Grantchester, ITV - TV review: A delightful treat for period drama fans

Sidney and Geordie aren't yet a pairing to match Dalziel and Pascoe in their heyday but we live in hope

Grantchester on ITV is delightful, a new treat for fans of period-set, gently paced detective series like Endeavor, and also for fans of top TV totty James Norton.

He plays crime-solving vicar Sidney Chambers and it's quite a contrast to his last big role as villainous murderer Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley.

Rev Chambers occasionally raises eyebrows in his 1950s parish by playing jazz records too loud or sipping a pint of bitter in the pub, but he's definitely not the killing type.

He's the sort to answer a prostitute's proposition with the polite rebuttal, "No, but thank you for your kind offer."

He's also not particularly good at solving murders, judging by this opening mystery, adapted from a novel by James Runcie.

Our hero needed 15 minutes of cycling around picturesque Cambridge colleges to come to his conclusion; it took me 15 seconds.

That's where his plain-speaking sidekick Police Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) will come in, presumably.

Sidney and Geordie aren't yet a pairing to match Dalziel and Pascoe in their heyday (1997-1999), but we live in hope.