Grantchester's Will is emotional after making huge life decision in season 9 premiere

Just as Brittney has turned his attention to fresh endeavours, so too will his character Will Davenport, who was set to receive a "life-changing offer" that would lead him away from the Cambridgeshire village he calls home in season 9.

And that comes to pass in the premiere, which made its UK debut tonight (Wednesday 8th January).

The bishop called a meeting with Will to offer him a new inner-city post in Newcastle, a "bigger parish, with tougher challenges". But he had faith that the vicar would rise to the occasion.

It was a firm "no" from Will, however, who tells him that he's "very happy" where he is and that he wouldn't want to uproot his infant son.

And that, it seemed, was that.

But following conversations with his wife Bonnie, friend Leonard Finch and a street preacher called Sam White, he was eventually swayed in the other direction.

"I hope I'm not too late," he says to the bishop at the end of the episode as he prepares to accept the offer and look towards the next chapter of his life.

Next up, breaking the news to Geordie Keating...

Brittney, who first appeared in the ITV drama in 2019, described leaving as "the hardest decision" of his life.

"I’ve spent five or six years – and the happiest years of my career so far – doing Grantchester and playing a character which just has so much depth and complexity," he told RadioTimes.com and other press. "It was just a happy place.

"But I think all good things have to come to an end, and it just felt like the right time to put a full stop, let's say, on Will's story and see where they took the story without him.

"Will had such a passionate and fiery start, and I think you saw him go through everything and come to a reasonably happy ending, as sad as it was to leave. But I think he left in peace, and that felt like a good place to end it."

But his exit paves the way for the aforementioned Alphy, who is set to cause a stir when he makes his grand entrance.

Read more:

• Grantchester star on Alphy's arrival: 'It would be silly to pretend everyone just takes him in'
• Grantchester boss reassures fans they've hit gold again with Tom Brittney's replacement

"He is anti-police," Nair told RadioTimes.com and other press. "He has this kind of perception about the institution. Growing up as a brown man in the '40s and '50s in Britain, his experience with the police would have been very different to the previous two vicars.

"So, he has this kind of perception about them, and he has this personality trait that anyone that abuses their power, or anyone in a position of power that abuses that, he always stands up to that morally."

Nair also teased an incredibly heated introduction between Alphy and Robson Green's Geordie.

"Geordie’s first interaction with Alphy is he's come to arrest him," he explained. "He thinks that he's broken into the vicarage and he's stealing, so he immediately puts Geordie in that box of this police institution that he's grown up around, and that's why their relationship is really rocky to begin with.

"But as the series progresses, Alphy sees Geordie for the man he is, and actually he sees that they have a lot more in common than they first thought. And how those two characters develop in that relationship is a really beautiful thing."

Grantchester airs on Wednesdays on ITV1 and ITVX.

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