Rishi Nair, Grantchester, Season 11

Released June 21, 2026 31:44

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

For the past two seasons of Grantchester, actor Rishi Nair has portrayed Reverend Alphy Kottaram through highs and lows, from the confrontational meeting with Geordie upon his arrival at the vicarage, to finally finding a place of belonging. But nothing compares to the roller coaster that is his new relationship with his birth mother, Mira. In this episode, Rishi takes us through Alphy’s latest trials, and how learning the truth about his past shakes him to his very core.

Rishi Nair, Grantchester, Season 11| MASTERPIECE Studio

This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

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

As Alphy Kottaram shows his mother, Mira, around Grantchester’s church and explains his daily duties as an Anglican vicar, a loud banging stops them both in their tracks. Unexpectedly, a young college student is found trying to break into a church closet.

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Norris: I didn’t do anything!

Alphy: Then why are you running?

Norris: I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Alphy: Okay. Okay, I’m not going to hurt you. So you can stop apologizing and start explaining.

Norris: It’s a dare. An initiation, really. Procure a bible from a church.

Alphy: Steal a bible?

Norris: Ridiculous, I know. College hijinks.

It becomes clear in these early episodes that Alphy’s life is not quite what Mira is used to. After all, how many crime-solving vicars are there in 1960s Grantchester? Alphy really wants to bring his world and hers together, and decides one way could be Alphy connecting to his Indian roots through cooking.

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Alphy: My mother’s visiting again today and I realized I need to start cooking with her in mind. I need ingredients.

Leonard: Oh.

Alphy: And, not from the village grocers.

Leonard: I could pop into town for you.

Alphy: Thank you. Try the Kohinoor. I’ll write you a list. And Leonard, I’ll owe you one.

Alas, Mira never shows up for dinner. Alphy, feeling rejected, decides to pay Meg a visit and asks her out. However, Meg has other plans… plans with another man.

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Alphy: Ah. Right. I guess I thought—

Meg: We’re friends, yeah? That’s what we decided.

Alphy: We did, we did. I’m sorry.

Meg: I can’t believe you found your mum. That must be bliss!

Alphy: Yeah, it’s great.

Meg: I’m so happy for you. I really am.

Today, we’re joined by actor Rishi Nair who discusses how his character, Alphy Kottaram, does his best to reconcile his past and his present, and the struggles he faces while doing so.

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by Grantchester star, Rishi Nair. Welcome.

Rishi Nair: Thank you so much for having me again.

Jace Lacob: Thanks for coming back. So, Series 11 begins with a dream where Alphy performs the last rites.

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Alphy: Go forth from this world in the love of God who created you, in the mercy of Jesus Christ who redeemed you, in the power of the holy spirit who strengthens you. May you dwell this day in peace. We love you, you can go now.

Jace Lacob: It’s a mystery for now, though Alphy awakens with a sense of dread, one that really does hang over this final series. What did you make of that dream scene when you first read it or had to act it out?

Rishi Nair: Well, when I first read it, I didn't know what the dream meant, which was quite helpful because Alphy doesn't know what the dream means either. Obviously, as I read on throughout the series, I realized what the dream meant because it's actually a reoccurring dream he has at several points throughout the whole season. And I think as the audience, we're kind of questioning what it means alongside Alphy. Every time he has it, he has a different thought about what it might mean, and then obviously towards the end we all find out what it means.

But it's really nice to have something that's reoccurring, and it's funny for Alphy because it actually worries him quite a lot. He's having this dream and he's constantly trying to search for an answer of what it means. And obviously he goes to Geordie to ask him and Geordie is quite flippant about it and has his own theories that Alphy doesn't agree with. So, yeah, it's a nice little recurring theme that we have going through the whole series this year.

Jace Lacob: In Series 9, Alphy's first scene is rooted in conflict. Geordie accuses him of breaking into the vicarage despite him being, well, the vicar. But Series 11 begins with this scene that, to me, is rooted entirely in love and care. Whatever this meaning of the dream is, we sense that there's a lot of love here. What do you make of that juxtaposition between Alphy's first scene and this first scene of Series 11?

Rishi Nair: Yeah, I guess it kind of represents where he is now in Grantchester. He is very cemented in that position of the vicar of Grantchester. He's essentially reading a prayer, isn't he? It's a prayer that he's having, but it's a prayer that is kind of the last rites. So it's a prayer you would read to someone when they're dying or if they're dead. So that's what he's struggling with, and yeah, I guess in a way that dream is signifying an end to something because we're talking about death. And I guess the beginning of the season represents him being very cemented in that position, which is obviously a big contrast to the start of Season 9 where they thought he was just kind of burgling the house.

Jace Lacob: When we last saw Alphy at the end of Series 10, he was standing outside his birth mother's home and his knock on the door is answered. And we pick back up with Alphy, we learn that he has settled into a kind of quasi-relationship with his mother Mira. How does he approach this relationship, one in which both parties are sort of tiptoeing around each other?

Rishi Nair: I think Alphy has convinced himself that everything's going fine. I think he's just very excited and he's really happy that he's found his birth mother and she wants to be a part of his life. And it's almost like he resorts back to being a little boy. We're talking about an orphan here that has never had a mother or a father and suddenly he has this mother in his life. And like I said, he just reverts back to being a kid and he's kind of just giddy and excited and he's telling Geordie about it and telling Geordie how wonderful it is and she's going to be coming over. And I think Geordie is realizing that maybe Alphy's getting a bit too invested in this and it might not be so smooth sailing. And I guess he worries for his friend. But Alphy doesn't see it that way, well, not yet anyway.

Jace Lacob: I love that notion that he's sort of reverting to this childlike state because he is desperate, you're right, for a maternal love, but also this sense of approval, I think. And we see that in Episode One where Mira first visits Grantchester to see the life that Alphy has created for himself. And it's really uncomfortable for her, not just the Britishness of his existence, but also its whiteness. How does Alphy react to that moment, the notion that his life is entrenched in these trappings that his birth mother doesn't recognize?

Rishi Nair: Yeah, I think that comes as quite a surprise to him because, you know, she gave Alphy away as a child and he was raised by the church and he was raised in England in the 50s and 60s. So, of course he's going to be enriched with that kind of culture that you would have in England and been raised by white British people. We kind of saw in Season 10 that Alphy has this kind of identity crisis because obviously he's not white, he's an Indian man, he's a brown man, but he doesn't know anything about that world. He doesn't know anything about what his culture is or where his family comes from or the foods or the languages, anything.

So I think when his mother comes and visits him—and obviously when we see her come into the church he's delivering a sermon and he's obviously dressed as a vicar delivering his sermon and the congregation is a vast majority white British people—I think she kind of looks at this man who is obviously Indian and doesn't really recognize anything Indian about him other than his skin is brown. And I think when she confronts Alphy about that, Alphy's quite taken aback because I don't think he's ever seen it like that. This is just his world, this is what he's grown up in, and I think he is a bit offended by that and taken aback by it. But he doesn't want to ruin his relationship with his mother, so I think at first he kind of just takes it on the chin and kind of sees it almost as his own fault. There's a scene later on in the season where he invites his mother over and tries to cook an Indian meal and he needs help from Leonard because he's never cooked an Indian meal in his life. So he kind of sees it as his own fault at first, I think, and tries to dive into that culture and to please her essentially.

Jace Lacob: Despite the fact that they are mother and son, these are virtual strangers, and Mira and Alphy are sort of curating aspects of their lives for the other. And she might wear that hat to the Sunday roast, but it's uncomfortable, painful even for her. How did you and Nimmi Harasgama, who plays Mira, work to embody that sense of tension and caution between these two?

Rishi Nair: Yeah, I think what we kind of spoke about was it is just two worlds colliding together. Mira, who's played by the brilliant Nimmi, obviously has an Indian accent as the character of Mira. And so that already ostracizes her from everyone else in Grantchester and makes her stand out and is very different to Alphy as well. And I think that was important that we—because we spoke about before we cast Nimmi and we were speaking about Mira the character and whether she should have an Indian accent or whether she should have a British accent. And I think because what we're trying to focus on here is a real clash of cultures and clash of two worlds, her having an Indian accent just made it even more extreme and it makes Alphy feel further away from her as well because Alphy obviously has a British accent.

So, I think the essential thing that we spoke about was just this meeting of two worlds that don't quite fit and both of them are trying to please the other person to kind of fit in and it's just quite messy and quite awkward. So yeah, I guess that's the main kind of thing that we spoke about with those scenes in particular.

Jace Lacob: Even given that she wants to impress Alphy, she looks the model of Englishness when she shows up to meet his found family, but she just doesn't fit. She's a vegetarian, Alphy has to swoop in to rescue her when she's put on the spot to say grace. How does he read these awkward but telling moments with the others, with his found family?

Rishi Nair: I think Daisy had written it so beautifully because they're not big things. They're very small things like, I can't remember exactly what meal it was, but I hadn't even considered that my mother maybe isn't a meat eater, maybe she's a vegetarian, and she's obviously a vegetarian for religious reasons.

So I think it's just portraying these cultural differences but through very everyday things. Just kind of, I've cooked a meal and oh god she's come over and she doesn't eat meat and now there's literally just potatoes left for her. And it's those kind of awkward moments that I think are portraying a much bigger picture of what we spoke about about these two people that are essentially mother and son, but because of how they're brought up and because Alphy was an orphan and didn't have that mother or that kind of culture within him, they are living two very, very different lives. And now when they meet all these years later they find it hard to relate to each other.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: And we’re back with actor Rishi Nair. Alphy has really been keeping things steady between them, he's trying not to rock the boat by demanding answers. But that comes to a head when he asks Mira, "Why didn't you want me?" What does it take for Alphy to ask this of her, to break this unspoken promise between them to stick just to the present?

Rishi Nair: I think it stems from a conversation he has with Geordie when Geordie thinks that his reoccurring dream is about his mother and about all the unanswered questions about why he was abandoned, why he grew up as an orphan. And growing up as an orphan would have been very hard for him, especially as a brown man in England in the 1950s.

So, even though he's pretending and they're playing happy families between Alphy and Mira, I think he knows deep down that he needs to know the answers of why he was abandoned, which is how he sees it. And so it comes, I guess, a little bit out of the blue. Alphy just blurts it out and I think what it is is he thinks that he can get away with not knowing and not having this conversation but he needs to know and I guess for Alphy there's no real easy way of asking. And it's quite a sad moment for him really because again in that moment when I was reading the scene and I thought about how I would play it, it's again, tapping back into this seven-year-old, eight-year-old boy that just feels like, why is he an orphan, why has his mother abandoned him? So yeah, it was just him kind of reverting back to a child again I think in that very moment.

Jace Lacob: And I love the fact your voice even breaks when you ask her that. The scene that follows in the church between you and Nimmi where Mira tells Alphy about his past and her sense of shame is really beautiful and really heartbreaking.

CLIP

Alphy: Did you tell anyone else you were having me?

Mira: No.

Alphy: Why not?

Mira: Shame. I was ashamed. My mother knew, I think. She didn’t say as much but the look on her face, the disgust. And when the time came, it was night. I was alone in my room. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t cry out for fear my parents might hear me. It was the loneliest moment of my life. I tucked you in a blanket. I wrote you a letter. I don’t suppose you got it.

Alphy: “Even though we will no longer be together, I will think of you every day until I die.”

Mira: And I did. I do. Every day.

Alphy: Thinking of someone is not the same as being there, Mira.

Jace Lacob: How difficult of a scene was this to shoot and how did the blocking of the scene, the physical space between you and Nimmi that is maintained throughout, how did that help to show the emotional space between these two characters?

Rishi Nair: It’s one of those scenes when you get it in the script and you think, "Okay, this is one of the big scenes." I think for me and for Nimmi when we spoke about it, I think over-rehearsing the scene wasn't something we wanted to do. We wanted to keep it quite raw in the sense that it's such an awkward conversation between these two characters and so painful for both of them that sometimes I feel like with those kinds of scenes, if you over-rehearse it, you lose all of that raw awkwardness. And so we didn't rehearse it too much. And having it in the church was such a, you know, that church is such a beautiful place to shoot and just having them sat there, just two people in this huge space. And it's like they feel very isolated because it's just the two of them, and yet they're sat next to each other, but they don't feel like they're together. I think there is that kind of distance between them physically.

Alphy wants to know and doesn't really understand why, and Mira pours her heart out and delivers this beautiful speech about why she had to give Alphy up. And I think the most important thing in that scene was just letting it breathe because I think for Mira, she's finding it very difficult to get these words out because she's probably never really spoken about it before. And Alphy, even though we're talking about a boy here that's been abandoned, he is also a vicar. He has conversations like this more than most people do. So I think he's very good at letting people speak, whether they're confessing or whether they're speaking to him asking for counsel or whatever it might be.

I think he's used to these situations in that sense. Obviously when it's about himself, we're in a completely different space, but he has that in him. And he allows her her moment to speak and to explain herself and for him also to kind of take it in. But as the conversation goes on, I think he then starts jumping in and asking more questions and getting a little bit more… it was a bit more intense for him, I guess. But yeah, I think letting it breathe was what me and Nimmi spoke about, was the fundamental part of that scene to make it work, we thought.

Jace Lacob: I think it's understandable he gets a little shirty as it goes on, but he does give her agency here. She is allowed to tell her story to him. He doesn't really sit in judgment, which I think goes to your point that he's used to people telling him uncomfortable things, even if in this case it is about him. But the fact that this conversation happens not while they're walking on the river, but they're sat in the church at the very heart of Alphy's belief system. Alphy says, "I belong here." And it’s not just Grantchester I think he's referring to, but in the church itself. Would this conversation have unfolded a different way on more neutral ground, do you think?

Rishi Nair: I think so, yeah. I think they're very much in Alphy's space there. And as comfortable as Alphy feels in that space, that's just as uncomfortable as Mira feels in that space because she's so far away from that world. I actually couldn't think of a better place to film that scene now that we've done it.

Jace Lacob: I think it has to happen there, I think, for Alphy. Mira hoped that he would be adopted by an Indian family. What does Alphy make of the revelation that there was no meaning to where Mira left him as a baby, that she didn't want to be found and the foundling home was just the closest doorstep on a cold night? How does this shake his sense that his path to the priesthood was preordained or perhaps wasn't?

Rishi Nair: I think that revelation in particular for Alphy is really hard to take. I think it's a kick in the teeth moment for him because he's always believed that him being a vicar, him being an orphan growing up in an orphanage run by a church has had this kind of meaning behind it and this weight behind it and almost like it's his calling in life. And so when you grow up and you believe that and you dedicate your life to that belief, because I think that's the reason he becomes a vicar, because he thinks it's his calling in life. So then when he asks Mira about it and is expecting some huge meaning behind it and she says, "No, it was just the closest place I could find" I think his whole life turns upside down then because everything he's thought he was, everything he's dedicated his life to, now actually doesn't have that meaning and it was just chance. And so I think that moment is quite huge for Alphy because it's the catalyst of him losing his faith essentially, which is what happens as the season progresses. And so yeah, I think that moment is quite pivotal for him.

Jace Lacob: In Episode 2, Alphy shows Mira around the church after their confrontation, and they lack a common language. She calls him a “pandit”, the Hindi word for priest, a learned man. Does that moment reveal just how wide a chasm there is between them?

Rishi Nair: Yeah, it's kind of like the meat in Episode One when she comes over for dinner and she's a vegetarian. I think it's just these really flippant small things that will pop up in a conversation and Alphy has no idea what it means, he's never heard the word in his life. And so I think it's just brilliant writing again from Daisy to… every time we think that they're fine and they're getting on, there's just a little plink in the armor that just shows that okay, actually they're not on the same page and they are from two different worlds. And it's awkward, isn't it? It's awkward for Alphy, he feels ashamed that he doesn't know what that word means, but how would he know what that word means? He doesn't have anyone in his life to teach him that and the reason for that is Mira.

Jace Lacob: Mira fails to be impressed by Alphy's Triumph and takes her leave.

CLIP

Geordie: I don’t think she had Christian vicar on her bingo card.

Alphy: No, but lots of families have different beliefs.

Geordie: I believe jam goes on the scone first, Cathy believes it’s cream. It’s a wonder we’ve lasted.

Alphy: I think a bit more time. I think the more she visits, the more common ground we’ll find.

Geordie: Just tread carefully.

Alphy: Of course.

Jace Lacob: Putting aside the fact that Geordie is dead wrong about jam first, how does Alphy feel now that he's gotten some clarity from Mira about his past?

Rishi Nair: We've always known Alphy to be glass half full. He spoke about that in Season 9 and we've seen that trait in him. And I think now that he's had Mira explain everything to him, I think it's been very devastating for him, as we spoke about earlier, it was a catalyst in a change in thought process for him. However, Alphy is glass half full, he's a very positive man and so he thinks that whatever that was he's dealt with it now. The next morning he wakes up and he's got a spring in his step and he just thinks, okay, it's almost like a weight off his shoulders. And I think he now thinks now the relationship with me and Mira can really blossom, progress. I think he's actually in really high spirits because it's one of those things that you have this kind of, in life, this dread about something happening or having to have this conversation with someone and no matter how good or bad it goes, once it's done it is a weight off your shoulders. And I think Alphy feels really light in this moment and probably a little bit in denial as well.

Jace Lacob: Geordie urges caution, but instead of taking Geordie's words to heart, Alphy sets about making an Indian dinner for Mira and he sends poor Leonard out for ingredients. And he's really, I think, trying to make an effort to connect with her on her terms, but she fails to show up for dinner. And Mrs. C tries to console Alphy, telling him about her husband Ronnie, who showed up after disappearing during the war. She says, "I hoped for the best and I got the worst." And she tries to remind Alphy that he'll always have them, but Alphy physically and emotionally pulls away from Mrs. C at that moment. What goes through his head here, this betrayal by Mira?

Rishi Nair: I think firstly he's embarrassed, he's embarrassed in front of the rest of his Grantchester family that she's not turned up. He obviously has put so much on this big dinner and I think they can all see that and I think they're all really excited for him as is he obviously to have his mother there and he's going to surprise her with this lavish Indian meal that he's cooked. So when she doesn't turn up, firstly he's embarrassed and obviously secondly he's devastated. He doesn't really understand why.

We've got to remember that this is a guy that has abandonment issues because he was abandoned as a child by his mother. He now has his mother back in his life and her not showing up for dinner just feels like an abandonment all over again and it's really tough for him. And I think when Mrs. C approaches him in the kitchen and they have that scene, I think he's just in denial there. He doesn't want to open up in front of Mrs. C, he doesn't want to embarrass himself any further. And so it's just that kind of denial of, "No, I think something's come up and she couldn't make it, it's not a big deal, it's fine, I'm fine." And I think they can all see that actually he's not fine. I think Mrs. C can see that for sure.

So yeah, that was actually a really beautiful scene and it was great that it was Mrs. C that's the person that came and spoke to Alphy there because Mrs. C is the closest thing he has to a mother. So it's a really lovely full circle moment there.

Jace Lacob: He does minimize all of that. He is, I think, very much in denial, as you say, and it's only later that Alphy admits how he feels to Geordie.

CLIP

Alphy: I don’t know what I did wrong.

Geordie: It wasn’t you.

Alphy: She did not like the tea rooms. Saw Meg there, she didn’t like her either.

Geordie: There won’t be that.

Alphy: I’ve done okay, haven’t I?

Geordie: Maybe it’s not about you doing well. Maybe it’s about being in different worlds.

Jace Lacob: At that moment do Geordie's words sink in for Alphy at all, this notion that despite the best of intentions, there's just too much baggage here between him and Mira?

Rishi Nair: I think so. I think he takes it on. He doesn't really understand the reason why she's not turned up. And obviously we're in a day and age where contact with someone like that is not as easy as it is today. So, today if someone wasn't turning up for dinner you'd probably get a message or a voicemail or a WhatsApp or whatever but back then it's just someone hasn't turned up you don't know why. And like anything in life, you start thinking the worst don't you? You start thinking, is it something I did? Maybe she doesn't want me anymore. I think he does take Geordie's message on, but I think it's going to eat away at him because he doesn't know for sure and I think the only way he really is going to find out why she hasn't turned up is by going and confronting Mira herself.

Jace Lacob: So after their unexpected meeting in the park earlier in this episode, Alphy goes to see Meg to catch up, only to learn that there is in fact a new guy in her life. And they had agreed to be friends after all, but it doesn't make it smart any less, nor the fact that Meg unknowingly twists the knife here about Mira. How dejected is Alphy here and does this feel like another abandonment for him?

Rishi Nair: Obviously he's had his mother back in his life, he's now lost his mother again and he's in a bit of turmoil at the minute and his head's spinning, he feels abandoned again. And so he plucks up the courage to go and find Meg and ask her out again to try and see if that could work and then he finds out that he's actually lost her as well. So it's kind of a double whammy for him. He's lost his mother and now he's lost the girl that he's interested in. He wasn't really expecting her to have moved on perhaps so quickly, albeit it is a date, but for Alphy in that moment I think he feels like he hasn't got many people left in his life and I think that's a dagger in the heart that she's not available and obviously her date is right there and so he kind of gives her his blessing and lets her move on.

Jace Lacob: So given that, what can you tease about what lies ahead for Alphy on this final series of Grantchester? Is it all sunshine and roses or is there darkness to be found ahead?

Rishi Nair: I think we'll probably have to go with darkness for the rest of the season, yeah. Like we've spoken about in these first two episodes, there are a few things that happen there. There's a catalyst of him questioning his faith, which is obviously huge for him because he's a vicar. He loses his mother again, feels abandoned all over again, and he loses Meg. So that kind of sets us up for Alphy dealing with a lot. And as the season progresses, I think he loses more than that and that almost spirals him out of control a little bit and into quite a dark place. Whether he gets out of that or not, I guess we'll all have to watch and wait and see.

Jace Lacob: We'll have to wait and see. Rishi Nair, thank you so much.

Rishi Nair: Thank you very much.

Next time, at CeCe’s Boutique, Cathy has big plans to overhaul their more traditional inventory.

CLIP

Cathy: Yes, they are expensive. But they’re hand stitched. They’re Italian. And I figure if we invest in something more up market, then we get a more up market customer.

Mr. Switch: What’s your instinct telling you?

Cathy: We do it.

Mr. Switch: Well, there you go then.

Join us next week as we talk with actor Kacey Ainsworth about Cathy Keating’s newfound independence and her future as a fashion-forward businesswoman.

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