Grantchester: Rishi Nair Spills Secrets Behind New Vicar’s Memorable Entrance, Teases What’s to Come
The vicars of Grantchester always know how to make a first impression.
On the June 30 episode of the long-running PBS Masterpiece Mystery series, the charming Rev. Alphy Kotteram (played by series newcomer Rishi Nair) drove into town in a head-turning red convertible. Spying him trying to enter the locked vicarage in street clothes, Mrs. C reported a “swarthy gentleman” to Geordie, who interrupted the detective’s pints (and reluctant poetry reading) with Leonard to investigate.
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Geordie assumed he’d gotten the jump on a thief, while Alphy believed he was defending himself from an intruder. “It was my first day on set, and my first scene. So it’s already pretty nerve-wracking joining this big huge show, and then the first job you’ve got to do is punch the other lead,” Nair tells TVLine with a laugh. “It was quite surreal, to be honest.”
Here, Nair breaks down Alphy’s introduction to Grantchester’s residents and teases how those relationships will develop.
TVLINE | What were your thoughts when you read Alphy’s arrival in the script?
“Yeah, this is cool. I like this.” It’s quite representative of his personality, actually. He’s not afraid of what people think of him. He’s like, “I like this car. I’ve worked hard for it. I’m gonna roll in it.” And then that’s kind of how he rolls in to Grantchester.
TVLINE | Was Alphy being shirtless and flirting at a pond eight minutes into your first episode something you expected?
It was in the script, but I didn’t get the scripts until quite late. And I had just gone on holiday and, like, completely indulged and ate whatever I want. And then I came back and I remember having a meeting with the producers, and they were like, “We’ve got this scene, and it’s a shirtless scene,” and I was like, “Right, OK, cool.” Thinking I’m in an 18-week shoot, so maybe I’ve got six, seven weeks. “We’re filming it next week.” I was like, “What? You could have told me this before!” [Laughs]
TVLINE | The vicar has always been a desirable figure in Grantchester. Alphy got kissed by the eventual murder suspect (who let her father die after he’d been shot). And in next week’s episode, a wealthy married woman flirts with him as he’s trying to secure funds for church repairs. How does that fit his personality?
He’s quite cheeky. He’s a “glass half-full kind of guy,” as he describes himself. And I think he’s quite modern. He believes in marriage, but he’s not ready to get married. Before he gets married, he wants to have some fun and just be chill. He likes meeting women, so I think that’s probably something we’ll see as this series develops and in future seasons. He’s someone that uses his humor to get out of tricky situations as well.
TVLINE | Situations like at the end of his first sermon, when he thanked the congregation for the warm welcome he didn’t receive and shook their hands. Leonard appreciated how Alphy made them squirm; fans will appreciate that Alphy likes Leonard already. How do you view that bond?
Their relationship is so lovely because Leonard is the first person that actually offers friendship to Alphy in the village. That’s really moving when he comes over and brings a casserole as a peace offering. They bond because they’re both outsiders in this Grantchester world: Leonard because of his sexuality and Alfie because of his race. Leonard is quite good in offering Alfie some advice on how to deal with that. And Alphy knows what to expect: He knows people are gonna be judging him by his looks, by the color of his skin—it’s the ‘60s. He goes into everything head-first. “Killing them with kindness” is the best way to describe Alphy dealing with that kind of situation.
It was important to me to portray that stigma at the beginning, to see how people would react to seeing someone that looked like Alphy in that village, because that’s real life and that’s what would have happened. But then it was also important that the whole series wasn’t about that. We acknowledge it, and then we move on and we have Grantchester to do.
TVLINE | What drew you to the character?
I think just being so bold and standing up for what he believes in. He has his morals, and he doesn’t deviate away from them. They’re set in stone. And just to have that kind of confidence about you. There’s that great scene where he walks into the pub, and everyone just kind of goes silent and turns around and looks at him. His first response is, “Can I buy anyone a pint?” I just love that. I think that sums him up perfectly. He’s ready to tackle this momentous task that he’s been given. That part of his personality really drew me to the character, and then, obviously, working with Robson Green was a huge reason why I wanted to be a part of Grantchester as well.
TVLINE | What kind of conversations did you and Robson have about establishing a different relationship between Alphy and Geordie than we’ve seen before?
I think Alphy is probably the first person in Grantchester that, when Geordie comes and asks him for help, is like, “I’m a vicar. Why would I do that? That’s not my job.” [Laughs] And I think that’s really fun to address at the beginning. And what I really liked about our relationship is that we had a whole season to go on this journey: At the beginning, they don’t like each other. I mean, Alphy definitely doesn’t like Geordie. The first thing he does is punch him in the face. And so we start there. It gives us so much room to build on this friendship. And sometimes the friendships that you don’t see coming are the best friendships that you keep for life, you know.
They both have this kind of preconception about each other. But as they spend more time together, involuntarily, they realize that they’re actually a lot more similar to each other than they think. They both want to help others through their own mediums, and that’s what they bond over. They’re both working class as well. I think the conversations between me and Robson were just kind of working out a good way for us to not be the best of friends too early
in the season, so that’s a very gradual kind of build. And then obviously it ends with them all best friends and it’s happy families. [Laughs]
TVLINE | At the end of your first episode, Geordie asks Alphy what his big secret is. Alphy claims he doesn’t have one: His dad is an accountant, his mom is a housewife, he’s good at football and bad at math. And yet, in the trailer for the season, Alphy tells someone that he doesn’t think about the past. So, is Alphy actually going to be less brooding than his predecessors, or will his dark past just be a slow reveal?
What can I say…. Alphy’s got secrets. He’s got secrets like all the vicars, but his secrets are going to be very slowly revealed. I think Season 9 is we see him establish himself in Grantchester, and Season 10 is when all the secrets kind of unravel. However, like you pointed out with your eagle eye on the trailer, there’s little points in Season 9 where the audience will pick up that there’s something here; there’s something behind this persona that Alfie’s showing us that is quite interesting and we want to know more. What that is we’ll see later on.
TVLINE | Mrs. C and Alphy get off to a rocky start, to say the least. But it’s not too much of a spoiler to reveal that their relationship turns out to be a highlight of the season. How would you tease that?
Without giving too much away, there’s almost a motherly-son relationship that they have. And at the beginning, he’s kind of that stroppy teenager that’s like, “Get out of my space. I want to do this.” And by the end, he realizes he needs her in his life just as much as she needs him. It’s a really beautiful friendship that blossoms over the season that I don’t think any of us saw coming. But when we filmed those scenes towards the end, they were really emotional and really heartwarming.
TVLINE | Two more questions: There was an anonymous note delivered to the vicarage — a Bible page with a circled passage. Is that going to be an ongoing mystery this season?
Yes, that is that something that happens a couple of times over the season. Everyone’s confused. Funnily enough, we film [episodes] in blocks, so we don’t have [all] the scripts. So it was really easy to act confused, because I didn’t know what they meant. Every time Alphy was getting things, I was like, “What the hell does this mean?!” [Laughs] They’re very cryptic messages. We get the reveal of what they actually mean at the end.
TVLINE | And finally, do you think there’s any hope for a love triangle with Miss Scott, Alphy, and Larry?
I mean, possibly. Possibly. You never know. Because I think the scene where she flirts with Alphy, and Larry is sat right there between them, she says something like, “Oh, nice to meet you. You can call me Jennifer.” And Larry’s line is, “She’s never let me call her Jennifer.” That would be cool to explore. But whether or not that happens, I don’t know.
Want scoop on Grantchester, or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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