Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Grantchester

We wrestled with PBS and finally won the right to watch "The Durrells."  We watched all of the episodes.  Mr. Durrell died and left his wife with three sons and a daughter.  She moved the family to the Greek island of Corfu, where life and customs are quite different from their native England.  It is a good show but like so many, it came to an end.


We watch "Wisconsin Life", a Wisconsin Public TV production that contains 4 or 5 short explorations in a total of 30 minutes.  The basic idea is that there are interesting people and places in the Badger state and the show lets us meet some of them.


We kept seeing notices about the PBS show "Grantchester."  That is the name of a real village of 540 people about three miles from Cambridge, England.  It is the name of a show based on books by James Runcie which tell about the life of the vicar of the village church.  It is quite popular.  I guess half or more of the popularity comes from the notable male beauty of James Norton, the actor who first plays the vicar. Unless you are seriously Christian or Church of England, you might not be interested in the experiences of a vicar. Hold on, there's a twist.  The vicar has insight into people.  Besides, he is a friend of the local policeman.  Over beer or wine in tasteful quantities, the two discuss a recently discovered body or crime.  Between trying to find the right woman and assisting his policeman friend, the vicar manages to squeeze in Sunday sermons, baptisms, marriages and funerals.


There have been other crime-solving church people, such as Father Brown.  It is no surprise really that religious people have insight into human behavior.  A scholar of English literature mentioned the show interests her but not her husband.  The writer and tv critic Sarah Lawson admits that the vicar is "babelicious" https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-unholy-pleasures-of-grantchester-the-original-hot-priest-show

and that the show might encourage thoughts and feelings not usually associated with religion.

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