Bradley Hall, Grantchester, Season 11| MASTERPIECE Studio

Released July 12, 2026 28:17

WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for Episode Five of Grantchester Season 11.

Actor Bradley Hall’s Grantchester character Larry Peters continues to invest in himself, and it’s paying off. Not only is he married to the woman of his dreams, but he is now a Detective Sergeant. Like his character, Bradley has also continued to grow through his time on Grantchester, pitching the drive-in movie setting for Episode One and directing second unit photography for several episodes. In this conversation, Bradley discusses both his own and his character’s evolution through Grantchester.

This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

Larry Peters has come a long way from his early days on Grantchester. By Season 11, Larry is married to the whip-smart and efficient Jennifer Scott, he’s climbed the ranks in the force and has begun to mature from station youngblood to experienced copper. Season 11 also finds Larry testing the edges of his comfort zone socially. While he’s still not completely at ease in Leonard and Daniel’s company, he takes a leap and agrees to a double date with them at an American-style drive-in.

CLIP

Larry: What if we don’t have anything in common?

Jennifer: We’ll have lots in common. Cinema?

Larry: They’re fellas who like fellas.

Jennifer: You like Geordie. You like Alphy.

Larry: Not in the same way I don’t.

Long term, Larry has his heart set on becoming a Detective Inspector. With his sergeant’s exam just around the corner, he takes this as another opportunity for growth and starts reading, and putting into practice, Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking.

CLIP

Larry: She’s from a private nursing agency. Hired by the son.

Geordie: How long’s she been Lord Worley’s?

Larry: January 14th this year she started. No criminal record. Won an award for compassion in 1961.

Geordie: What have you been putting in his porridge?

Jennifer: Personal development.

Larry: My bedtime reading. I’m learning to believe in myself.

While Larry may be taking steps to advance his career and self image, his deductive skills could still use a little work. His wife, Jennifer, recently received a phone call from her doctor confirming her pregnancy, but Larry hasn’t a clue, mistaking her morning sickness for a hangover.

CLIP

Geordie: Morning. How are you?

Jennifer: Fine. How are you?

Geordie: You still haven’t told Larry, have you?

Jennifer: I’m waiting for the right moment.

Geordie: He’ll get the shock of his life when you come home from the shops one day with a sack of spuds under one arm and a baby under the other.

Today, we’re joined by actor Bradley Hall to discuss Larry Peter’s ongoing transformation and maturation from young copper to family man and Detective Sergeant.

Jace Lacob: And this week, we are joined by Grantchester star Bradley Hall. Welcome.

Bradley Hall: Hi, Jace. How are you?

Jace Lacob: I'm good. How are you doing, Brad?

Bradley Hall: Yeah, very good, thank you. It's nice to speak to you again. It's been a year, hasn't it?

Jace Lacob: It has been a year. And since that time, you ended the show.

Bradley Hall: I know, don't. I don't even think I'm ready to talk about this. I don't think I'm ready.

Jace Lacob: Oh, well we'll pace you. But we're going to have to get there. We're going to have to get there. Let's take a look back first, though. One of the Grantchester characters who has undergone the deepest and most complex transformation is Larry Peters. And looking at Larry in Series 11 and where he started off in Series 4, that change is really, really evident. As the actor playing him, how beautiful an experience was it having Larry mature into the man he is today?

Bradley Hall: It was so wonderful because I think when, I've said it before in these interviews, it was never a given that Larry was going to be a character that stuck around. It was two episodes, that's all that Larry was supposed to be. He was introduced as the sort of comic relief and he was incompetent and wet behind the ears. He was definitely not expected to last. So it's been a surprise to be in the show for eight series. But obviously, it's meant that I've been able to take ownership of the role of Larry and have input in guiding his character and his arc over that time. It is bizarre.

In fact, I was making a showreel last week and I was going through bits that I can use, and looking back—I mean, I look so young—but the character is so different. And I think the best way to describe it is that he is so boyish at the start, and I think by the end of 11, he's a man. Somewhere along the line, it happened. And it's been really sweet that he's been able to play a whole variety of characters within that character. So yeah, I just feel like I'm so happy with how they've concluded Larry, and it's so vastly different from the start. So it really is nice to have been involved in something that's had such a big journey.

Jace Lacob: It's interesting to me because Larry could have existed just on the periphery of Grantchester, just embedded in the procedural mystery element of the show where he's collecting clues, or he's filling Geordie in, he's tackling a suspect here and there. But his dynamic with Geordie, with Jennifer, and even his antagonism earlier on with Leonard, helps to bring Larry into focus. What conversations over the years did you have with Daisy Coulam about Larry's utility?

Bradley Hall: Daisy's fantastic. She really is a fantastic writer because she’s such a heavy presence within the whole cast. So, you always feel very trusted with the kinds of things that she's going to throw your way. And even if you get a script and something does surprise you, you're comfortable enough to be able to query it, and to ask where does it come from, and therefore, where is it going.

I think in the early stuff, I was so shy to even touch any of it. I just wasn't, do you know what I mean? I was very much enjoying being the periphery character and providing that kind of stuff. But as soon as they moved him into a bigger role, I think that was when I felt, "Oh, do you know what, I'm going to grow my courage here and speak to Daisy and find out what her plan is for Larry and stuff." She navigates these characters down a certain path and then quite quickly they can step off that path and they can join a different path. But it never feels unbelievable. It's very much like, that's what we do as humans. And I think Daisy's so good at capturing that.

When Melissa started, there was a really nice relationship that I had with Melissa, and I still have with Melissa, I love Melissa. And it was us together, we could definitely understand and input into the relationship and obviously navigate the ups and downs of relationships. So there were definitely moments where we would read our scenes together and we would ask to maybe try and tweak a few things that we couldn't quite understand. But mainly it wasn't about changing, it was more about understanding where both characters were going and therefore, the impact that they were having on each other as well.

Jace Lacob: I want to talk about that impact because Larry does transform from someone who is quite cruel to Leonard, who's disgusted by Leonard Finch—who is perhaps one of, if not the kindest character ever on television. And Larry somehow becomes a fan-favorite character. He comes out the other side. Did you ever worry about how Larry might be received by the audience?

Bradley Hall: Absolutely. And do you know what, I thought in [Series] Six, because it was so horrible the way he was with Leonard, and really going after getting him sentenced, getting him to prison, I just thought there's no way that Larry can come back from this. Surely there's absolutely—like, this is finished. But I thought, if that is the case, hopefully there's going to be some high drama and maybe he gets killed off, and then it's going to be some good stuff in there anyway, do you know what I mean? So, it's not necessarily all bad because at least I'll probably get some good scenes out of it, and there'll be some good stuff out of it.

But because that was the time that Miss Scott came in, I think she used the Miss Scott character to soften Larry. And that was such a pivotal moment and such a clever move for Daisy because it made the audience not necessarily forgive him for his ways, but it gave them a better understanding of what this guy's experienced up to this point. And also, if you're going to then see this character change, are you then more forgiving for their previous problems and issues? And I think that's what it is.

But yeah, certainly at the start, it was—and especially the fact that it was Leonard. If it was any other character, I'd be like, "Ah, well, whatever." But the fact it was Leonard, it was like, no, I can't do that because Leonard is, he is the heart. He's the one that—the audience are so in love with Leonard. And that's like, you can't touch him, you can't do it. So I was terrified at the start, but I'm glad I trusted it because I think it did pay off. And it meant in Season 11, we've got this lovely thing which is explored in the start of this double date scenario with Leonard and Daniel and Miss Scott and Larry. And it's so funny, and it's such a contrast from where we were, you know, only five, five seasons ago.

Jace Lacob: I love the fact that it is Risk, of all things, that brings these two seemingly very different men, with Daniel and Larry, who are both revealed to have this very geeky shared love of board games and one of the longest games ever created. And I love that he's like, "Do I play Risk? Bloody love it."

Bradley Hall: I was going to say, when we had to do that, me and Ollie, who plays Daniel, I was like, "Have you played it?" and he was like, "No, have you?" and I was like, "No," I was like, "Should we play it?" and he was like, "Well, I've tried to read the instructions and I'm thinking we're probably not going to have time to play this game." I just thought that's so funny because when you do look at it, it is like a really, you know, you've got to really commit to that game. And it's so funny that Larry and Daniel can share that moment together. It was actually hilarious to film. And it was a night shoot as well, so everyone's feeling a bit delirious and silly anyway. But that was great fun, absolute great fun.

Jace Lacob: So we learn about Larry and Daniel's shared love of Risk in this first episode, which unfolds at an American-style drive-in. Is it true you pitched this idea to Daisy and that you directed the second unit photography on this episode?

Bradley Hall: It is. They are both true. So we went to Melissa's wedding, and Daisy and Emma, executive producer, she was there, and it was lovely because you get to see them out of the context of being on set and the set world. So we're just like nice people that exist outside of that bubble.

But inevitably, you find yourselves talking about Grantchester and talking about the world that we're sharing. And from that chat and discussion at the wedding and stuff, I did feel a sense of like, "Oh, maybe this is my chance to offer up some suggestions because I feel like I'm in a safe space to do that.” So I did. I wrote down some ideas for settings, storyline settings, and one of them, I think it might have been the first one actually, was a drive-in cinema. And that was the start of the '60s. They were coming over. So it was quite early, but they definitely were coming over from America. So I thought well, that's great because that gives everyone a chance to be there, and then if there's a scream off-camera, that's great because then that brings us straight into our first murder.

And I think Daisy just saw it and she was like, "Brilliant, great.” It's on the meadows, she can see it, she can imagine all the nice period cars, and the camera can pan across all of them, we can find all of the characters there. So yeah, it worked. It just worked. And I'm glad that she went with that because it was great fun to film. I'm sure it was probably very expensive, so sorry! But yeah, at the same time, I'd messaged Emma about directing. I said, "If we go for 11, I would absolutely love to be involved in directing in some way, whether that's just shadowing behind so I can get some experience, or just so I can see that world more clearly. Or second unit, I would absolutely jump at the chance of doing that." And surprisingly she was like, "Absolutely." And I thought, "Oh, no! Here we go! We're going to do it then!"

And do you know what, I don't say this lightly, it was just the best experience. It was four days I did on it overall, and I think I covered Episodes One, Two, Four, Five—I didn't do Three or Four, and then I did the rest. So there were six episodes that I covered and it was great because I worked with most—I didn't work with Melissa, which was sad, but I did work with the rest of the cast. So I had a chance to wear my director's cap and be like, "Here we go, this is what we're going to do.” And it was so surreal. I was so nervous beforehand, like, "Oh no, are they going to listen to me?" Of course they're going to listen to you, of course they are! But you do have that fear of, "Oh no, there's a lot at stake here, and I feel like I've sold it that I'm going to be good, so now I have to be good." And I'm actually really, really happy because I've seen all the stuff and it is really good. And I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but I'm really, really happy with how they've cut together.

So I was really supported by everyone, cast and crew, and it was just the best experience, and I'm so chuffed. I cannot wait to be able to get the scenes so I can make a showreel because I'm just going to be playing it to anybody that wants to see it.

Jace Lacob: Given that support and the fact that this is Grantchester, it's a happy place, everyone loves working on the show, did that experience give you a drive to pursue other directing projects in the future? Is that something you're now considering?

Bradley Hall: Yeah, absolutely. I've always wanted to, but it's a hard world to break into. Really, really difficult world. Financially, you need to be well supported because you need to have some sort of financial security to be able to even try in this industry because there's so much uncertainty around when you're actually going to get a paycheck. So you need to be able to pay your bills in the meantime.

So it was always like, I can't, especially because I've got a family, it was like, I don't think I can say to my wife, "Do you know what? I want to go to film school now and be a director," because I thought, no way. That's just not going to go down very well at all. But it's always been a passion of mine, and I really hope that I get to explore it more in the future. And the experience on Grantchester was such a positive one, and now I've got the evidence of it as well being good as well. So I do feel like I would love to explore that in the future, and I know that I will. I'm not sure when, but I know that I will come back to that.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: And we’re back with actor Bradley Hall. By Episode 3, Larry says, "I'm learning to believe in myself," and he's reading Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking. And he's in a very happy place. His marriage is still under wraps, he's pushing himself to become sergeant, take his exam. But he is at this point rather insightful in terms of his investigations. He gives a description of the lamp found next to the victim.

CLIP

Larry: Someone lit it for him. Paraffin levels suggest it had been burning approximately 11 hours before the death. So, not the nurse, because she was in the cinema.

Alphy: Someone sits with him, smooths his blankets, gives him tea, brings him flowers.

Larry: Someone cares.

Jace Lacob: He's quite good at this, after all. For a character who started out as a baby-faced copper who was very wet behind the ears, how do you read these investigative scenes in contrast to those introductory scenes in Series 4?

Bradley Hall: Yeah, I really enjoyed doing these particular scenes in [Series] 11 because I've felt like where they took the character with Miss Scott, we became so invested in their relationship that we weren't focusing too much on Larry being a detective or being a good detective. And because he's content in the relationship with Miss Scott now and there's no longer that will-they-won't-they energy, it allows us to shift back to Larry being a detective.

I think previously he's always felt like the worst detective in the room and it's meant that he's used bravado, kind of puff out his chest and say things that are a bit brash and they are always to mask his insecurity. But I think now where he is, he's got this confidence and because he's found this confidence now, he is able just to do his job. He's no longer trying to prove—he's no longer going, "I'm a detective, therefore I'm going to say this and I'm going to see how you react to it." He just sees the clue and it's all happening because he's no longer proving himself. He's just being.

And it's great because in that particular episode, they’re stood around the bed at the same time. You've got Geordie, you've got Alphy, you've got Larry, and they're all finishing each other's sentences, they're all filling in the gaps. And it's like all three of them find that click, that final click. And it's all at the same time. Now, it was funny because Rishi was like, "No, no, no, I definitely found it first. Alphy definitely found it first.” And I'm going, "No, no, no. I think you'll find actually, Larry's the one that's got it first." And then Robson's being like, "No, no, no. Look, I think Geordie's actually got this one. Geordie's the one that's filling in all the blanks." So it was funny that we were all trying, in that particular moment, we're all stood in like a triangle and we're all offering up stuff and we all slot that final puzzle piece in at the same time and we turn and we look and that's the character that we haven't previously suspected, and that's our guy.

But it's great that Larry's able to genuinely contribute in Series 11. And like you say, it's such a contrast to what he was doing in earlier stuff, and I was just so happy that Larry was able to just be a detective rather than pretending to be a detective.

Jace Lacob: And then he does clinch it. He gets Geordie's approval. Geordie says,

CLIP

Geordie: Well done for today, Larry. You’re a Detective Inspector in the making.

Larry: You reckon?

Geordie: I can almost guarantee it.

Jace Lacob: And your small, proud smile there kills me. What does Geordie's approval in this moment mean for Larry?

Bradley Hall: It is so nice. The relationship that Geordie and Larry have, it's been so twisty and turny. From the start, it was kind of like, Larry was just always annoying, I think. And Geordie's so good at being a dad figure for a lot of the characters, but I don't think he ever particularly wanted to be a dad figure for Larry because Larry was so annoying. But Larry was therefore probably wanting it more than the other characters.

So many times when you could see him telling Will, the second vicar, Tom Brittney, how proud he was. And I think this whole time, Larry's just wanted Geordie to say, "I'm proud of you." That's all he's wanted. And even through [Series] 11, he's telling him in other ways, but he's not actually saying it. And I think that's what Larry's striving for. But it's so nice that Geordie, as a character, is allowed to recognize the work that he's put in has meant that Larry's turned out the way that he's turned out.

Jace Lacob: Having said that, Larry might be on the path to becoming a Detective Inspector one day, but he's failed to detect that his wife is pregnant, believing that the martinis that Jen had keep repeating on her. And granted, he is focused on his sergeant's exam, but is this Larry failing to pick up on clues or is he just being a typical 1960s husband here?

Bradley Hall: I think this is one of those things where you have to suspend full reality. And at the time as well, Melissa was actually pregnant. So even in the early stuff when she—Miss Scott wasn't pregnant, Melissa was quite heavily pregnant. So we're having to do clever camera trickery as well and hide her actual bump and stuff. So it was kind of silly that we were having these conversations, especially Alphy and Geordie together being like, "She's in the family way," and then he's like, "Oh, do you think?" and then obviously the camera can see that she's got a massive bump. But obviously the two characters are meant to at the time not know because she's so early pregnant.

But I think yeah, what you're saying about Larry not paying attention fully to it, I think there's a lot going on and Larry's really taking it seriously to become a sergeant. And I think it is just one of those things, it's a proper Larry-ism. So even when you think, "This guy's got it all sussed and he's sorted now, and he's a really clever, switched-on character," he manages to completely oversee something that's very apparent to everyone else. So it was a funny one to play because obviously I had to pretend whilst holding Melissa's massive real bump by being like, "There's a baby in there, is there?" like, questioning it. When the whole crew are obviously really laughing because it's quite obvious that she's got an eight-month bump at the time.

Jace Lacob: I love the scene where Geordie reveals Larry has passed his sergeant's exam. He says, "Your mum would be so proud of you."

CLIP

Geordie: Larry!

Larry: Yes boss?

Geordie: You’ve got some explaining to do. I have received a very disturbing letter regarding the behavior of an officer in this force.

Larry: I haven’t done nothing wrong.

Geordie: Well that’s not what it says here.

Larry: What’s it say?

Geordie: It relates to the successful promotion of a Detective Sergeant, Larry Peters.

Larry: Oh my God. You had me going.

Geordie: Congratulations. Your mum would be proud.

Jace Lacob: I love the fact that Geordie sticks his hand out to shake Larry's, and Larry pulls him in for this tearful hug and thanks Geordie for everything. What did you make of this sweet moment between them?

Bradley Hall: I think it was really nice and I was very conscious about playing that because it's so easy, I think, sometimes with Larry-type characters where they can be quite on the nose sometimes and you have to tread carefully because you don't want to be two dimensional. You want to make sure that there's a whole character in there.

And it was a really nice earned moment that Larry, that's not him becoming the best detective, but he's become the detective that he was meant to be. And he's thanking Geordie. He's saying to Geordie, "This has all been possible because of you," and typical men of the time, they don't say any of those things. It's all done with looks and it's all done with handshakes. But it's really sweet that Larry in that moment is so overcome with emotion he just grabs him, just grabs him in.

And when we were staging that and saying how's it going to go, because obviously it gives you an indication in the script of what Daisy's suggestion is that might happen, stage directions and stuff. But I said to Robson, does it surprise Geordie? Do you want it to be a surprise? Because if you do, then maybe let's not talk too much about the ins and outs of how it's going to do it. Let's just do it, and then it can be quite—if it's a little bit odd and it's a little bit awkward, I think that's quite sweet for the two characters to have that. Because all Larry wants to do is just grab him. That's Larry's way of thanking him and everything. And I think initially Geordie's a bit like, "Whoa, what's happening now?" but then it's a mutual moment where they're with each other and then it's gone again. It's just two men showing that sweet moment and then it goes. And that's all it needs to be.

Jace Lacob: So, the scene where Jen actually comes out and says, "A baby's come up, Larry." He is so entirely chuffed at the prospect of being a father, and I love the exchange between them.

CLIP

Larry: Secondary drowning. I bloody knew it.

Miss Scott: Another star turn by Sergeant Peters.

Larry: And Mrs. Peters. We did it together. We always do.

Miss Scott: There’s something else we’ve done together that I need to talk to you about.

Larry: Me and you?

Miss Scott: Yes.

Larry: Gardening? Those marrows we planted haven’t come up already have they?

Miss Scott: No.

Larry: The carrots?

Miss Scott: No.

Larry: Never the corn.

Miss Scott: A baby. A baby’s come up, Larry.

Larry: A baby. A baby?! In there?

Miss Scott: Yes.

Larry: How did that happen?

Miss Scott: Well, I would do a reenactment for you, but we’re at work.

Larry: Our baby. My baby?

Miss Scott: Are you happy? I know there’s a lot of things we have to talk about, I—

Larry: Happy.

Jace Lacob: As both a parent yourself and playing this opposite a very expectant Melissa Johns, what did this moment mean to you?

Bradley Hall: It was actually a really emotional scene for us to get through I think, because I was remembering how it felt for me the first time. And Melissa also, who was pregnant at the time, and expecting her first child, it was all really, really there. It was right there under the surface. So it wouldn't take much at all. And I love Melissa, we get on so well and I'm so glad that I've got her as a friend for life. And I hope she feels the same. I think she does. I hope she feels the same. And to be able to do that together and both use our actual real-life experiences and bring them to Larry and Miss Scott in that moment, I don't think it took much really for us to be able to convey the genuine love and hope for the future and to really land that moment.

And I think it just so happened that we were both doing exactly what needed to be done for the other character. She was giving me exactly what Larry needed, and I was giving her exactly what Miss Scott needed. And that comes from us. That comes from Bradley and Melissa, and we would always want to give each other the best possible chance of doing a good take. So it was just such a pleasure to work with Melissa, and I just know that we're going to work together again. I just know it.

Jace Lacob: Bradley Hall, thank you so very much.

Bradley Hall: Thank you, Jace.

Next time, Jennifer Peters navigates the roller coaster of the first trimester.

CLIP

Geordie: Are you alright?

Jennifer: No. I can’t sit, I can’t stand, and don’t even get me started on sleeping.

Join us next week as we talk with actor Melissa Johns about what Jennifer’s pregnancy means for her future at the station.

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