The eighth season of the ITV drama begins airing on 11th January 2024, but the following ninth season has already begun filming and will mark the departure of Tom Brittney as Will Davenport<\/a>.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be replaced by a new vicar \u2013 Alphy Kotteram, played by Rishi Nair. Speaking to Radio Times<\/strong> magazine, Green \u2013 who plays DI Geordie Keating \u2013 touched on the impact of Alphy\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter [Geordie and Alphy] first meet, Geordie\u2019s wife Cathy (played by Kacey Ainsworth) asks him what he\u2019s like, and he says, \u2018He\u2019s got a good right hook, and that\u2019s all I know.\u2019 So that\u2019s the \u2018in\u2019 for the episode.<\/p>\n \u201cMrs C (played by Tessa Peake-Jones) refers to him as \u2018a swarthy gentleman, not from these climes\u2019, so we deal with that.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole peaceful, hospitable village is flipped on its side as people\u2019s true thoughts and feelings are laid out on the table. This new energy has entered the village.\u201d<\/p>\n Nair will be the third actor to co-lead the series opposite Green, following Brittney \u2013 who joined Grantchester in 2019 \u2013 and James Norton, who played the Reverend Sidney Chambers from the show\u2019s inception in 2014 until 2019.<\/p>\n Green recently touched on the future of the detective drama<\/a>, insisting that he would remain part of the cast for as long as series creator Daisy Coulam stuck with it.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019m an executive producer, and at the beginning we knew we had something special and that would float the audience\u2019s boat, but we never realised how popular it would turn out to be and how well it would be received around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as long as Daisy [Coulam] is at the helm with [executive producer] Emma Kingsman-Lloyd, and as long as we have cinematographers and lighting designers at the top of their game, and we\u2019re all still enjoying it, long may it continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n The new issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now. Grantchester season 8 will premiere on<\/strong>\u00a0Thursday 11th January 2024 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to visit Death in Paradise locations in Guadeloupe at a discount?\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times is offering savings of up to 7% for registered users booking their next holiday with travel website Expedia.\u00a0<\/strong>Claim your exclusive Radio Times Expedia holiday discount now<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Rishi Nair is joining the ITV series as charismatic vicar Alphy Kotteram. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42654,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/grantchesters-robson-green-says-cast-change-injects-new-energy-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Rishi Nair is joining the ITV series as charismatic vicar Alphy Kotteram.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Robson](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/grantchesterseries806-3c14ef1.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"grantchester_series_8_06\\"\/")
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