Following in the footsteps of Doctor Who and Call the Midwife, a couple of long-time BBC Christmas programming staples, Grantchester will add a special holiday-themed episode this year to air ahead of the planned third series that will be coming our way in 2017. James Norton and Robson Green are set to return as Vicar Sidney Chambers and Police Inspector Geordie Keating in the ITV television adaptation of author James Runcie’s “Grantchester Mysteries” about an unlikely 1950s crime fighting duo.

The Christmas special, which will be the show’s first of hopefully many, will see Amanda adjusting to life having left her husband, Guy (Tom Austen). The love between Sidney and Amanda is evident, but the real question facing Sidney is can a vicar in the 1950s really be romantically involved with a married, pregnant woman? As with their predecessors, Grantchester is sure to provide viewers with a festive, snow-filled Christmas episode full of emotion and drama.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any easier for the vicar in series 3. In the third series of Grantchester new Archdeacon Gabriel Atubo reminds Sidney that as clergyman he must put duty above his own needs and lead by example. Given the strength of his feelings for Amanda, is this something that Sidney can do?

Returning alongside Norton and Green for series 3 will be Tessa Peake-Jones as Sidney’s sharp tongued housekeeper, Mrs Maguire who keeps the vicar in check along with Morven Christie as Sidney’s lover Amanda, Al Weaver as the timid curate Leonard Finch, Kacey Ainsworth as Geordie’s long suffering wife, Cathy, and Lorne MacFadyen as DC Phil Wilkinson. Not to worry, however, as it wouldn’t be Grantchester without the return of Dickens. The black Lab will also return for series 3.

Peter Davison (Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small, A Very Peculiar Practice will guest star in the series as Geoff Towler, the village solicitor, captain of the cricket team and a man who rules his family with a rod of iron.

Look for the Grantchester special this Christmas on ITV and, hopefully, PBS, with series 3 not too far behind in 2017.

In: Mystery