By Lacy Baugher for Drama on January 21st, 2016

‘Grantchester’ Season 2 US Premiere Date Set for March

James Norton and Robson Green in "Grantchester" Season 2. (Photo: Courtesy of Des Willie/Lovely Day for ITV and MASTERPIECE)
James Norton and Robson Green in "Grantchester" Season 2. (Photo: Courtesy of Des Willie/Lovely Day for ITV and MASTERPIECE)
James Norton and Robson Green in "Grantchester" Season 2. (Photo: Courtesy of Des Willie/Lovely Day for ITV and MASTERPIECE)

Good news mystery fans – the highly anticipated second season of popular series Grantchester has a US airdate!

Based on a series of novels by James Runcie, Grantchester follows the story of a charismatic clergyman who turns accidental crimefighter when one of his parishioners turns up dead. He joins forces with an overworked police inspector and the pair form an unlikely crime-solving partnership and friendship.

Season 2 will officially kick off in the US on March 27, on PBS stations nationwide and air Sunday nights through May 1. The premiere date was announced during the PBS portion of the bi-annual Television Critics Association Press Tour, during which all the major networks present programs from their upcoming schedules.

Stars James Norton and Robson Green are back as Sidney Chambers and Geordie Keating, while Tessa Peake-Jones, Morven Christie and Kacey Ainsworth are also all listed as returning.  And Dickens too, of course – which is the cast member most people were probably concerned about, right?

Here’s the official word, straight from the PBS Pressroom Twitter: 

#GrantchesterPBS featuring @JGINorton & Robson Green returns to @masterpiecepbs for season 2 on March 27. #TCA16 #MysteryPBS

— PBS PressRoom (@PBSPressRoom) January 18, 2016

Last season saw Sidney and Geordie cement a fast friendship over backgammon, ale, their war service, women problems, and obsession with solving the baffling homicides that crop up in and around Cambridge -- including nearby Grantchester, where Sidney is the village vicar. 

They make the perfect team: Geordie is a working-class police inspector who understands the criminal mind, while Sidney studied for the ministry at Cambridge University and uses his fellow feeling for humanity to get perpertrators to own up to their misdeeds.

Per the official Masterpiece site, the new season's cases include a shocking charge of sexual assault that turns into a homicide investigation implicating a pillar of the community; an apparent suicide from the college spire that takes on Cold War overtones: a confession to murder in which the alleged victim is still very much alive; a haunted stable with links to the Holocaust and more.

Thoughts, folks? Who’s looking forward to more Grantchester? 

By Lacy Baugher for Drama on January 21st, 2016
Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

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