I love it.

The main reason I am addicted to it is due to Robson Green. Just something about that guy....

I could watch him forever!

And then I remembered the episode.

Yes, he is a superb actor. Did you see him in Happy Valley?

My husband found it and now we're both watching it!

I LOVE IT! The scenery (it's a real English town!) the buildings, the characters, the acting, in short: everything!

The Only problem I have is that sometimes I cannot understand what they're saying. Usually I can, though.

Great little show. We've seen the first two seasons and soon Netflix will send us the third. There may be a fourth, but that's uncertain now.

I lived in Haslingfield which is a couple of miles across the fields from Grantchester. The village is very much as you see - even the village pub shots are filmed in the actual village pub. The meadows by the river that often feature are immortalised in the Pink Floyd track Grantchester Meadows.
It's also home to the disgraced tory politician Jeffrey Archer and his "fragrant" wife.

That's how addicted I am! I hope they have a fourth. I don't want it to end!

But it might.

Oh well.

In the old days, everyone would speak a standard upper class English. Lately they are going more authentic and letting the speech be Northern, or Cockney, or Irish, or whatever.

Good for authenticity. Bad for us Yanks who can't process it as fast as it is spoken! We frequently put on the CC so we can read what was said. Helps a lot!

Also look at the Apps of Britbox and Acorn. All British.

I actually watched 3 TV series with complete captions. Wallander, The Bridge (Sweedish) version and Tunnel on PBS (You have to pay Pbs extra for these.

The main character is probably a bit more liberal than a 1950s small-town English vicar might have been, but it's an enjoyable series. The only thing is that this little country village seems to have a worse murder rate than Mogadishu. Another British series, Midsomer Murders, is like that, too - in a town that's probably smaller than Podunk, Nebraska, people are constantly getting murdered in strange ways and for weird and complex reasons. But what the heck, it's entertainment.

was also like that! Seemed like it must have had the highest per capita murder rate in America.

of ridiculous to have so many murders in such a small, rural area. Same w/ Miss Marple and all the other English murder mysteries. However, I am willing to suspend belief in the spirit of entertainment. They are all so well done and the characters are all so quirky and charming.

villages around Oxford and there are a lot of them. May have just a pub and a shop or two but they are many.
It is really fun to find the places on google that are in the movies. I found almost every site in the series on Amazon, Fortitude.

I get the DVDs from my wonderful library.

What Korean dramas are you into? I love Korean horror films.

and so many convoluted intrigues between all the characters that something new and unexpected is always happening. The ensemble casts are huge, and the story lines generally focus on a specific type of Korean business or culture. The plots usually start with the cute, plucky girl who is poor and meets the handsome rich guy who is cold and self centered. The don't hit it off but fate keeps forcing them together and inevitable love bloom despite snooty inlaws, coworkers and dangerous threats.

While watching the story unfold I also learn a little about Korean food, their obsessions with brand name merchandize, the fashion industry, music, or film making. They all seem to love drinking... a lot. I like seeing how they live, the differences in mundane things like bathrooms or kitchens. There must be restrictions on how much intimacy they can show, but its amazing how one sweet, seemingly chaste kiss, can still convey powerful emotions.

I can't wait to see what happens next. I really want to see Sidney with Amanda.

sure. I'm neutral on the whole Sidney and Amanda thing. I'm excited that Leonard may finally be coming to some sort of acceptance re: his spirituality vs. his sexuality. It's a brilliant show, and packed with exciting story lines.

What a repressive society it was back then.

Her husband, Guy, will have to die. The Church would never let him remain in the clergy and marry a divorced woman with her husband still living.

I'm thinking that is their only hope.

Since Mrs. M remarried, I'm guessing it was because her husband died. So this would be a way for Sidney to marry.

Still, it reminds me of all the man-made rules some churches impose and how much I hate organized religion.

Amanda has come a long way.

In the first season, she was like this stunningly beautiful angel, flying in and out of episodes, conducting a fairly chaste friendship with Sidney, seemingly aloof from the cares of the world.

In the second season, she comes down to Earth a little, as a troubled woman who shoplifts to give her life some excitement.

Now she's a single mother who can't seem to get her life together.

She's still amazing to look at. So breaktakingly gorgeous, she doesn't quite seem real...

My heart breaks for Leonard. He's so sweet, so lonely, so lost. I can hardly get my head around the fact that being gay was not simply looked down upon in England at that time; it was actually against the law...

It is so tragic the way gay men were treated back in those days. I really want him to have a happy ending.

At first I didn't think Amanda and Sidney seemed right for each other, but now they are starting to grow on me as a couple. I wish they would end up together too. Sidney is just the most beautiful man - I think I am a bit in love with him.

I can't figure it out. If I looked like him, I wouldn't ruin my looks by smoking. And the way I know this is: I don't look anything like him, and I still don't want to ruin what little I've got by smoking...

yet. Back then, I think a lot of people smoked, so I suppose they were a lot more used to the smell. You will notice that a lot of them smoke.

I can tell when someone is smoking in another car on the highway, for Pete's sake. Being in a room where everyone is smoking is intolerable...

glamorous and sophisticated. It was so common that probably everybody smelled bad, either from their own smoke or other people's, and hardly anybody noticed. I grew up in the '50s and '60s and I remember that everybody had multiple ashtrays set out in their living rooms. My parents didn't smoke but a lot of their guests did, so we always had ashtrays ready for them. People smoked in restaurants and bars and everywhere else. There were ashtrays by the doors and the elevators in office buildings. You'd see piles of cigarette butts at bus stops and other places where there weren't ashtrays. At work, people smoked at their desks in offices until smoking was prohibited in public places starting in the '70s. When I started going to bars in the '60s, I'd have to take a shower and throw my clothes in the wash as soon as I got home because the smoke smell was overwhelming. It was everywhere.

An old aircraft mechanic told me it was a lot easier to find pressurization leaks before they prohibited smoking on airplanes because you'd see the brown streaks on the exterior fuselage.

My father was career Army, and he had to defer to higher-ranking officers and their wives. If they were smokers (neither of my parents were) it was expected that they could smoke in our house, and we had to have ashtrays available. My parents always sent us to bed before the social event began. But the living room always smelled bad the next day.

Even when I was a kid, it seemed strange to me that the non-smokers had to defer to the smokers, even though it was the smokers who were engaged in an invasive, unpleasant habit.

he captures this character so well, so believable. My heart aches for him (and I know this is just TV!)

What do you think of Mrs. M? Of Geordie?

They are both complicated characters for me. I don't love them, but they have their moments.

He's done this to his wife before and he just can't seem to change. It makes me not like him but I realize that he is human.

I like Mrs. M. She always has Sidney thinking about the public eye, which was important back then. They have made her more lovable in recent episodes.

I think it was when Geordie wouldn't go home when his baby might have been dying really made me dislike him. I thought he was so selfish. Even Sidney said so. Then the affair topped it off. He just seems like a weak, selfish person to me. Although even he has his redeeming moments.

I find them more interesting than American TV.

It's so worth the small amount for a subscription.

is a horrible villain in the Netflix series "Happy Valley," also an excellent show. So he's not only impossibly handsome, he's also a versatile actor, not typecast by his looks.

I can't imagine him as a villain, but it will be interesting to see!

he's a super-duper villain

As is typical of the British TV we get here; the scenery, sets, costumes are just marvelous. There is real character development to a depth that is seldom seen in U.S. TV. The plots are great and the underlying themes are so real. I can't say enough good things about the series. We can't stream because of strict data caps so we have to wait until PBS runs it. What we are to get soon is Endevour, the young Morse. We like it a lot. Earlier we had Prime Suspect: Tennison which gives a view of the young Jane Tennison which became the Tennison played so well by Helen Mirren.

I also plan to watch Prime Suspect. PBS is so wonderful! Midsomer Murders is great too if you ever get a chance to watch it.

I loved Endeavour and Inspector Lewis and many of the short ones that were only like 3 episodes.

but they are 1 1/2 hours long and 19 seasons

I love both of the Prime suspect series. I didn't think I would like the older version with Helen Mirren . it is on Hulu now. I also love Endevour plus the new Prime suspect. Check out the apps of Acorn and Brit Box.....I am watching everything British plus three series in Sweedish, French and Danish. They go slow enough to where it is easy to keep up with.

But now I'm spooked that people get killed on a regular basis in the English countryside (even though I know it's not true) and it's one of my favorite places to visit. I guess I will just have to take my chances.

celebration of some type. many more people at the event than live close to the village. Thats OK, gotta start somewhere.

I don't know what I am going to do when I have watched all the British mysteries. I am saving Taggart as my last one and after I have watched the 109 episodes, maybe there will be more programs or episodes especially from the new Prime Suspect. Especially with Stefanie Martini being very easy on the eyes.

I'm wondering if it is coming back next season; this season ended with her telling her vicar love that he must choose between the church and her before slamming the door! He is TOO handsome and sexy ----- to be a vicar, but I love him in the series, love Geordie, and the other actors! And I ALWAYS love the quaint English village scene in any story. The backstories of the assistant vicar, Leonard, and the secretary's life make the central story more interesting.

Nice background information and I am thrilled to hear there is a prequel in the works!

Thanks for this.

Nice to know a bit of the author's history.

He has said to have married them despite private reservations that they were ill-suited to one another. He was born in 1921, and was 60 when he married them in 1981. Died in 2000.