myself, and I realized that the things I regretted in life were not the things I’d done but the things I hadn’t. Because I’d been scared that I wouldn’t know how to love, or to be a father, or to even be myself without some cause to fight for.”
Tom Brittney and Charlotte Ritchie (Kudos Film and TV Ltd)
Of course, the final scene was reserved for the pair who remain Grantchester’s supercouple, Will and Geordie. As they hugged and professed their love for one another, the seventh season, set in 1959, came to an emotional end.
Brittney, who made his directing debut with this year’s third episode, was pleased that Will decided to settle down with Bonnie and become a stepfather to her son Ernie (Isaac Highams).
“What I love is that she’s not afraid to call Will out for who he is,” the actor says. “Will claims he’s got his strong beliefs, but I think he needs someone to keep him in check and go, ‘Underneath you actually might be more of a complex or fractured person than you think you are.’
“I was thinking there was a possibility they might not let me survive,” Brittney adds. “But doing the wedding and the wedding party afterwards, it was so lovely to see Will happy after everything that happened.”
But how long will his joy last? Although Ritchie is scheduled to return for Grantchester’s eighth season, which has already started filming, a release from PBS says that “a terrible accident” will send a despairing Will on “a dangerous downward spiral.”
Grantchester, Season 7, PBS app and Masterpiece Prime Video channel
Robson Green
Tessa Peake-Jones
Kacey Ainsworth
Al Weaver
Siobhan Redmond
Sorcha Groundsell
Hannah van der Westhuysen
Lauren Carse
Jemma Redgrave
Oliver Dimsdale
Nick Brimble
Ross Boatman
Paula Wilcox
Bradley Hall
Jim Caesar
Jack Donoghue
Abraham Lewis
Barnaby Taylor
Skye Lucia Degruttola
Rishi Nair
Melissa Johns
⨁Full Cast & CrewWhere to Stream
Conversation27 Comments
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Too soon to kill her (or Ernie) off; will be quite displeased if that’s the « terrible accident » of the Season 8 opener. Someone in script-writing better be listening, ahem…….do NOT turn this wonderfully human, unfolding series into a soap opera!
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The producers and writers have once again gone mad!
They previously rushed Sydney into a relationship as a way for the actor to exit the series.
Now, Will's whirlwind relationship has him getting married.
I know the audience is expected to suspend disbelief, but "Grantchester" goes way too far!
UGH!!!!
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I totally agree that after one date with Bonnie while having an affair with another engaged woman Will decides after being stabbed he loves her and they marry! I thought they'd just start seriously dating in Season 8. Also does anyone else recognize the actress who plays Bonnie as the beloved brunett midwife character, Barbara, in another favorite PBS show Call the Midwife who was killed off from a terrible disease shortly after she married that town's minister. Let's hope Bonnie doesn't suffer a similar fate as Barbara.
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T
What surprised me was that there was *no time at all* between the proposal and the wedding, not even a subtitle announcing a time lag, not even a "Later...."
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O
I agree. I also didn’t hear a proposal, only an I love you.
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C
The whole season was stupid. Cancer, crazy sex-cape with top cop’s pointless fiancé, and then a near-death and a wedding without anything to lead up to it. This was jumping the shark big time!
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Bonnie is Cathy's SISTER
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Yes, I was pretty sure she was too.
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I thought she was Cathy's sister's daughter, hence, niece.
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G
I was confused about that. At first I thought she said sister, then she kept calling Geordi Uncle George, and it wasn’t like she was saying it to her son….
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Bonnie was the daughter of either Kathy’s brother or sister. Hence Uncle George.
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O
I really miss the slow building relationships and story lines of the earlier seasons. Watching this episode felt like the show had suddenly been canceled and they were, all too quickly, trying to wrap things up.
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G
Would love to see more mystery and Gordy and Will doing detective work. Less personal drama
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I used to get irked almost every week about how ungrounded in reality they show was and how antithetical to religion, until I finally realized this is a program about a man’s struggle with inner demons. First Sydney, now Will, wrestle with their problems, using liquor and sex as an escape, and the hypocrisy of representing God and offering his comfort can not be lost on any of the audience.
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P
Using spoiler alert does not help when you select an image from the show that depicts what the surprising ending was.
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I was really disappointed. As soon as I realized that he was going to go catch Bonnie at the train station, I thought - excellent - we will have another whole season with them getting to know each other! Instead they jump right over all the good part directly to the serious part. We missed all the fun!
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Hated it - they have tried everything to have Will in a romance but the actor does not connect with any of the actresses they paired him with- and certainly not this one- rushed, made no sense, like the exit of Sidney- this "terrible accident" will probably leave Will a single father- not great for the character or the series. But when a series runs out of steam , bring on a child!
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D
Glad I didn't come here before watching tonight's finale.. It could have worked as a series finale but glad it isn't...
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I was afraid the wedding would turn out to be Will's dying dream and the ending would be Will's funeral. This was much better. And so glad Will didn't take off around the world with that slimy pig. Next season's accident? Oh no. I fear it might be Geordie. Yes, the series is unrealistic. But it's a great escape and so much better than the garbage served up on American TV.
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How on earth was this kept under wraps when it runs so much earlier in the U.K.?
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I missed seing Georidie and Kathy reunite
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Loved every minute!!!
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U
I liked it. Will in his way is as much of a lost soul as was Sidney, but being such different characters it only makes sense that there be a much different outcome, Sidney leaves for a new world while Will makes ties with his existing community. This season seemed quite contrived @ times, manipulating the characters like chess pawns, but the finale brought their conflicts home in a big & satisfying if unlikely crescendo. It will be a different show next season, as when Sidney left & I look forward to it. Life in Grantchester changes but goes on. Glad they didn't kill any of the recurring characters for gratuitous shock, still cozy after all these years.
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I was happy..the Vicar is adorable...but the drunken Horn Dog needed to end!
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Underwhelming. No chemistry between the two characters. Hopefully “the accident “ will take care of this wedding misstep in an otherwise interesting and well developed show. Maybe bring back the nun, with Will’s child.
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The real problem with this season has been the over-emphasis on religion. Can you imagine all that overlay with the earlier seasons? Everybody seems to be talking about losing and re-gaining their religious belief. This season sounded like some “family” series on a religion channel. Let’s get back to the wonderful combination of heart and grit from the earlier seasons with a complex vicar like Sydney.
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No no no . Don’t kill her off .
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