Rishi Nair plays Alphy Kottaram
How did it feel to get the seal of approval from viewers as Alphy and be asked back for series 10?
To be honest, I was just relieved that I didn’t get the show cancelled single-handedly! I’d had big shoes to fill coming in after James Norton and Tom Brittney. I think people underestimate how scary it is.
But I was also very excited to get back – I’d had such an amazing time filming series nine and working with such wonderful people who welcomed me so warmly that I felt like a part of the family very quickly. So being called back felt a bit like going back home again.
Had you kept in touch with Robson in between series?
We’d all kept in touch and would get together when we were all in London – I live in Liverpool – but I’d kept in touch with Robson the most.
We Whatsapped at least once a week and sent each other silly videos and would comment on each other’s teams. We’re both massive football fans – he supports Newcastle and I’m Manchester United. I’ve gone over to his house in Newcastle and we’ve gone to matches together and I’m going again in a couple of weeks, so I saw Robson quite a few times in between series, but it was nice to see him dressed as Geordie again.
What was it like for you to put on Alphy’s dog collar and vicar’s clothes again?
It was lovely, and there is something very funny about wearing a vicar’s suit. I do hold myself differently. I feel a sense of responsibility as well, because I’m portraying a religious character.
In this series we were filming in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, and I went for a walk down the high street between scenes and people were smiling at me and being really friendly. I thought, ‘Wow, everyone in this town is really lovely!’ and then I remembered I was wearing the vicar’s suit. Yes, they might have recognised me from the TV, but most of them probably just thought I was a real vicar.
How did you get back into the character?
What really helps me is music. Both for last series and this one, for six weeks before we started filming I just exclusively listened to Sixties music at home, in the car and at the gym. I did it before my first series and now Sixties music is a big part of my life
I don’t know if it changes my performance, but it just puts me in the mindset of what it would have been like in the Sixties. I love listening to Etta James and Dusty Springfield and those kind of soul artists. It was such a cool time.
How would you sum up Alphy’s story arc this season?
Last series Alphy arrived and was a very self-assured character that had obstacles to overcome, mostly of people looking at him in a funny way, being a brown man in this very quintessential English town. But he took everything in his stride – he’s a glass-half-full kind of guy.
In season 10 we delve a bit more into the cracks and find out that Alphy is maybe he’s not as self-assured as he wants people to perceive him as. His childhood and family stuff come back into his life, which forces Alphy to face some childhood traumas. We see a whole different side to Alphy in season 10, a much more vulnerable side. It’s really powerful and there was so much for me to get my teeth into.
I didn’t know anything about this storyline when I was cast in Grantchester, but midway through my first series, Emma Kingsman Lloyd and Daisy Coulam knocked on my trailer door and said, ‘Can we come in for a chat?’ I thought, ‘Oh no! What have I done wrong?’ and then they proposed this plotline for Alphy for series ten and I was really pleased with it. It’s very exciting.
The series opens with Alphy about to hold his first Easter service in Grantchester, and deciding to throw an Easter fete. How is Alphy feeling?
He’s settled and in his element in Grantchester and has his best friend, Geordie, as well as Mrs C [Tessa Peake-Jones] and Leonard [Al Weaver] as friends. He throws an Easter fete because he realises that it’s the Sixties now and people are moving away from the church and a fete with bunny rabbits might entice the younger generation back to the church.
He’s modernising and some people love it and some people hate it. Then, of course, someone is shot dead at an Easter egg hunt, which is just typical of Grantchester!
Filming it was lovely – they built a whole fete in a field and we had loads of children there all excited and having fun, so we got to live through them a little bit.’
How does Alphy’s relationship with Geordie develop this season?
Geordie and Alphy are best mates and equals, even though there’s an age gap there, so it’s not a father-son thing. So when Geordie starts pushing Alphy to delve back into his past and open up old wounds, Alphy really pushes back and tells him to stop interfering. When Geordie fails to do that, Alphy loses it with him and they have a massive row.
Do they make up?
Of course! They make up at the beginning of the next episode. You can see that both of them are struggling without their best friend, but they’re also both thinking, ‘I’m not going to apologise!’ And then they bump into each other and they both just apologise. It’s a really lovely scene.
Have you realised that it’s always the vicar who solves the murder, and not Geordie?!
Robson told me in the beginning that in all of the episodes he’s ever done, Geordie’s never once cracked the case, which I hadn’t known. We always joke about it when we’re filming, about the number of people Geordie’s accused of murder that are completely innocent, especially at a time when you can be hanged for murder! I think Alphy should be on the police station payroll, to be honest.
How does Alphy’s love life develop?
He’s essentially been dating and not really settling down with any one woman, which Geordie teases him about – he calls him ‘Reverend Love ‘em and Leave ‘em’. Anytime Alphy gets close to anyone, his initial reaction is to step back because he’s too scared of being hurt.
But then he meets Meg Grey [Christie Russell-Brown] and wants to give it a go. But things get in the way – it turns out that her father is the bishop, his boss, who doesn’t like Alphy.
What’s the atmosphere like behind the scenes?
We do like our pranks on Robson. He’s 60 now and he’ll tell you himself that learning lines doesn’t come as easily as when he was younger. He hates lines changing after he’s learned them.
What I do, which is quite mean but I find it hilarious, is go up to him just before we start filming and say, ‘Oh, did you get the amendments earlier this morning? Because all our lines are changing and
you’ve got this monologue.’
And just for a second, you just see him go cold. He’s quite gullible, actually!
