Saintly sleuth

CLOSE on the dog-collar of 1950s amateur sleuth Father Brown (Mark Williams) comes Cambridgeshire vicar Sidney Chambers, who just happens to be a heavy-drinking war hero and jazz fan, who's always catching the ladies' eye – remarkably similar to Lucien Blake (Craig McLachlan) in the The Doctor Blake Mysteries.

While the plot adapted by Daisy Coulam from James Runcie’s books treads remarkably familiar territory it’s nice to see Yorkshire born and raised James Norton in the starring role alongside that old North-East warhorse of drama Robson Green as the crusty police detective with no time for an interfering whippersnapper.

Norton says of his role: "Everyone thinks he must have got away with not fighting in the war or was a padre. But Sidney has taken human life and probably had more than his fair share of horror. Like many of those brave men he was a hero but that came with an immense cost, reflected in his drinking and troubled romances."

The village of Grantchester is the setting for sinister goings-on and, of course, starts in 1953 allowing seven years of good old-fashioned plots before rural life has to shudder into the Sixties? "Grantchester is so much more than a bog standard murder mystery because it doesn't shy away from the issues of the period that are also relevant now. For example, a story about euthanasia.

"This is a time when homosexuality was still illegal. You could be sent to prison and spend long periods of time in solitary confinement. It's good to remind people how recent that kind of prejudice was, how far we've come and how positive that is. Also, the murders are never meaningless. They're murders of passion, love, loss or jealousy. You're always watching a story about real people and real lives at a time when the death penalty and hanging was still in force."

First case for the minister meddling in police affairs is the supposed suicide of a solicitor, whose funeral Sidney presides over. Following the ceremony, the cleric is approached by the dead man's mistress, who is convinced her lover was murdered - and as she feels unable to go to the police with her suspicions, she asks Sidney to carry out his own investigation.

But will he still feel like sleuthing after Amanda, the fun-loving friend he's secretly carrying a torch for, announces her engagement?

After all, as Norton is keen to point out, even the vicar isn't immune to those pesky passions that are raging in Grantchester: "Sidney is flawed. He steps out of line a lot."

The Kitchen (BBC2, 9pm)

CALLING something the next Gogglebox is hardly helpful in my book, but the three-part fly-on-the-wall series sees eight families recorded as they sit, eat and chat together in a room that is often the hub of the home. It's August, and we are introduced to the Barry-Powers blended family from Cardiff, as mum Louise tries to find a way to keep five hungry children happy. In Staffordshire, the Harrars wax lyrical about their favourite Punjabi recipes, and there's also a look at the lives of three fitness fanatics, two pensioners, three generations living under the same roof, and two other clans. I’m sure not one of these people will be playing up for the cameras.

New Tricks (BBC1, 9pm)

MORE family worries for Steve McAndrew (Denis Lawson) as he decides to bring his dying father to a London hospice. How much free time Steve will get is limited by a new case involving the murder of 55-year-old interpreter Agnes Bradley. A DNA sample matches a teenage boy who once committed a petty crime as a dare. The teen's mother was a rape victim, and the team begin to wonder if the culprit and the killer they're looking for could be the same person.