The Grantchester author and son of a former Archbishop of Canterbury tells why he didn’t have far to go to find a model for his 1950s vicar detective

While television factual commissioning editors grow ever more resistant to programmes about religion, a curious thing has been happening elsewhere in broadcasting. Their drama counterparts have enthusiastically embraced Call The Midwife and Grantchester, the first fronted by socially committed nuns caring for pregnant mothers in 1950s and 1960s London (the BBC has just given the green light to series 10 and 11), and the second, over on ITV, starring a serious-minded, Godly and good-looking 1950s Anglican vicar, who does a bit of detective work on the side.

If, together, they don’t quite match what the original drafters of the public service remit – the obligation on broadcasters to give religion airtime – had envisaged, then in practical terms you could argue they are achieving it nonetheless. And Grantchester’s creator, James Runcie, isn’t complaining.

“I was at a run-through of the last series,” he recalls, “and one episode included a scene where a father washes his dead son’s body. It was a very biblical scene. When I had originally written it [Grantchester is a small-screen adaptation of his novels], I had wondered if it was a bit too preachy. So afterwards I mentioned my concern to the commissioning editor at ITV who was also there. She replied: ‘No, the more, the better.’ That did surprise me.”