Meet Grantchester’s New Vicar, Rishi Nair
Third time’s a charmer in Grantchester’s ninth season as the show welcomes new vicar Alphy Kottaram and the actor who plays him, Rishi Nair. Meet the man wearing the vestments and bringing a breezy cool to the murdery village, and learn about Nair’s warm and funny experiences joining the cast as revealed in a May 2024 interview with MASTERPIECE.
- 1.
Coaching Soccer was His Side Hustle…and May Even Have Helped Him Get the Role
Nair credits football—or as we call it, soccer—as his biggest hobby, revealing that, “when you’re first starting off as an actor, you’re not working so often, so my side hustle was coaching football alongside my acting.” Even now, he still plays three times a week. Said Nair, “It’s a big part of my life.” And just as Nair loves football, so too does his Grantchester character, Alphy. “I’m a big Man U [Manchester United] fan. We haven’t said who Alphy supports yet, but I’m going to do everything I can to try and get him to be a Man U fan as well!”
It was football, in fact, that the actor chatted about with Robson Green during his “chemistry read” screen test, the final part of his audition for the role of Alphy in Grantchester. Nair arrived at his audition with stakes and nerves ratcheted up, but tensions evaporated right away when he received a hug from Green. “Immediately, I just felt so calm. My nerves had gone. We sat down and had a conversation about football—nothing to do with acting or the scenes—we were just chatting for 10 minutes. It was such a lovely moment for me; it made me feel so comfortable and it was a sign of how things were going to progress for the rest of the season, not just with Robson, but the rest of the cast…Every single one of them was so welcoming, so lovely. I just felt part of that family straight away.”
- 2.
He Already Has a Favorite Moment with Robson Green
Of Nair’s many favorite moments so far with Robson Green, one of them stood out because it was just so funny—and because it involved Alphy’s red Triumph convertible. While Nair has experience driving a manual, most of them have been post-2000, and the Triumph is from the 1960s. “Normally, you put your clutch, give gas and it goes, whereas with this, you put the clutch and everything sticks. Once it gets going, it’s fine, but it’s a really hard car get it started.” So when it was time for Alphy to give Geordie a ride in the vintage car at the end of Episode 4, they zoomed away from the set and the crew, and then turned the car around. But when Nair tried to start the car to return, it stalled out. “No one else was around us, just me and Robson, so he gets out of the car and is like ‘Right, I’m going to push the car, and we’re going to try to jump start it like that.’ He’s behind, pushing the car, I’m jump starting it, and little did we know that there was paparazzi somewhere that got a picture of it! The next day in the papers, there was a picture of Robson pushing the red Triumph. We found it quite funny.”
- 3.
...And a Favorite Vehicle!
In spite of the sticking and stalling, Nair, like Alphy, is a big fan of the Triumph, and would choose it over Sydney’s bike or Will’s motorcycle. “It’s such a statement, isn’t it?” he asked. “The fact that he is rolling around Grantchester in 1961 in a red sports car, and he’s a vicar, is absurd. I think it’s such a great character trait in that he’s worked hard, he’s earned his money and he feels like, “If this is what I want, then this is what I want. I don’t care what people think.”
- 4.
He Got Great Advice from Tom Brittney
Just as Tom Brittney got great advice from James Norton when he took on the role of Will Davenport, so too did Rishi Nair benefit from his predecessor in matters of wardrobe…and costar! “Tom told me how to deal with Robson when he’s hungry,” Nair said. “Make sure he gets food, make sure he gets a nice big salad with his lunch because he likes his salads. He needs coffees in the morning to keep him awake.” Brittney’s advice ranged from who to talk to if Nair had any questions to the tricky dog collar that the vicars wear. “It is the most uncomfortable thing to wear in the world, it’s super tight. So he gave me a few tricks of the trade on little things to unhook, but I’m not going to say too much, just in case the costume team read this and finds out all the tricks that I’ve done.”
- 5.
His Favorite Days are Dickens Days
Brittney’s advice also included keeping a couple of sausages on hand for scenes with Dickens, and Nair was soon perfectly smitten by the dog. “My days on set with Dickens were my favorite,” he said. “He just brings so much joy on set. Being able to just sit with him in between takes and play with him is a real joy. He is so cute, he is so loving and he’s also so impressive. He hits marks, he knows when to look, he knows when to leave the scene. I’m actually pretty in awe of him.”
- 6.
He's a “Glass Half-Full” Kind of Guy
Alphy tells Geordie in Episode 2, “I’m a glass half full kind of guy,” a temperament that Nair himself shares: “I think I’ve always been that way just because—and I don’t know if this is right or wrong—but I feel like it just makes life easier for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s pros and cons, and sometimes, being half glass-full is not the best way, but I think having that mindset on a daily basis makes me see the good in things. I feel like I have a more positive outlook on life, so it works.”
As we anticipate Season 10, will this outlook be tested for Alphy? Will our well-balance vicar continue to zip around town in his red sports car demon-free? Time will tell, says, Nair whose character plays his cards close to his chest. “You can see there’s things that hit a nerve for him and there’s things that are unsettling for him, but I think Alphy’s that kind of character where he doesn’t give too much away, For the audience, it’s like, ‘What is going on here? Something’s unsettling him, but I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet.’ That’ll be interesting to explore in the next season.”
