抖森曾经是渣脸在rada的导师,不过我猜是客座的。Fresh from his dark and brooding turn in War & Peace – and currently shorn and menacing inHappy Valley – actor James Norton returns as the sandy and reflective Reverend Sidney Chambers in Grantchester.
But the second series takes a darker turn when the vicar finds himself at odds with his best friend, Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green)…
What do they fall out over?It’s to do with a moral standing over a particular issue. Back in those days people were still hanged and there’s a storyline where their attitudes towards capital punishment – and with someone on death row – conflict. Sidney and Geordie find themselves sitting on different sides and they can’t reconcile their views.
Not even over a game of backgammon and a whisky or two?They sit there and try, but it’s that horrible thing when a friendship falls apart. You start to see the early warning signs and you ignore them thinking you’ll both get over it. But slowly it becomes more and more serious. But it’s not only Sidney and Geordie’s relationship that is thwarted, but also his relationship with the rest of the characters like Mrs Maguire and Leonard.
With everything going on in his life, does Sidney find his alliance with God is fairly shaky at times?Absolutely. And I think that’s what is so wonderful about the character that he’s like so many of us. We know how we should live our life, but we fall so far from it – we get distracted or tempted off the path. For Sidney, because of his faith, the ultimate aim for a good life is so much greater and therefore the fall is so much further.
With all your recent success, do you find you get recognised more?Not really, especially not when I’m out on my bike or walking the dog where I live in London. Also, my classic thing with these parts that I play is that my hair always changes.
Is your Sidney look your natural one?My hair isn’t dissimilar to this, but it’s much fairer. I keep getting redheads coming up to me and accepting me into the ginger ‘brotherhood’. I don’t quite know what to say or how to take it because I don’t class myself as ginger. Not that I have anything against anyone ginger!
It feels like the world is your oyster at the moment, are there roles you’d like to play or people you’d like to work with?I’m aware that, other than Happy Valley, I’ve done quite a few period dramas. I’d love to do another play, so there’s been some talk about that. But it’s about being brave enough to start to say no to more stuff and then have the choice. Maybe a film.
Do you keep in the back of your mind that you don’t want to be typecast?Yes. The privilege of our job really is that you get to embark on all these different journeys and explore all these different worlds and mind-sets. If you start to play the same role over and over again it gets mundane. And, monotony is the short cut to a fast forward of life.
Do you know guys like Benedict Cumberbatch who’ve gone to Hollywood?Tom Hiddleston was my mentor at drama school – so he’s the most hard to contact mentor ever because he’s so busy!