‘Grantchester’s Rishi Nair Teases Alphy Bombshells to Come in Season 10: ‘Secrets Will Unravel’

Grantchester is peeling back the layers of its new(ish) vicar and revealing his “secrets,” according to star Rishi Nair. Season 10 marks Nair’s first full season (second overall) as Reverend Alphy Kottaram opposite Robson Green‘s Detective Inspector Geordie Keating. Together, they solve crimes in their village in Cambridgeshire, England. But there are mysteries left to unfold about Alphy himself. Nair tells TV Insider that withheld details about Alphy’s past will be revealed in upcoming episodes of Grantchester Season 10, experiences that, among other things, have serious impact on his budding romantic relationship with Meg Grey (Christie Russell-Brown) and force him to stop avoiding reflecting on hard times from his life before moving to Grantchester.

Alphy was born in England, but his South Asian heritage made him an outsider to some in the predominantly white town of Grantchester when he first arrived in Season 9. His racial identity was challenged again in Season 10 Episode 2, which aired Sunday, June 22, on PBS, by an Indian professor (played by Maya Sondhi), who basically believed that Alphy was being used by Geordie for diversity points. She later retracted this, saying that she was projecting her own stress onto the vicar. But Nair says this subject will continue to weigh on Alphy throughout the season.

“Season 9, we didn’t really see much of his past. Alphy spoke about it here or there, but didn’t really share too much information,” Nair tells TV Insider. “Season 10, we’ll explore his past a little bit more and maybe the things that he said weren’t entirely true and maybe he has a few secrets that will unravel.”

“Going back to that sense of belonging and identity crisis that Alphy has, in Season 10 things happen that he has to live his past again,” Nair goes on. “Without giving too much away, him having to go back to his past and face those traumas, if that’s the right word to use, really makes him look at himself inwards. And he’s never really done that before. He’s just always looking forwards onto the next thing. And in Season 10, we see him look inwards a little bit more. A lot of questions about himself and stuff that Professor Joshi says does weigh on his mind and it does affect how he maybe perceives himself or perceives others. And whether that’s correct or not, I guess we’ll find out.”

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When it comes to Meg, Alphy’s new love interest introduced in the Grantchester Season 10 premiere, “He’s serious about it,” Nair says. “He realizes that Meg is different to some of the other women that he sees, and he has a deeper feeling towards her, but it’s not smooth sailing. There are a couple of obstacles that come about that put the whole relationship in jeopardy. So it’s kind of an on-off thing, like, will they, won’t they. We’ll see if they do.”

Nair’s not just talking about Meg being the daughter of Bishop Grey (Stuart Bowman), with whom Alphy shares a troubled history. “They deal with that. It is what it is, and they move on,” Nair explains of what viewers saw in Season 10’s second episode. “What unravels later is whether Alphy actually really is in a place to be in a relationship, if he’s mentally there. Meg can recognize that in him that maybe he’s not ready to be in a relationship. That’s probably the biggest hindrance to whether that happens or not.”

Are the secrets from his past the things that are holding him back romantically? “Correct, it is,” Nair says with a knowing laugh.

Tune in to Grantchester Season 10 to find out what this charming but mysterious vicar is keeping close to his chest.

Grantchester, Sundays, 9/8c, PBS

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