TV News: Grantchester Start Date

The new series, Grantchester, based on the first book in James Runcie's Sidney Chambers series, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death begins on ITV, Monday 6 October at 9pm.

There is a huge billboard outside the train station I use:

From the Radio Times:

Happy Valley actor James Norton will star alongside Robson Green for the six-part series, which is set in 1950s Cambridgeshire.

Adapted from the novel, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie, the series is written for ITV by Daisy Coulam, who has previously scripted EastEnders and Casualty.

Set against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester, the drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers (Norton), a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.

Soldier Soldier star Green plays plain-speaking, over-worked police inspector, Geordie Keating, whose methodical approach to policing complements Sidney’s more intuitive techniques of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects.

Executive Producer Diederick Santer says of the series: “Grantchester is a real labour of love for me and [production company] Lovely Day. Sidney is a charming, but complex character, a man of faith burdened by his past despite a distinguished wartime record, he’s funny, dashing and inquisitive. He loves being a parish priest in the exquisite village of Grantchester, but somehow it’s not enough and he still finds time to fall in and out of love and solve crimes.

Reviews: Carol, Chambers, Dicker, Francis, Hodgson, McGrath, Ridpath, Runcie, McCall Smith

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Michelle Peckham reviews Watch Me by James Carol, the second in his Jefferson Winter series set in the US;

Amanda Gillies reviews Kimberley Chambers' Payback, set in London's East End;

Laura Root reviews Joel Dicker's much talked about The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair tr. Sam Taylor;

Susan White reviews Felix Francis's Refusal which sees the return of Sid Halley;

Terry Halligan reviews the CWA Historical Dagger winning The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson;

Michelle also reviews The Bone Seeker, the third in M J McGrath's Edie Kiglatuk series set in the Arctic;

Lynn Harvey reviews Michael Ridpath's Sea of Stone, the fourth and latest in his Icelandic series featuring Magnus Jonson;

Terry also reviews James Runcie's Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil the third in the series (and soon to be an ITV series)

and I review the audio book of Alexander McCall Smith's The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection read by Adjoa Andoh.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

TV News: Grantchester (based on James Runcie's novel)

ITV released a press release yesterday about a new six-part series, Grantchester based on Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, the first in the Sidney Chambers series by James Runcie.

“As a priest, isn’t everything our business?  There’s no part of the human heart which is not our responsibility” – Sidney Chambers

ITV have today confirmed James Norton (Death Comes to Pemberley, Rush) will play the role of Sidney Chambers in new six-part drama Grantchester produced by Lovely Day. 

Robson Green (Reckless, Wire In The Blood) will join him as plain speaking, over-worked Police Inspector, Geordie Keating.  

Set in 1953 in the beautiful county of Cambridgeshire, Sidney’s unlikely partnership with gruff, down to earth Geordie is central to Grantchester.  Geordie’s methodical approach to policing complements Sidney’s more intuitive techniques of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects.  

They are partners in crime and forge a true friendship as each offers a different insight into the crimes they begin to unravel.

Set against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester, the drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.     

A tall and handsome man with a love of warm beer and hot jazz, Sidney is self-effacing, great company and a true romantic.  He conscientiously undertakes his parish duties at the church of St Andrew and St Mary’s, and has the ear of his congregation who respect his unique moral insights and dry humour.  Sidney thinks the best of people, but intuitively asks all the right questions which often results in an epiphany!  

 

Troubled by nightmares and recurring flashbacks to the time he served in the Scot’s Guards, Sidney is the moral compass of the drama with a desire to put right the wrongs of the past  – “we cannot erase our pasts however hard we try.  Instead we must carry them with us into the future.”

 

Read the whole press release here.

New Reviews: Charlton, Connor, Lemaitre, Lipska, Muir, Neville, Runcie, Solana, Voss & Edwards

Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime this week:

Geoff Jones reviews Karen Charlton's The Missing Heiress, the first in the Detective Lavender series set in 1809;

Amanda Gillies reviews Alex Connor's Memory of Bones, which revolves around Goya's skull;

JF reviews Pierre Lemaitre's Alex, tr. Frank Wynne, concluding her review with: "An absolute gem of a crime novel that is wonderfully dark, scary, mad, bad and dangerous to know, but just far too good to miss...";

Michelle Peckham reviews Anya Lipska's debut, Where the Devil Can't Go which she very much enjoyed;

Laura Root reviews TF Muir's Tooth for a Tooth the third in the DI Gilchrist series set in St Andrews;

Lynn Harvey reviews Stuart Neville's Ratlines stating that it is "a convincing magnetic thriller";

Terry Halligan reviews the Father Brown-esque Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie;

I reviewed Teresa Solana's The Sound of One Hand Killing, tr. Peter Bush on the blog last week

and Rich Westwood reviews Louise Voss and Mark Edwards's All Fall Down, the second in the Kate Maddox series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Some Publishing Deals News from LBF

Here are a few publishing deals announced at the London Book Fair. From The Bookseller:

Hodder has acquired world English rights to a standalone horror novel by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Editorial director Suzie Doore bought the rights to Blessed are the Children through Petur Mar Olafsson at Bjartur & Verold, with plans to publish in trade paperback for Halloween 2012. The title tells of three friends, terrorised by the ghost of a drowned child while they renovate a derelict house.

World rights for two crime novels were also bought for Arcadia's Eurocrime series. Cold Hearts by Gunnar Staalesen will be published in autumn 2012. The thriller is about a series of murders in the Norwegian city of Bergen. The other crime book is The Iron Chamber by Matti Joensuu, bought from Hanna Kjellberg from the Otava Agency. The book is about a series of mysterious set of murders in Finland. It will be published in autumn 2012.

Bloomsbury has acquired world rights in a series of six crime novels by Bath Literature Festival director James Runcie. Group editor-in-chief Alexandra Pringle scooped the series through David Godwin. The books will feature character Sidney Chambers, honorary canon of Ely Cathedral, as he works with friend Inspector Horatio Keating to unravel case after case. The first title, Grantchester Murders, will be published in May 2012.