‘Grantchester’: Rishi Nair Shares How How He Prepared to Play New Vicar Alphy Kottaram

Rishi Nair’s first day on set as Grantchester‘s new vicar began with a bang — a scene in which he had to punch his new costar Robson Green. Not surprisingly, Nair was a bit nervous about smacking the veteran actor and original cast member. “Then you get there,” he says, “and everyone’s so lovely and makes you feel welcome that the nerves kind of go away.”

Taking over for Tom Brittney’s Will Davenport in Episode 3 of Season 9, Nair becomes the third handsome young vicar the English village has had in a decade, and the first one who wasn’t white. So while the actor may have felt at home on the popular PBS mystery series from day one, his character, Alphy Kottaram, whose parents moved to Britain from India decades earlier, has a more unfortunate introduction: He’s mistaken for a burglar by Green’s character, police detective Geordie Keating.

“We are in 1961, we’re in Grantchester, which is a very white British town,” Nair says. “It was important to me that when I came in, that was acknowledged.”

Over the season’s remaining six episodes, Alphy does face prejudice and misconceptions, but he also finds acceptance in the community and forges a connection with Geordie, who asks Alphy to assist him with his investigations, just as he did the clergyman’s two predecessors. But the newcomer wants to stick to delivering Sunday sermons, at least initially.

“At first glance Alphy doesn’t like Geordie, doesn’t want anything to do with him,” Nair previews. “But as they spend more time together, he learns that Geordie has a lot of empathy, which he assumes no police officer has.”

Robson Green and Rishi Nair, with Milburn and Dickens (Courtesy of Kudos, ITV, and MASTERPIECE)

As the season progresses, a friendship develops. “They’re both very loving to each other in a kind of masculine way of ‘I’m never going to say it to you,’” Nair previews. “But they’re there for each other, which is lovely to see between two male characters, especially in that time.”

Alphy and Geordie encounter their share of dead bodies — in a manor house, at an archaeological site — as Grantchester, now the longest-running current Masterpiece series, reaches 59 episodes. (That’s seven more than Downton Abbey had when it ended its run.) Women in the community are more than happy to get to know the handsome, single vicar, who takes off his shirt 10 minutes into his first episode. But Alphy’s appeal isn’t just skin deep.

“He’s very chilled and relaxed, but there are certain things that can really annoy him,” Nair says. “When he sees people exploiting their position or taking advantage of people, you see that steel beneath Alphy come out, which is really interesting.”

Nair, a former cast member of the British soap opera Hollyoaks, describes shooting Grantchester as a “lovely experience,” especially filming on location in the Cambridgeshire community it’s named after and working with Green. “Just being on set with Robson every day was some of the best days I’ve had filming,” Nair says. “He’s such a joy to work with, he has so many great stories. I would just sit there and listen.”

Not as chatty, but equally fun, was four-legged costar Dickens, who has been the vicarage’s pooch since he was a puppy. “I’ve never seen such a well-behaved dog. He hits marks better than I do,” Nair says with a laugh.

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More challenging was driving Alphy’s red Triumph convertible. It stalled in the middle of filming a scene, a photographer caught the ensuing action and the picture — of Green and some crew members pushing the car while Nair tried to jump-start it — wound up in a British tabloid. “We found it quite funny,” he recounts.

Although Nair was raised in a Hindu family, he adds that “there’s so much of Alphy’s religion and his faith that I still resonate with. It’s his moral values that he has because of his faith.” To prep for the role, the actor went to services at the grand Liverpool Cathedral to observe how a vicar delivers a sermon and interacts with the congregation.

He also used music — including swing, Motown and Elvis Presely — to immerse himself in the era. “For the first month of filming I was just listening to music from the ’60s,” Nair says, “whether it was at the gym or whether I was driving to work or on the weekend. It’s not like I’m in a scene and I’m thinking of the song, but subconsciously I have that information in me somewhere and, hopefully, that helps.”

Although Nair and Brittney don’t interact onscreen, they were on set at the same time and got acquainted. “He gave me some great advice on how to deal with Robson when he’s hungry,” Nair teases, before adding, “And he kind of left his door open. If there’s anything I ever wanted to ask him, I feel comfortable being able to message him, which is really nice.”

Grantchester, Sundays, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)