This script has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.
Reverend Will Davenport came roaring into the sleepy Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester — and our hearts — on the back of his motorbike all the way back in Season 4 of Grantchester. Not your typical vicar, he arrived with a love of rock and roll and black leather, and a reckless nature not too dissimilar from that of his predecessor, James Norton’s Sidney Chambers.
CLIP
Leonard: Sidney! This is Will Davenport, Chaplain at Corpus.
Sidney: Ah, how do you do?
Will: I owe you a debt of gratitude.
Sidney: Really?
Will: Well, the dean thinks I’m a liability. But apparently you were worse, so thank you for sharing the burden.
Sidney: You’re more than welcome.
For five seasons, we’ve watched Will help Geordie solve the latest crime, deliver guidance, comfort, and direction through his sermons, and become a beloved and indispensable member of the community. But he’s also had his share of emotional hardships and personal trials along the way.
CLIP
Geordie: Is this who you are now? Popping pills and preaching sermons?
Tom: Look, I thought I could shake the guilt. But I can’t.
But just as Will puts his demons behind him and settles into a comfortable rhythm, a new opportunity presents itself — an opportunity to do greater good in the world. But it comes at a cost, saying goodbye to the found family and life he’s been building in Grantchester for years.
CLIP
Bishop Aubrey Gray: Newcastle.
Will: Newcastle?
Bishop Aubrey Gray: An inner-city position and a bigger parish with tougher challenges. It would mean more time with the needy, and less helping the law.
Will: Well, it’s a big move.
Bishop Aubrey Gray: And a quick decision.
Tom Brittney has been a multi-hyphenate on Grantchester: lead actor, director, and executive producer, infusing Will Davenport with a pathos and humanity that has been a delight to watch as Will transformed from rash youth to family man. He’s also been a joy to talk to all of these years, making numerous appearances on this podcast since his first appearance in 2019.
This week, Tom joins us for a final time to reflect on what playing Will Davenport has taught him about himself and to tie up Will’s character arc as he bids farewell to Grantchester.
Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by Grantchester star Tom Brittney. Welcome Tom.
Tom Brittney: Hello, nice to chat to you again.
Jace Lacob: So, when Grantchester was recommissioned for a ninth series, it was announced that you would be leaving. How did you come to the decision that you would be hanging up your dog collar and stepping away from the show?
Tom Brittney: Well, it was obviously not easy. There were two things. It was partly me just as an actor wanting a new challenge, I think. I’d done the show for, I think, six years. I’ve never wanted to fully work out exactly how long. But also, I felt like Will’s journey was coming to a natural end. I mean, the writers could have carried on writing stories forever, and I would have loved that, but I felt like he needed an end, some closure to his arc. And so both of those together just made me feel like maybe it was time. And like I said, it was not an easy decision, but one that I thought I had to make.
Jace Lacob: So, it is sort of six series that you’ve played Will Davenport, and during that time, we’ve seen him grow up into a mature husband, father, and man. Has Will’s journey echoed your own at all? Or to put it another way, are you, Tom, leaving Grantchester a different person than when you started?
Tom Brittney: Oh, 100%. I mean, I started when I was 26, I think, and now I’m 33. And that is quite a big age difference. I had been acting for probably about five, six years before Grantchester, but it was the biggest role I’d ever taken on, still is. And it was the first set I’d been on that I’d been part of a family. So I grew up with that family, and I grew up with Robson Green being my best friend and spending almost every single day with him. We still speak almost every single day, but we grew up together in this thing.
So I matured as an actor, I got to direct, I got to executive produce. So in terms of career stuff, I learned loads of different things that I would never have done had I just gone from job to job. But also just as a person, I think I matured in many different ways. And leaving as an actor was leaving as a family member, it was like growing up and leaving the nest. It was a very odd feeling with life replicating art of not just like, okay. We’ll still see each other again, but it felt like I was going off to university as an 18 year old or something like that, but doing it at 33. It was a huge momentous kind of feeling.
Jace Lacob: We do see Will’s journey quite clearly on screen. He arrives in black leather on a motorbike, a solo figure, and he leaves the village in an estate car, or what we’d call a station wagon here in the States, with his wife and children. What do you make of those bookended images for Will?
Tom Brittney: Oh I do love your questions, the things that you spot that I don’t even think of. Well, I mean, again, the maturity of arriving on a motorbike, which as we know, ends up causing him a lot of grief, and leaving in a family car. It’s an incredible journey to go from this, well, free spirited, tormented youth, to stability in some form in his life. And the station wagon car that you’re referencing is a Morris Minor and it’s an incredibly ugly car and very hard to drive. It’s like a tank with wooden details on it, like they used to do back then.
So you’re driving this antique, but it’s this sturdy tank going off into his future as opposed to that little silver bullet bike that he’s on. So it really does echo, I think, that he’s becoming a man. He’s a father now, a family man, and what a journey.
Jace Lacob: So I want to read your own words back to you. In our very first interview back in 2019, you said of Will, “I instantly just connected to his drive for good, and his passion, and his strong opinions. I loved that, but also with the darkness in him, the darkness that drives him. There was something that I connected to in that, and I just really, really wanted to play the character more than anything else in my life.” While time has passed since you wrapped, how does it feel to say goodbye to Will Davenport?
Tom Brittney: Makes me quite emotional hearing those back. This is the first interview, really, that I’ve done about it. We had a wrap party when I finished and they played a video from the beginning from my first series to the end and I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much.
But this was incredible to just watch all of that and I don’t think I’d fully taken it in and I still don’t think I have because it was such a big part of my life, and sometimes I think people underestimate how much, as an actor, like, I’m not a method actor, so it’s not like I’m not Daniel Day Lewis who finds this pain of letting go to a character. Actually saying that, that’s what I thought I told myself, but it was. It was incredibly painful the last time I ever put that dog collar on. And when I took it off, knowing that I would never put that back on again, unless I decide to play another religious crime fighting figure, which I might. I might do Catholic this time.
And that last take, when I knew that when I was looking Robson or Geordie in the eyes and trying to solve a crime, I couldn’t get through the last take because I knew that was the last time I was ever going to say anything as Will. And you kind of bottle it up and you go, okay, I’m off. But then you have time to sit down with it and really go, I’m never going to be on set again.
You quoting that back to me, it makes me feel emotional because yeah, it’s saying goodbye to a part of your life. And I think it’s something I will always look back on fondly. It will always be, for the rest of my existence, something that I love. For instance, a little bit of trivia here, most of us in the cast now have a matching Grantchester tattoo.
Jace Lacob: I was going to ask about the tattoo.
Tom Brittney: You know about it?
Jace Lacob: We talked about that years ago. You were planning on getting it. And I said, everyone in the cast? And you said, yes. So, tell me what is, what is the matching tattoo?
Tom Brittney: Well, we all have a little “g”, a little typewritten “g” that Daisy made. And I say “we all”, Robson didn’t because he’s scared of needles. He didn’t come and get it. But me and Al Weaver, we both have the exact same one on the exact same place on both of our heels on our ankle. So whenever we see each other, instead of hugging, we put our ankles together, and we say “tattoo brothers” and we will continue that forever, I think, until we get bored with it.
But even if I try and have a day where I don’t think about Grantchester, I have to look down at my ankle and see the little “g” and go, Oh, yeah, I played a vicar for six years of my life. I remember that.
Jace Lacob: I mean every step you take, it’s there.
Tom Brittney: Every step, oh my god, you’re wonderful, Jace. Yeah, every step I take.
Jace Lacob: Series 8 did put Will through an emotional ringer. The accidental death of a man, addiction. This arc really centered on Will’s grief and sense of guilt. For a character who has often struggled with issues of anger, it seemed as though he turned that rage inwardly, punishing himself before finally finding peace. He does end the season with the birth of his child, a father, twice over now, and he recommits himself to Bonnie and to his sons, James and Ernie, and he’s happy at the start of Series 9, settled, even. Do you feel like Will has finally left that darkness behind him, that he’s become the man that he wanted to be, a very different man than his father?
Tom Brittney: I think in both real life and in Will’s life, you never really get rid of that darkness. It’s always in you. There’s always trauma and there’s always a possibility that it can be triggered and can rear its head. But I think in Series 8, really having Bonnie be his anchor and to be his support even through that I think was just a wake up call to be like, you have you a person here. You have Ernie, you have a child on the way. You have to find a way to manage that so that it doesn’t affect you.
I think she allowed him to just be at peace and to be at peace and to love himself, I think. He was finally with someone and felt deserving of love after not having that as with his family. It’s funny psychoanalyzing a character. But it was nice that we started series nine in this place where he’s seemingly found at least within himself and this unit that he now has, to look after them and for them to look after him as he’s found some peace at last.
Jace Lacob: Will needs to be needed. His congregation, while faithful, has become rather small.
CLIP
Bishop Aubrey Gray: The world is changing. Where once people looked to the church, now they turn to the television set. Grantchester will endure, but there are less fortunate places where a boat rocker could make a tremendous difference.
Jace Lacob: What does he make of the bishop’s offer to leave the comfort of Grantchester for a position in Newcastle?
Tom Brittney: Well, at first it’s, no, of course I’m not going to take this offer up. I’ve made this place my home, my stepson goes to school here, our family is here, everyone that I love is here. But of course, that’s not really who Will is. As stable and as at peace as he is with himself, he will always be a boat rocker at heart, and will always need a challenge. And yeah, the world is changing, the church, the position of being a vicar, doing sermons to an audience that willfully listens, there’s not the challenge of trying to help people’s lives in the same way. He’s kind of completed his mission.
There will always be people who need help in Grantchester. There will always be, I assume, crimes, murders every single week. But in terms of fundamentally completing his mission, of continuing his mission of trying to help a community, well, I think when he realizes that the bishop’s offer will match up with that deep need, it makes it a lot harder to refuse.
Jace Lacob: He tells Geordie about the offer before even mentioning it to Bonnie, and Geordie sees it as already decided.
CLIP
Will: He offered me a new job, actually. In Newcastle.
Geordie: You’re kidding. You don’t want that, do you?
Will: Well, it’s quite an opportunity. But no. No, everything’s great here. Why would I throw that away?
Geordie: Exactly. Are you really going to up sticks now with James still a baby? Newcastle? Bloody hell you wouldn’t last five minutes.
Jace Lacob: Does he want Geordie to talk him out of it? Is this a temperature read more than anything?
Tom Brittney: Oh, definitely. He posits the idea of this casually, and any time Geordie challenges it, and potentially takes it seriously, Will just instantly retreats and goes no, no, no, no, no, I was just, no, of course not. Bonnie can see in him, because she’s such a wonderful supportive wife, and can see in him that he would not be happy here. That he would always be thinking “what if?”. And so she has to be the one to try and persuade him to not let Geordie’s protests or worries or anything like that, to really listen to your heart. But he’s terrified of what Geordie will think, because he knows it will break his heart.
Jace Lacob: I love that it’s Leonard that Will turns to for advice after Leonard’s own career metamorphosis. And I love the scenes that you have with Al in Series 9 because they’re all amazing. There’s so much brotherly love here. There’s so much understanding and acceptance.
CLIP
Will: Do you think someone can be fulfilled, and also be coasting?
Leonard: Isn’t that the ideal? What’s brought this on?
Will: I want new challenges. And I guess I’m just scared in doing that, I’ll let people down.
Leonard: When I left Grantchester, I felt I’d let everyone down. But I found people here who need me more. If I had stayed, I’d—
Will: You were brilliant. You’d still be.
Leonard: I’d be bitter and resentful living half a life.
Jace Lacob: Has Leonard become a role model for Will? Someone that he sees living a full life?
Tom Brittney: Yes, definitely. And Will says as much to Leonard in how proud he is of his transformation, to have gone through everything he went through and continues to go through. Leonard has not picked an easy path, and he strives every day to help people, but in a different way, because he wasn’t allowed to be a vicar or a chaplain anymore. He wasn’t allowed to be part of the church. So he didn’t let that destroy him as a person, he found a new way to still help. And he didn’t let anyone down.
And I think Leonard’s advice is the one he trusts the most because if Leonard had maybe spoken to him and told him not to go then maybe he would have thought… he wouldn’t have gone. But Leonard encourages him knowing that he will be doing the best thing for both himself and everyone else, and it wouldn’t be if he stayed. He would not be being true to himself and Leonard has continued to be true to himself, no matter what obstacles have been put in his path.
MIDROLL
Jace Lacob: Will’s world changed the moment the bishop offered him the job. Even if he had turned it down and stayed, things wouldn’t be the same for him. The offer itself forever alters the way he sees his comfortable life in Grantchester. Did any of that resonate with you at the time, standing on the threshold of leaving?
Tom Brittney: Definitely. I mean, it was again Daisy and the writers writing in and Richard who wrote the first episode, wrote in my actual real life dilemma. Well, I didn’t have a bishop figure necessarily in my life. Maybe my agent, maybe that will be the comparison. But it wasn’t anyone giving me another offer. But there was the opportunity for a different life and being true to myself and this fight within me to want new challenges, exactly the same as Will.
And it was the same. It was the same as me talking to my fiancée and kind of saying, Is this the right decision? And is this what I should do? And her saying to me, Yeah, be true to yourself, you know. And you won’t let people down. It was exactly the same. I was so worried about letting people down. I was so worried because I would go for meals with Emma and Daisy and try and figure out a way if I could carry on.
I was trying to figure out if maybe I could, but then without affecting anyone else. It was like, well, look, if I can go and do another film, can we move the dates? And it was like, no, I can’t make this about me. This is not about me. This is about the whole family of Grantchester. This is much bigger than me.
But I also had to make a decision, I was worried the show wouldn’t be able to, and this is not me being arrogant, the show can definitely go on without me, but I was worried that I would destabilize it in some way, that everything that they worked towards I would destroy, so it was exactly the same as what Will was going through. I’m glad they wrote that in, in a way, because it was cathartic to go through that, and to kind of get a weird sort of therapy of the characters making me feel okay about a real life decision.
Jace Lacob: I love that. I mean, acting is therapy. And you can channel that and they literally put it on the page for you, which is, I think, amazing. And there is an emotional resonance, I think, that shows here. It’s pretty incredible to see. And he ultimately does accept the bishop’s offer, choosing to use the gifts he’s received to serve others.
Bonnie wants Will to tell Geordie before the removal van turns up, but he just blurts it out during the investigation itself. He says, I’m leaving. I took the job in Newcastle. I changed my mind and I took it. I was trying to find the right moment, but there never seems to be one. And Geordie doesn’t react. How does Will read Geordie’s curt silence in this scene?
Tom Brittney: That he doesn’t care that actually all of this worry about Geordie, you know, he would have pictured in his head I’m sure, Geordie screaming at him, Geordie being disappointed. And we all know with a parent or a loved one that anger isn’t the scariest thing, it’s them being disappointed. All of these scenarios he would have had in his head, none of them existed. It was just this muted, numb response. And so Will just takes that as a complete affront that I’ve been worrying about this the whole time, he doesn’t even care.
He would rather he had an argument with him. He wants to kind of almost goad him into reacting, like, show something because surely you care! And so it just makes Will spiral slightly into not knowing what to do now. He feels guilt and shame but can’t address it.
Jace Lacob: I mean, it’s devastating that he just sort of casually brushes it off. Though it’s clear, we know at home that he’s hurting inside. When the two of them finally do talk about Will leaving, Geordie’s reaction is brutal, “You’re being selfish, putting yourself first like you always do, not giving a damn about those left behind.” And then he goes and childishly, or some might even say selfishly, blurts the news out to everyone else. How betrayed does Will feel? How hurt?
Tom Brittney: Oh, immensely, because it’s such a childish reaction to go and blurt it out. You can only have one chance to break that news to people. And it’s done in such a brash way that Will is furious. And rightly so, because Will’s only considered, more than anyone else, he’s only considered Geordie’s feelings, more than his own wife and child. So it’s not selfish.
And actually for the first time, I think, of course he’s doing it for himself in a way, of course, it’s like we’ve discussed, of course he’s going for these new challenges, but he’s got the support of his wife and it is upending their life and uprooting their life and taking them somewhere new, but he has gone through the pain, more than he has with any other decisions, in which he’s normally quite impulsive.
He’s actually really given this thought, and for someone to just put it down to being selfish, and completely misunderstand this. Because Will makes such an impassioned plea, to really say, please, I just need your approval. Please, that’s all I need. And he won’t give it to him and then goes and acts out like that. So it’s an incredibly devastating way for it to be received.
Jace Lacob: Will’s final sermon is a thing of beauty and filled with tears. We see how much Will has grown up here. He says, “I will cherish the friendships I’ve made here for the rest of my life.” How tough was it to get through this scene?
Tom Brittney: Oh, incredibly. I was doing it looking into the eyes of Tess and Nick and Al and the rest of the congregation. I mean, even the supporting artists were people that I’d known since my first series. There’s a moment in the script that he cries and he goes, I’m sorry, this wasn’t supposed to happen. And it would happen on cue. I’d find it incredibly hard to try and keep myself together through it enough to be able to say it. Because it was, I would look in their eyes and say, my friends and my family.
And also just the building itself. I remember when I finished it and that was the last time I was ever in that church. I went into the church on my own afterwards, and I just said, thank you. Thank you for letting me be here. It was very hard to say goodbye. And like I said, even just knowing that I wasn’t ever going to do a sermon ever again. Yeah, it was a lot to take in.
Jace Lacob: Leonard’s goodbye kills me.
CLIP
Leonard: You’ve made me a better person.
Will: I think you did that all by yourself, Leonard.
Leonard: I thank God for you every day, I really do.
Jace Lacob: What do these two men ultimately mean to each other? Are they, as Will says earlier, brothers, if not by blood, then by choice?
Tom Brittney: Well, they are by blood. I mean, he gave him a blood transfusion when he was stabbed.
Jace Lacob: That is true!
Tom Brittney: And I forgot that as well. And I think it was Al that reminded me. They’ve been through so much, I mean, God. I don’t know if MASTERPIECE hint hint are going to do a montage of Leonard and Will, only to start from punching him in the face in the first series to the end. I mean, like, what a journey they’ve been through. And also, in Series 8, when they have this confrontation, Will has let down Leonard terribly, and he just goes, you are, I can’t remember the line exactly, but paraphrasing, all you think about is yourself.
Leonard has arguably been through far more personal stuff than Will has, having gone to prison for who he is. And that’s not even counting the stuff before Will came to Grantchester. And he’s put up with a lot from Will, which family does, which family does. Only family really can, and those true friends that you have who really stick by you through thick and thin. For us to both have matching tattoos, I found a real life brother in a way through the show.
Jace Lacob: And then we come to the final scene. Geordie is nowhere to be seen, and for a second I thought they wouldn’t have a proper goodbye. But Will stops the car, Bonnie gives him permission to go find him, and he finds Geordie in the meadow.
CLIP
Geordie: Meeting you, it’s been a godsend. You’re a godsend, Will. You saved me, you have. When I’ve struggled, when I’ve been down, you saved me, and I’m so grateful. I am so goddamned grateful. You have my blessing, that’s all I’m trying to say. Whatever you want to do with your life, you have my blessing. I love you.
Will: I love you, too.
Jace Lacob: And it’s such a beautiful scene. It’s so full of love and sadness. What was it like filming this final scene between Will and Geordie, between you and Robson?
Tom Brittney: Well, as you were asking the question, I did have to wipe my eyes a couple of times. Me and Robson, we had a scene I think in series six, and our characters had fallen out and we were not speaking and there was a scene where we leave the police station and I walk off and I think I turn back to say something. And we just say goodnight, I think. And I remember me and Robson, we cried doing the rehearsal of that. We were like, oh no, why wouldn’t they talk to each other? And we both wept. We were like, what is happening to us? This is weird.
So if you can imagine what that was like, versus the last time that our characters will ever be together and having to say the words, “I hope I made you proud.” God, it gets me every time. Like, now I find it incredibly hard. And I know it’s not real. I know all of this isn’t real. But we have never cried so hard. And we both had to keep holding each other.
Seeing Robson Green break down, and not in a funny way, like not in kind of like, oh, this is so sad, like actually both of us going, this is horrible. And me going, God, have I made the right decision? It was the singular most hard thing to do. And that line, that line in particular,
CLIP
Will: I hope I made you proud.
Geordie: Every day son, every day.
Tom Brittney: God it broke me, absolutely broke me.
Jace Lacob: There is so much embedded in this final conversation about love and acceptance, about fathers and sons, about the people who come into your life unexpectedly and transform you for the better. As a final scene for Will Davenport, are you satisfied with how it sums up his journey as a character, with this as the final image, the final shot?
Tom Brittney: It’s beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful because Will has had daddy issues since day one, has been driven by this thing. And like I said before, he didn’t get to have that with his real father, who he did not love. He loved in a way that you do, I guess, reasonably unconditionally, but he never got that love or approval back. And so with Geordie, the circular notion of getting that approval, and how much they have grown together, how much they’ve been through and how much Will has taught Geordie and how much Geordie has taught Will. They’ve both grown so much as characters.
And I was just thinking in my head, I was thinking about the moment in series 7 where Will is dying, we think. And he goes, “Just hang on, just hang on, Bonnie needs you, I need you.” And I remember that, because again, it was just how much they’ve got this kind of, you know, they don’t really talk about their emotions too much. Will’s the emotional one, Geordie keeps it in, but they’ve bared their souls to each other and they do have this need, this deep need for each other. So I thought that scene was just beautiful. It couldn’t have ended any other way.
Jace Lacob: So, here’s the advice you told me that James Norton had for you. He said, “Have fun. You’re part of the family now. Keep your phone in your top pocket of your vicar costume so no one can see it when you have it on you. And the third one was, Pretend like you haven’t heard Robson Green’s stories a hundred times when he tells them. And that one was the most useful piece of advice.” How do you react to that advice hearing it back now?
Tom Brittney: Well, that last one was definitely the first piece of advice I gave Rishi. That will carry on as long as anyone works with him, pretend you haven’t heard his jokes before. How does it feel hearing that again? It was, yeah, I carried that on the whole time. I hid my phone in my pocket, like James said, and I had fun. And I was part of the family. So his advice was very good.
And I’m trying to think of my advice to Rishi. I think it was mainly to put the vest stock on before the trousers, it’s easier to tuck in. That was my advice. But no, it was nice to be able to do that baton passing and try and say the same which was you’re part of the family now. I remember when he came on set for the first time and that was the closest to having a baton passing which was, this is your new vicar and, you know, it’s over to you. It was just nice to be able to do that.
Jace Lacob: What does Grantchester ultimately mean to you? What do you take away from it as an actor and as a human being?
Tom Brittney: I learned how to be a lead actor. I learned how to be responsible on a set. I learned all of this from Robson. I was walking into a set that already had a precedent for being a place that people wanted to be, whether you were coming in for one line or a bigger part, it was always known for being that kind of job. So, I learned how to just be a better actor too.
I think you lead from the top in a sense of always trying to make sets a home and that’s something I’m going to carry on to every single job, no matter what size role I have. This industry can be kind of brutal and sets aren’t always the most fun places to be. First world problem, you know, I’m so happy to be on them, but I think that they’re not always the most creatively fulfilling places. And so it’s something I just want to carry on, the Grantchester spirit in everything else.
I had a family that I will continue to have outside of the show, and a support network that I didn’t have, that we’re all in this together, both as actors and just as human beings. It was just the first time I had a kind of group of friends, really. My friends in my real life are all kind of scattered. And this is the first time I’ve got a gang, a gang. The roughest gang in England. No, we’re a good, supportive, loving gang. And so that’s what I’ve taken away from the thrill ride that was Grantchester.
Jace Lacob: Tom Brittney for today and for all of these years, thank you so very much. It’s been a pleasure.
Tom Brittney: Thank you so much Jace for being the best interviewer I’ve ever had. You’ve made this journey with Will much better. It’s been great.
Jace Lacob: Oh, thank you. Thanks, Tom.
Next time, Grantchester’s new vicar gets a lukewarm welcome.
CLIP
Alphy: I’m not giving you my name.
Geordie: Right, that’s it.
Alphy: That’s my radio and it’s my house!
Geordie: If this was your house, that would make… you… oh God.
Alphy: Not quite, but you know, on speaking terms.
Geordie: You’re the new vicar.
Alphy: I’m the new vicar.
Join us next week as we talk with the new vicar himself, actor Rishi Nair, and writer Daisy Coulam about Alphy Kotteram and what lies ahead for Season 9.
