I'm Heather Marie montia and you're watching PBS books thank you for joining us PBS books in collaboration with Masterpiece is thrilled to be here with Creator writer and executive producer of grantchester Daisy kulum discussing the much anticipated season 8 of grantchester originally based on a series of books by James runy grantchester has become a summer viewing staple grandchester season 8 will on Masterpiece mystery on PBS beginning on Sunday July 8th at 9900 p.m. Eastern Standard Time set in Cambridge here vicer will Davenport and detective Jordy kein continue to solve Mysteries and fight crime let's take a moment to watch the [Music] trailer if he was angry if he was r would he have it in him to hurt [Music] someone right you could leave this to us don't [Music] worry we want to help that won't be necessary well we know when we're not wanted I'll take my roasting tray if you don't mind staging a protest isn't a crime no but whipping your Tob off in public is bloody man she saw you with a gentleman you will never understand Bonnie because we are very different people I have faith and you don't stop vicing me Vicor would say trust in God which is of no bloody use what he doesn't want me c oh God still loves you very much will you go out there Jord deating and you do not come back till you find him what did you find I'll go take a [Music] look Gods on your side we all [Music] are no thank yous the law Mr Palmer and I don't speak French just wish people would believe me when I say that I'm [Music] okay you are better than this maybe I'm not as good as you think as a reminder season 8 of gr Chester premieres on Sunday July 8th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time B check your local listing today we are here to speak with Daisy kulum the brilliant creator of grantchester so the moment you've been waiting for Daisy kulum is the creator writer and executive producer of grandchester which is now in its eighth season Daisy also wrote and created deadwater fell a forpart psychological Thriller starring David Tenant and has written for numerous other shows including humans and Death in Paradise it is my extraordinary pleasure to welcome Daisy hi thank you so much for having me this is very exciting oh my gosh we are so excited to have you here um I I love grandchester and I can't believe we're on season eight neither can I it's amazing um for people who are maybe unfamiliar with the series of James ry's Books the grand Chester Mysteries Sydney Shapers subsequent Adventures can you Briefly summarize the premise of Run's works yeah it's a it's a very sort of simple premise really it's um a detective Duo but we have a sort of embittered H angry cop who thinks very black and white um and uh vica who works with him who is who sees the world in all Shades of Gray and for James runy based it I don't know whether you knew this based it on his father um who was Archbishop of Canterbury um who actually was the man who officiated over Princess Diana and Charles's wedding all those years ago um so obviously James had a very invest vested interest in that kind of area and um and he you know he brought some real knowledge of what it was like to grow up in the clergy um and so it's about the Insight a vica can bring to a criminal investigation because all areas of the human heart are their are their remits so they bring something very interesting to a criminal drama so well inspired by Run's books gr Chester has been without Reverend Sydney Chambers since the fourth season and has really departed quite a bit from the original narrative what challenges and freedoms have you encountered as you carve this new space for a vicer to solve Mysteries with Detective short keing it was do you know what it was it was a it was a challenge but it was also a pleasure because James runy who if you ever get to meet him is the loveliest man he was very he very kindly said create who you want create who who you would like to be in the series and he allowed us that freedom and we knew in a way you have a blueprint print for this show you have this kind of you have to have a Vicor and a detective who kind of get on who are who were buddies so that was you know we started from that but we knew we wanted to make him different so will is a different generation to Sydney he's he's Young he's not lived through the war he's not fought so instantly that puts him and Jordy at a different kind of level and and in a way they became Father and Son which was a really nice um a relationship to explore really so that's that was our starting point um and we made him quite a complex character much like Sydney we knew he was probably going to be a bit troubled because they always are uh and they always have demons all the Vickers um and you know we just when we met Tom Britney who plays will he just brought that to life and he added another dimension to it so it's kind of a collaborative process really I mean I will say a motorcycle writing vicer is not what I expected which is yeah just make him sexy that's what we try to do so there's no shortage of murder mystery or Mayhem in uh Cambier Village of branchester um where do you get the ideas for the the murder mysteries to solve well we get them well we started very much on James Run's books so there was a wealth of storylines there but then since then we tend to get the stories from everywhere really we um the news I've re realized a lot of the the way the world is like when the pandemic happened there are a lot of stories that were very sort of claustrophobic stories or you know now with the war in Ukraine there are a lot of stories about Russia and the and spying and you know Intrigue so I think you're affected by the outside world and then I'll also um where I am at the moment is a little village and there uh there's always a lot of intrigue going on in little Villages so I'm just stealing from real people's lives honestly yes sometimes the truth is is better entertainment than yeah sure always H grandchester it explores Faith forgiveness and Redemption how do you weave these I mean they're crucial Universal themes and in every episode you somehow brilliantly weave these themes how do you do it and you think oh these need to be woven in or does it just come second nature at this point oh it's that's an interesting question I I think a lot of it comes from the characters once you've created a a character like Sydney well as James did or a character like will those themes come through them they come through their with their compassion and their the new ones they they view even they love the sinner they hate the sin you can you can have those two things in conjunction two things can be true at once so it's always about character for me but we also every series we start with a blank piece of paper literally a blank piece of paper on a wall and um and we work out the theme for our Series so and it will always be a sort of biblical theme like uh season eight is redemption very much about redemption and forgiveness and self forgiveness um the first series was about how can you live a Christian Life when you've just Liv live through the hell of War so you kind of we find these big themes and then we try and resonate off those and it it gives you a lovely sort of backbone for your series really to H have all those kind of interesting themes running through them oh it's really interesting to think about so you start with a blank piece of paper and you're like this is going to be our theme and then you carve out what you're thinking the various episodes would be yeah sure and so we'll work out we we'll generally start with Will and Jordy as the main character CS what their Journeys are going to be across six or eight episodes depending on and then we'll and we'll try and fit those stories around a theme so we'll Will's theme without giving too much away is very much about how do you forgive yourself when you think you've done an unforgivable thing that that's his journey and jordis is is sort of linked to that in terms of helping his friend learn forgiveness it's so then you it's quite fun actually because then once you have a theme stories seem to Spring out from that you know it's quite exciting they suddenly appear as if by Magic kind of thing and then suddenly the blank piece of paper isn't blank anymore which is very nice do you work with a whole team for that we we tend to keep the team small actually we have um Emma Kingsman Lloyd who is a a brilliant executive producer we've worked on it since season one so it'll be her and Richard cookson who is a writer and we'll sit in the room and it's very I find um the American system sounds quite terrifying because I think you you s in rooms for months and you know there's lots of intense chat and we tend to uh there tend to be sweets and donuts there tend to be we'll um we'll kind of we'll all come with ideas and we sometimes might play music from that year or you know put up some pictures from that year just to try and get influence we'll have a nice lunch we tend we tend there tend to be a lot of food items in our story learning I tell you Donuts lunch and music I'm there I mean I'm just in the wrong country I think it's really good fun you know you have grandchester shining a spotlight on the humanity of clergy I grew up very religious ah um and and it was it's really interesting it was interesting for me to watch the various seasons over time because the the humanity a of of clergy really really comes across um and the fact that clergy people make mistakes how have you experiences or beliefs influenced your work it's really interesting because um I I am not a person of faith I grew up in a um quite a sort of conventional British you know the I went to a church of England school and there was a Vicor and you know you went to church services and my granddad was a Vicor actually so it was sort of around my family and but I I personally didn't take that on board but I'm always really envious of people who do have faith because I think it's a lovely peaceful calming thing to have and I think as a writer I sort of I I put all that longing really into my scripts and I think that the religion I I am drawn to the sort of faith I'm drawn to is the very compassionate kind where where like you say you can people make mistakes that human we're human and um I like to believe if there is a God that he is a forgiving God and a kind God and an understanding God and that's sort of what I put in my Vickers to try and make them you know to try and make them care for people and not just judge I I don't I think judgment is a very scary thing and and people don't respond to it necessarily oh for sure and I think you you are very successful right the there's different moments in throughout the various Seasons where it really comes across the the role of being of comfort and listening and being there and it's just so it's so beautiful and um reassuring on some level right that that there's someone in society um that's there for that and you know in your scripts they really bring attention to the the clergy's unique role in society most do you want to speak to that and oh no sorry I'm tot jumping in it does they have they have a very specific role and I find it really interesting especially when you put them in in a in a story about crime or murder or something you know quite so heinous and big people feel they can talk to Vicor in a way they possibly don't feel they can speak to a police officer so you you instantly have somebody who is a confidant who who is not going to judge you and I find that I no I find it comforting that there are those people out there still and that um and that now we can have women ones as well that is comforting that in itself is comforting one of my my questions though is sometimes as I was watching the show I almost thought that there there were ethical issues of revealing information that was told in a confidential space um how do how do you how did you wrestle with that as a writer you know here the vicer is getting information regarding a crime and and then feels obligated often to share it with Jordy um and is that is that an ethical question or is is it always the answer to do what is right I mean you say hate the right hate the the sin not the sinner um but what is that like that go between or how do you how do you decide it's a tricky one and we we explored it in different ways through the characters so Sydney was very much I mean he he wasn't a good Secret Keeper let's put it that way you know the first chance he got he was off to the police station to tell to tell what he knew whereas will very much believed in the sort of the Seal of the confessional and I know we sort of associate that with um the Catholic Church more than we do with the Anglican church but but there is that still that that um privacy and that that sense of a story shared must be kept but for will it's much more of a dilemma because in fact the first time you meet will he's in in a prison cell because jordie's put him there because he won't tell what he knows so instantly it's a dilemma for him and I think it was really nice to explore that but I I for me it's about if somebody's in danger you share and if if a child is in danger or you know somebody's life is in danger that's the moment that's the line you cross I think but I imagine it's different for all clergy men I I I imagine and women obviously um yeah it's an interesting one yeah no I I think that that question of it's an ethical question right and I think your your definition that you really explore throughout the throughout the series is is it helps the viewer to question the role within Society um so my question for you is a little bit going back to team your team have you had the same team of writers throughout is the you shared a little bit about your your season8 team was that the same for season seven or was there you know does it change up every season how how does how does that work we tend to we're very lucky actually we tend to keep writers and for example Richard cookson lovely guy he's writing on he's writing two episodes on season eight he started off as a script editor so he started off behind the scenes in season one and then he worked his way up he became a producer so he was on set and now he's back to writing so it's basically it's a weird grancher everyone you speak to about grandchester will say it's like a family we we hang out together we chat together we um and if you if you if you join the team team early on will keep you on and and and push you up and so we've got writers from the first series um other writers have gone on to you know to be too famous for us now know they've GNA to do their own things but we're very lucky that we tend to keep people and and Emma and I and the actors we all we all treat people like once you're in you're in you're one of us that sounded a bit Mafia but you know in a good way well but but it's funny right on some level because I feel that that sense of family is something you're so successful at creating with within the the the series within all of the episodes and it's also what keeps the viewer coming back right we almost feel we feel part of the family too and we want to know what's happening to our vicer and what's happening at the police station with with Jordy so um season seven ends with with vicer Will Davenport marrying um Bonnie which is a widowed younger sister of Jordan which you know every I mean I was so excited and finally will who you know was a young Bachelor trying to find his way has been grounded by this amazing strong woman yes where do you plan to take us if you can tell us any little teasers in season 8 I will try not to spoil anything but for us she he's found the love of his life put it that way so they're in a very happy place at the beginning of season8 um we just loved when we met Bonnie when um the actress um came on to the set we just loved her she's she's a joy she's a joyous person a joyous character and um yeah and they just clicked together as people in real life and on screen and we were so lucky so season eight begins with them they are he's growing up he's grown up he's got a a wife he's got a stepson he's oh I was about to reveal something maybe maybe there might be more family on the way put it that way and um and it's it's it's joyous and it's it's a lovely place to be with an with a grownup man now rather than a man child which is what he was um and so we but being ranchester we always have to test people a little bit and so by the end of episode one we will be sort of thrown off on an entirely different Journey but Bonnie will be by his side so well for those of you who are just joining us I'm Heather Marie montia you're watching PBS books and I am so fortunate to be here with Daisy kulam who is the the writer creative uh Creator executive producer of grantchester and we are here discussing season8 and if you're just joining us you might want to rewind just a bit because she just revealed a little bit about what you might see in season 8 okay so Daisy back to the conversation I've read a little bit season 8 explores the lives of invisible women why was this topic important for you to include throughout the series actually we've looked at invisible women I mean it's the 1950s and we're heading into the 60s but women still were only Housewives they were cleaners you know they they they were the lowest of the low in a sense that it was a p well it still is a bit of a patriarchal society but then even more so and and we wanted to explore through a guest some of the guest stories these women who are overlooked and are starting to find their voice voice and I think we have Bonnie who is she's she's quite modern in that sense she's she's starting to find her voice she's not happy just being a vica's wife you know she wants more for her life but we also have a guest story where we meet some some rather naughty students who who uh are making their voices heard put it that way they're they're um standing up for women's rights and women's bodies and um it's sort of exciting time because you know 1960s things are changing and it's nice to see that women are a starting to stand up to the men and make themselves heard really so yeah interpersonal relationships throughout the series have been a really important component as we talked about a little bit before about family the importance of family and what a family looks like how does this well maybe we can talk about one of your favorite relationships um that exists in season 8 what was interesting I was thinking about of the day and I love all their relationships because they've all it's it's all evolved but for me a very interesting one this series is um Jack who is Mrs C's quite conservative older husband who you know moneyed and I would imagine a little bit right-wing and um his friendship with Leonard who is now openly gay and um and but they they have a wonderful conversation in this series where they talk about love and what love means to them and I and it really moved me because what I realized is these characters have evolved so Jack was in series 1 and and Leonard was in the closet in series one and now here they are two very different people sitting down and talking about love and what it means to them and I just I love that they keep surprising me actually these characters they just keep yeah they come out with their own things sometimes you're like where did that come from Leonard is a character so many people love I mean he is he's um gone on such a such a journey um and really grown into his own now he has a new vocation does it present unexpected challenges that you can talk about yes it really does because in a way so last series Leonard was um working in a cafe and he' he'd made this decision to um set himself up as an entrepreneur but it wasn't enough for him you know making tea and reading bad poetry wasn't enough he needed he needed something that was more like the church more like his vocation and I think he's found it now he's helping people basically he's helping those people in society that are overlooked and it's yeah it's going to be a struggle and it's going to bring him into some contention with the law but it's the M yeah let this series is the making of Leonard I think it's it's him finding his voice too in a way you know the um the the quiet people in society are starting to find their voice let's go back and talk about family a little bit so we've talked about it we have but if you you know I definitely how do you define family because I feel that family is ever evolving and even for different characters it's evolving differently so what are you seeing and what is your strategy or do they just do the characters almost invent themselves on this journey yeah I think they do but I think there's something very interesting about a church which is a collection of people sometimes lonely people sometimes people without their own families and they come to this place and they feel like they belong and I suppose with this show that's what we wanted to create a family a family of in a way a family of Misfits and people who who have been rejected by their families like Leonard and Daniel or don't have a family like Mrs C and then you sort of bring them together and I think people do that I think people in life do that they you find your family sometimes sometimes the family you're given aren't aren't the right one and you find the ones who will love you for who you are and that and that's what this show is to me I always I always look forward to revisiting them when I come back to write them because they're just yeah they're a little family of their own really Mrs C this is someone I think um we all love I mean you know it's hard not to she's black and way it's good or it's bad but then she loves Leonard even right and she struggles she struggles with herself within herself can we expect that she'll be a large part of season 8 how is she doing anything you can share she is well she's sort of the matriarch now of of our of our missfit family and she she's very as you say very she loves Leonard and she wants him to do well this this season she might meddle a little bit because now she's got Jack and they have money she sees Leonard's business business his his vocation as a business opportunity so she she's she puts her a in a bit I would say and and starts to Med a little bit um but she always means well and and she will always be there for her boys I think that's the main thing she you know she loves them like Sons yeah the stories um in gr Chester season 8 at least what I've been able to read and find online um episodes they involve everything from a Speedway racing to Cold War spying can you share a little bit about one of your favorite stories and its Evolution and how you approached the research for the episode yeah so for example the um the university story where we have these girls who are protesting against um a painting which is shows a nude women and they're saying how is it that men are okay with women lying naked on a picture but they they make us dress you know they make us cover up because we're too provocative that story started um from James ry's book actually book we we we went back and Revisited any stories we hadn't done and his story was about a uh the kind of stealing of a painting um and it was the distraction was a naked woman and we thought how can we make this a 60s Story how can we make this so we took that we took you know hashtag me too we took the kind of zeitgeist I suppose around at the time at now is basically that you know women are starting to again speak out about these things in a way we've never been able to before so we combined those two stories um combined those two elements and um we've got a wonderful story about that which um funny enough is directed by Al Weaver who plays Leonard Who directorial debut so he's a he um yeah he had fun that's so awesome I love that are there any other um surprises of um people taking on different roles whether it's a writer maybe appearing in a in one of the episodes is there any any other like crossover you said it was a big family is there anything else you can think of of someone crossing over there's always there's always a bit if you um look in the church services there will always be at least one person that um Richard has been in um cookson one of the writers he's been in a few scenes he was um in in an episode about um voting that he was talking about his daily is and you know like you you kind of go oh look there's somebody's mom uh or you know Tom who plays will he he's got his dad on set occasionally um Tom has directed his own episode um yeah everyone sort of it's great because there sort of not a free-for all but it's it's a sense that if you're interested in something we'll let you go there and and Al and Tom have both done amazing jobs directing really really good really interesting sounded really like patronizing but they they really did they they've brought such a you know a kind of brilliant dep to the series yeah lovely well and it's also it's extraordinary like for I at least I think for someone to be able to explore their different interests um and to grow as as a as a professional too I mean so I I think that that what an what an an amazing opportunity you'll probably get a lot more applications next time you have a call that's good that's good anyone might want to come in um well this has been tremendous and and we are so excited to be able to talk more with you I always like to ask my my writers and the people I talk to what what are you currently working on ah um a lot of things uh that may or may not get made as is the case in our business um but I'm doing I'm working on the thing about the brones and I'm working on a murder mystery a true crime quite a lot of crime actually I do like a bit of crime um it's yeah it's I like a bit of variety as well but I always like coming back to grandchester actually it's my we always say it's our happy place and yeah it really is besides um Run's books do you have a favorite murder mystery author oh that's a very good one I tell you what I'm really I'm really into um True Crime at the um true crime books and um I recently reread In Cold Blood and it is the most amazing book and if anyone hasn't read it just read it now because it's so it's it's just so chilling and so beautifully told it's s it's sort of poetic how it's I mean Trum M capot can do no wrong in my eyes but um yeah revisit that because it's so good it's like it's it's kind of the start of everything I think the start of our obsession with True Crime so one of the things I also like to ask writers um is if they have a favorite library now obviously your favorite Library well I won't say Obviously it not be in England but I'm thinking it probably is um do you have a favorite Library I do when I was little um we used to go to it's called ride Library it's on the I'm I grew up on an island a small island off the coast of England um very small place and the local librarian she gave me a little um Library librarian badge and I she used to let me stamp the books and um she she really she used to give me books every Christmas with her name inscribed in them Brenda her name was um and when she died she gave me some money to um to you know do she wanted she kind of pushed children to to explore their imaginations and I think she was partly why I got into writing so I mean it was it's a nothing Library if you visited it it's no you know there's not like it's just an old you know 1960s building but it I think it started my love with books and and and love with authors and writers so yeah well that's extraordinary and I think that there is probably a story in there right the the amount of people I talked to I mean your story in particular the fact that this librarian made such an impact and difference on your life it's so wonderful and I think for for us all to think about those those people those Librarians who make such a difference um in our lives yeah I must I found a photo the other day of me in my at the librarian's desk with my little stamp so I'll send that to you see oh I would oh I would love that can I can we post it on social too oh yeah sure love it well this has been EX extraordinary um before we close the conversation are there any last thoughts or takeaways for the audience about the upcoming season gr Chester oh it's going to be emotional I would say and um but there's always warmth in heart so just when you think things are looking sad don't worry it will all be fine don't worry oh those are good words for me especially because I'm always on on the edge of my chair like scared okay yeah easy well this is been lovely thank you so much for your time for your insights uh but most importantly for your work I mean it is it I I've just enjoyed Grand Chester so much and I know Season 8 which I have not yet seen will be as fabulous if not more fabulous than all the other Seasons um and we look forward to hopefully having you on again soon oh Lely thank you so much this has been so much fun well for all of you out there we just want to thank our library partners uh more than 1,800 strong as well as numerous PBS stations around the country most importantly we'd like to thank all of you for joining us if you have a moment explore exclusive uh grandchester content online from all seven seasons including cast interviews filming locations details surprising facts about the stars and more you can also browse through video shorts um and that has episode scenes behind the scene cast conversations it's just tons of fun um you can go to PBS.org and type in grandchester um well in case you forget this Sunday July 9th at 900 PM Excuse me yes at 900 PM Eastern Standard Time grandchester premieres so don't miss it and until next time I'm Heather Marie montia happy [Music] reading [Applause] [Music] [Applause]