Is Charlotte Ritchie Leaving ‘Grantchester’ in Season 9?

Grantchester is getting a new vicar once more in Season 9. Tom Brittney will appear as Will Davenport in just a few episodes of the new season before exiting the series and being replaced by Rishi Nair‘s Alphy Kotteram. Is Charlotte Ritchie, who plays Will’s wife, Bonnie, leaving with Brittney? Ritchie has been vocal about her upcoming appearance in Grantchester Season 9, which premieres Sunday, June 16 on PBS.

The new episodes take place in 1961, when “life is good for Will and Geordie [Robson Green],” PBS describes in the Season 9 logline.

It continues: “The families are always together, from Sunday lunches to planning summer holidays, and with honorary grandparents Mrs. C and Jack and adopted uncles Daniel and Leonard; it’s one big happy family! But when Will is approached with a life-changing offer, can he leave Grantchester and Geordie behind? As Geordie struggles with personal loss and ever-growing family conflict between Cathy and teenage daughter, Esme, he has no one to turn to. But when he arrests an intruder breaking into the Vicarage, he may find his days of working with a Vicar are not over.”

Will is torn when opportunity calls. He’s not sure whether he can leave Geordie behind after all they’ve been through together. Bonnie urges her husband to follow his gut in the Grantchester Season 9 trailer, implying that a change could be good for her as well.

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“Maybe we could both do more,” she says, later urging Will not to betray his true desires to preserve Geordie’s feelings. “He survived Burma. He’d get through us leaving. Question is: do you want to?” she asks. Knowing that Will is leaving, it’s clear that the answer will be yes. And Bonnie will be leaving with him. Ritchie made that quite plain in an interview with Virgin Radio UK in February.

“I leave with [Will],” she said. “There’s a new vicar and he’s so great. He brings a very new dynamic to the village. I think that’s well needed.”

The You star noted that she’s “really sad” to be leaving such “a lovely gang,” adding that “It’s always sad” to say goodbye, “but then you remember you’re so lucky that you had the job in the beginning.”

Ritchie first joined the Grantchester cast in Season 7, whereas Brittney joined in Season 4 as the series’ second vicar. The first vicar was Sidney Chambers, played by James Norton in the first three seasons. Bonnie was less present in Season 8 as she temporarily left Grantchester to help out her parents, but she and Will welcomed a baby boy in the Season 8 finale. They’ll be taking their family on a new adventure in the new season, and Geordie will be starting his own with Alphy.

PBS describes Reverend Alphy Kotteram as someone with “an instinctive distrust for authority and absolutely no desire to get involved in murder investigations.” The description continues: “But Alphy and Geordie will discover they have a lot more in common than they first think, and Alphy will find that in Grantchester, murder is never far away. From deadly circuses, abandoned babies, and hostile historians to vanishing valets and murderous satirists. Together, Geordie and Alphy witness first-hand how religion can be corrupted but also how faith, love, and friendship can offer hope — and renewal.”

Ritchie, Brittney, and Green return for Season 9 alongside Al Weaver as Leonard Finch, Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs. C, Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating, Oliver Dimsdale as Daniel Marlowe, Nick Brimble as Jack Chapman, Bradley Hall as DC Larry Peters, and Melissa Johns as Miss Scott.

Grantchester, Season 9 Premiere, Sunday, June 16, 9/8c, PBS