We're winding this church down.
It's for the best.
I deserve to have answers.
What do you want to know?
That I'm out before I've even started?!
You need me.
Cathy... she needs you more than I do.
You have no idea what happens in places like that!
You're starting to sound like your mother.
Mood stabilizers.
*CREDITS*
"Amazing Grace"... hm.
"I once was lost, but now I'm found."
Never really understood those words before.
You found me, and...
I don't know.
Maybe this is the first time I've ever felt
abandoned by you.
You brought me here for a reason, I'm sure of it.
So, do I fight this?
Or do I go?
What is it you want from me?
Sorry, um, sounding a bit churlish there.
But if you could just give me a sign.
Horseshoes.
Crockery.
Find all manner of rubbish out here on the dirt, but this...
Not your average day at the office, I imagine.
Gave me the shock of my life.
Could be that girl who went missing
after going to the pictures.
Eh...
Not her, Larry.
How can you tell?
Skull shape?
That.
And I doubt she popped out to see the latest flick
with a bloody great sword in her purse.
Alphy? Alphy!
There is a Roman soldier in our village.
Huh... lost, is he?
Alphy's working, my love.
Our very own Roman, imagine that!
Trumpington doesn't have a Roman.
Sorry.
There are architecturalists in
Marcus Blakely's field as we speak.
Archaeologists.
That's what I said... archi...
From Oxford.
But we're not gonna hold that against them, are we?
Oh, she will... she has a thing about Oxford.
Well, it's no Cambridge, is it?
Della!
Say cheese!
The archi-whatsits are looking for buried treasure.
How do you know all this?
She picks up gossip by osmosis.
On your feet, Alphy Kottaram.
I'm working, Mrs. C.
This is the most exciting thing to happen
since Mrs. Harris drank too many ciders
and walked down the road in her nethers.
Work can wait.
I have absolutely no choice in the matter, do I?
Alphy?
Funnily enough, I was reading about this only the other day.
70 A.D., the Romans came to Cambridge.
Mostly avoided this area, though.
It was too wet and marshy for them.
Nothing worse than getting your sandals muddy.
You know your stuff, Jack.
I dabbled back in the day.
Worked digs in Agra, Egypt, Alexandretta. Hm.
I had no idea.
I had no idea!
Billy! Kate!
Cross... perfect condition!
And look at the detail... it's exquisite.
It's better than sex!
Yeah.
I'm not sure Billy would know.
To think that was here all this time.
Aw, there's more out there,
I can feel it.
We're on the precipice of a great discovery.
Bloody hope so, amount of mud you've trod through my house.
Be sure to come to our talk this evening... Village Hall.
7:00 p.m... come on.
Kate Earnshaw.
Curator of archaeology at the Ashmolean.
Ah, Alphy Kottaram... plain old man of God.
Ashmolean Museum?
That's in Oxford, isn't it?
- Have you been? - Never felt the need.
We have lots of museums in Cambridge.
Hello!
Not fond of interlopers?
Oh, she's not fond of anyone.
Don't take it personally.
Will you be there tonight?
That rather depends.
On?
If you will.
I'll be there.
Then so will I.
Come on.
An evening with a bunch of academics.
Think I'd rather have a chat with the skeleton.
The brown or the brown?
Whatever you think, Geordie.
Nah, it's a joke... 'cause they're pretty much the same?
But if you have to explain a joke, you...
One of those days?
It was fine.
There's still time.
It was Milburn!
Dora?
It was me... sorry.
I wish getting a confession was always that easy.
Upstairs.
Good boy.
It was your vase... sorry, Cathy.
I think I'd rather not go out... I think I'd rather turn in.
I'll buy you a new one.
- It's a vase, Geordie. - I know how much you loved it.
It's just a vase.
Why are we doing this again?
You got me.
- Alphy? - It's good for the village.
And what's good for the village is good for the church.
Cathy had the right idea.
There's a slide show.
Ooh, slides! You love a slide.
No one loves a slide.
I do! I love a slide!
You know, Cambridge was a very significant Roman settlement.
Celts... from the Northern Alps, mainly.
Hm!
And there's beer... lots of beer.
Now you're talking.
Not only did we find our skeleton,
the rather poetically named Exhibit 5358,
but we also found this
clutched in his hand.
An attempt to curry favor in the afterlife.
What's it worth?
Sylvia.
Couple of hundred.
It's hand-forged bronze, Byzantine era.
I'd say £300?
£300, eh?
I wouldn't give them three pennies.
It can't be Byzantine, can it?
I mean, I thought Britain wasn't a part
of the Byzantine Empire in its early days, so...
It couldn't belong to our chap, unless I'm mistaken.
Who are you, Jack?
Yes, it's more likely Flavian.
Our young apprentice still has
much to learn, don't you, Billy?
Yes, professor.
Are you hoping to find more?
Oh, we're certain of it, with enough time and resources,
and financial support...
apologies for the clumsy segue.
But as that great academic
Professor Munger once said,
you have to speculate to accumulate.
And if you would like to make a donation,
it will be put to good use.
From one antiquarian to another.
May our lives always lie in ruins.
Thank you.
Excuse me for a moment.
Red, please.
Good day?
Barely glanced up.
Spend my life looking at the ground.
Well, I spend mine looking to the heavens, so...
Both searching for the same thing, I think.
Answers.
Something I've failed to find recently.
Such a winning combination.
Devout and troubled.
I'm not troubled.
I'm not!
Look, look at this face, huh?
Sunny, upbeat.
Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me for just a second.
David.
Alphy, my boy.
Quite the shindig.
Shame I didn't get an invite.
Well, I only just found out about it myself, so...
Yes... well.
Thought I'd pop by, meet my new flock.
- Of course. - Anyone I should avoid?
No, no, they're all lovely.
I heard the housekeeper's
an absolute harridan.
Um...
- Red or white? - Well, if it's good,
I'll have the red.
- White it is, then. - Oh.
White, please, thank you.
What's he doing here?
His job?
Stomping all over your grave, more like.
And you're not even gone yet.
Thank you.
We're gonna talk about this later.
You all right, champ?
Champ?
Well, it just felt like a "champ" kind of moment.
You know, the new vicar.
It is what it is.
Have they put something in the water?
Why is everyone so bloody calm?
You, Cathy.
Don't know what's got into her recently.
Well, it's good, isn't it?
Calm is good.
It's unnerving is what it is.
You should be out there, causing a ruckus.
And what would it change, hm?
I'd still be out of a job.
You might feel better, though.
Geordie, if I'm supposed to go, then that's what I'll do.
Ah, leaving it to the fella upstairs, mm.
Mm-hmm. When he's ready, he'll give me a sign.
Well, what are you hoping for? Burning bush?
I'll know when I see it.
Well, let's bloody hope so.
Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats.
This evening's slide show...
Another Roman, Mr. Blakely?
You'd best take a look.
Laid out just like the skeleton... same position.
Maybe it's a sign.
I thought he was in his tent.
I thought he was sleeping.
Come sit down.
You'd known him a while?
He was my tutor at Oxford.
Once slipped up in a seminar and called him Dad.
Everyone thought it was hysterical, but...
I don't know.
That's what it felt like.
He seemed like an impressive man.
Sometimes you meet greatness.
Sometimes you're lucky enough to bask in it for a while.
Perhaps these things are never meant to last.
Where is it? You left it out, didn't you?
- Left what out? - You bloody fool.
It's been stolen!
The cross was here...
I left it right here.
Well, I didn't touch it.
Well, you didn't keep an eye on it, either, did you?
Well, I can't be responsible for everything.
Is anything else missing?
No, I don't think so.
My rock hammer.
It was in my kit.
It's not my job...
- Tempers are fraying. - Yeah.
- And it was right there! - They're upset.
Well, at least someone is, I suppose.
You know, expressing their emotion.
- You are so... - Insightful?
Unsubtle, I was going to say.
- Like a rock hammer to the back of the head. - Mmm.
Larry, we're looking for a rock hammer.
What's one of them?
Hazard a guess.
A hammer for rocks?
There you go.
I saw them arguing.
Mrs. Blakely and Henry.
I saw them arguing last night.
I can't say I'm surprised.
He was a charlatan.
Barely cold, Della.
He was playing you, Marcus.
Is that what you were arguing about?
Did you see how much money was changing hands?
How much money ended up in that tin of his?
Do you think we'll see any of it?
Well, he promised us a cut.
- You're so naive. - Henry took us for lunch.
He took us for fools.
Maybe you decided
to get what was owed you.
And when Henry wouldn't give it...
Oh, I took what was owed us, all right.
Della.
It's our land... it's our bloody cross.
Did you kill him?
I know you think I'm a terrible old nag,
but I'm not a murderer.
Della, just give it back.
- It's ours, Marcus. - It's the museum's.
Well, technically, it belongs to the state.
- This is theft. - Says the grave robber.
Archaeology is not grave-robbing.
What's the difference?
It's a rather complex topic.
There's no point in trying to explain.
Too thick to understand, are we?
That's not what she said.
And what makes you the authority on it?
How about a Ph.D., for starters?
Oh, whoop-de-doo, she's got a Ph.D.!
- Everyone, bow down! - Enough!
I'll keep the damn cross, how about that?
I'll keep it till a decision is made about where it belongs.
You good? Good?
Good. Take a seat.
Someone'll take your statements shortly.
Letting off a bit of steam there?
- No. - No?
Not getting a bit agitated?
I'm fine.
- Professor's bag's on your desk, Boss. - Thanks, Larry.
Funny thing to dedicate your life to.
Huh.
Not too different from what we do.
Digging through other people's dirt?
We're all just trying to make sense of the world.
What?
You fancy her.
I don't fancy her.
She's just...
- She's intriguing. - "Intriguing."
Mmm...
What's this?
- Nice try. - No, really.
"Declan Miller, fine arts and antiquities."
There... Henry was supposed to meet him today.
What's "NQA"?
They might know.
They might.
Although they might lie.
They might.
We need someone impartial.
We need an expert.
So, this is where you hide out.
And Sylvia is not to know.
What do you know about the antiquities business, Jack?
Try me.
What does NQA stand for?
Some kind of qualification?
"No questions asked."
Ah, of course.
I'd say your Declan Miller was black market.
So, if our victim Henry had an appointment with him...
Then the professor was black market, too.
The professor seemed aboveboard.
It's only a thin line between an archaeologist and a thief.
And which were you?
That's a story for another time.
What about the rest of the team?
- Would they be thieves, too? - Birds of a feather and all that.
I'd keep my eye on the whole damn lot of them.
Kate's not a thief.
- Too "intriguing" for that? - She works for a museum.
What's a museum if not a building full of stolen stuff?
Oh, what's this?
Taking tea.
And why aren't you at each other's throats?
We're getting on quite nicely at the moment.
Very nicely, as it happens.
Speak to the Ashmolean Museum.
Find out what you can about Miss Earnshaw.
I'll do it, if you like.
No, you enjoy your tea.
Why's everyone so bloody calm?
Quick as you can, Miss Scott!
So this is where you hide out.
Don't tell Sylvia.
Pint?
I probably shouldn't.
Me, neither.
- Two more over here, please. - Of course.
So...
So... Love or money?
The latter... how did you guess?
Us Brits can happily converse about anything
but love or money.
I saw you donated to the dig.
Rather wishing I hadn't now.
I just, I've been working with Sam.
The preacher from the halfway house.
He's been doing such wonderful things.
He's a fantastic young man.
He's helped so many people.
And we are hoping to expand our operation.
Reach more people and...
You're grimacing.
I gave Sam £20 a few weeks back.
And we are so grateful for that, but...
- You need more. - We need more.
I consider you family, you know I do.
I just...
No, no, it's fine.
I can't keep putting my hand in my pocket
every time someone asks.
I don't have endless reserves.
No, of course.
I'm sorry.
You have endless reserves for Leonard.
That's a little different.
In what way?
In what way is it different?
Well...
Ah, I suppose there's family, and then there's family.
It's not like that at all.
No, please. Don't go.
I think I've probably wasted enough of your time.
What have you got?
Seems like your Miss Earnshaw has a somewhat checkered past.
Her old boss at the Ashmolean Museum
had quite a lot to say about her... and the professor.
We've been doing some digging of our own.
What would you say if we told you
Henry was a grave robber?
No.
Absolutely not.
The professor was the most upstanding fellow I, I ever met.
It was almost spiritual to him.
The pursuit of knowledge, the wisdom of the ancients.
The ten grand in his bank account?
He already had a buyer for that cross of yours.
Henry was double-crossing you.
I don't believe you.
Were you part of it, too?
Kate is...
She is prodigious in her field.
Not gonna argue with that.
I work for the Ashmolean.
Might argue with that, though.
You worked for the Ashmolean.
- Past tense. - Suspended a year ago.
Pilfering from the exhibits.
Is this yours?
Any other stolen artifacts in here?
Go ahead.
What did you do, Kate?
We asked your boss at the museum
if you're the kind of woman who would kill for a crucifix.
You know what he said?
"She'd kill for the fillings in your teeth."
So how does it work, Miss Earnshaw?
I'm more interested in how this works.
Do you steal to order?
Anglo-Saxon necklace here, Roman crucifix there.
You fascinate me, Vicar.
What's going on in that head of yours?
I'm asking the questions.
Did you and Henry have a falling-out?
I don't remember.
I'd had a few to drink.
See, I'm wondering if you found out
he was gonna sell that cross to a black-market dealer behind your back.
Cut you out of the deal.
Does the name Declan Miller ring any bells?
Lost.
That's what it is.
You look lost.
- Miss Earnshaw... - I'm not lost.
Mr. Kottaram.
Did you kill Henry?
What happened to you?
What happened to me?
There's something in your past, isn't there?
I don't think about the past.
Shame.
The most interesting things are always behind us.
Miss Earnshaw.
The murder weapon was in your belongings.
Henry and I didn't argue.
He didn't double-cross me.
And I'm pretty sure I'd remember
plunging a rock hammer into his skull.
Welcome to the first meeting
of the emergency committee for the reinstatement
of Alphy Kottaram to the good parish of Grantchester.
Great name.
Rolls off the tongue.
Who's taking minutes?
It's just the three of us having a conversation.
Jack.
Yes, my love.
First order.
Reinstatement of Alphy Kottaram
to the good parish of Grantchester?
You are being very facetious this evening.
But yes, exactly that.
I'm not sure there's much we can do, Sylvia.
I'm not letting him go without a fight.
- Me, neither. - Did you see his replacement?
Smiles, but not with his eyes.
The absolute brute.
Letter writing... that's what we'll do.
Straight to the nuclear option.
We'll write to everyone we know demanding Alphy stays.
I'll get the envelopes... Leonard, you lick the stamps.
I've been meaning to apologize.
For Mrs. C.?
To Daniel.
Daniel?
I very much want to support both your endeavors, you know that.
But, uh, his work with Sam,
it's obviously very important to him, but...
I have to be a little careful with the pennies.
Of course.
I understand... we both do.
Daniel was sorry he asked.
Actually, Jack should do stamps.
I'm not sure you could be trusted with alignment.
Your wife, on the other hand...
Evening.
Evening, fellas.
Uh, deal me in?
Here is how it's going to go.
You are going to wear this.
Which, according to the shop assistant, is "beyond darling,"
whatever that means.
You're gonna whack on some of that perfume
that makes me feel things I've not felt in a while,
and we're off to a restaurant
I can neither pronounce nor afford.
Too darling for you?
No, it's lovely.
I'm just so tired.
Not to worry.
You don't mind, do you?
I can barely keep my eyes open.
I don't mind.
Course I don't mind.
Whatever you want.
What is it, Cathy?
Hm? You don't shout, you don't laugh.
I can't remember the last time I saw you smile.
I thought this is how you wanted me.
This is what you want, isn't it?
I don't understand.
I'm just tired.
Usual.
- Will Marcus be back soon? - Oh, I don't know.
- He was talking to Billy. - Was he?
Mm... what would that be about?
Buried treasure, no doubt.
He's talked about nothing else since they got here.
You don't approve of Marcus's enthusiasm?
There's no gold in that field.
It's nice for him to have a bit of hope still, though.
It's not hope.
It's delusion.
I just wish he could be happy with what he's got.
- He's not happy? - He's always striving for something.
Like what we've got isn't enough for him.
Like you're not enough for him.
So maybe Marcus found a way to make money.
Killed the professor for...
What?
Not Marcus, no.
Just, no.
Good night.
Congratulations, good night.
Mind if I join you?
Not sure I'll be much company.
Petra.
That's not your name.
No.
Alphaeus.
That's not your name, either.
So... You a student?
- Third-year classics. - Mm.
But you don't want to talk about that.
Don't I?
I have a feeling
you don't want to talk at all.
Pleasure to meet you...
Petra.
Shh, wait, wait, wait.
If you're caught here, I'm done for, okay?
Yeah, it was so much fun.
- What about maths? Or chemistry? - Chemistry? No!
We can talk now if you like.
No? No talking?
No talking.
What's your real name?
Alphaeus.
- Really? - Yes, really.
Biblical, is it?
New Testament.
No one special.
Are we going to do that thing
where we'll insist we'll keep in touch?
I had a wonderful time.
Ditto.
Alphaeus.
Mrs. C.?
Mrs. Chapman!
These break-ins are becoming a bit of a regular occurrence.
Almost time your watch by them.
This is it, Geordie.
This is the sign I've been waiting for.
God is not going to come down here
and fling about your paperwork.
It's not exactly saying, "Stay, you're welcome," is it?
It's not a sign, you daft bugger.
Did you see anyone?
Hear anyone?
When I got home this morning, it was just, well, you can see.
When you came home.
Yes.
This morning?
Yes.
Sly old dog.
Miss Earnshaw?
No.
You sly, sly, sly...
- Stop. - Ah, and now follows the guilt
and the self-recrimination.
Yeah, I've seen this whole vicar hoopla before.
Actually, I feel pretty good.
Yeah, sex'll do that.
Seem to remember, anyway.
Is anything missing?
- Oh, God. - What?
The cross.
Oh!
Break-in's nothing to do with the cross, then.
So what is it to do with?
Saw young Billy last night.
Handing an envelope to the farmer.
Money?
Maybe.
Perhaps Marcus was in cahoots with Billy,
who was double-crossing Henry.
I thought Henry was double-crossing Kate.
Maybe Billy was double-crossing them both.
More bloody crosses than the Church of England.
But why would Billy pay off Marcus?
Unless he was doing the right thing.
Paying Marcus when everyone else was taking advantage.
What if it was to do with the cross?
The break-ins?
The murder.
Now you've lost me.
It was everything to do with the cross.
- What? - Nothing.
That's the third "nothing" and it's only 8:00.
Jack is family. He's not a bank manager.
- He's not a blank check. - Right.
Begging on Sam's behalf... it's embarrassing.
What?
- Nothing. - Oh, very good.
Very droll.
Your whole life, this place,
is built on Jack's handouts.
I have worked very hard.
- Oh, and I haven't. - I didn't mean that.
What does it matter, anyway?
- You're the chosen one. - Oh, don't be so dramatic.
I'm just your, your shadow.
Your plus-one to a party no one wants me at.
You're so paranoid.
It's how I feel, Leonard.
- When did you get so bitter? - I'm just stating facts.
I don't know about you,
but I've had enough of this tedious spat.
Sam said you'd do this.
- Walk away. - Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam!
Bloody Sam.
Billy said the cross was from the Byzantine era,
but you said it couldn't be.
It just seemed odd to me
that a cross of that era
was buried with a Roman soldier.
Perhaps you could take a closer look.
- Strange. - Hm?
It is Byzantine.
- How can you tell? - Well, you see this small bar here.
It was for Christ to rest his feet on.
This is, at the earliest, 500 A.D.
Hadn't the Romans left England long before then?
- Don't look at me. - Exactly.
It couldn't belong to our skeleton friend.
He died hundreds of years before this was even made.
When you pointed out the discrepancy, that's when Billy realized.
Henry was lying.
Gentlemen.
So this is where you've been hiding.
Sorry.
That envelope Billy gave you, Marcus.
What was in it?
The young chap said it's what the professor owed us.
Said he always made it a point of honor
to pay his debts before they go.
Funny, isn't it, Marcus?
They made all those promises... treasures galore.
And now off they pop.
They're leaving?
Billy Randall.
What did you do, Billy?
You called him Dad by mistake once.
Did you think of the professor like that, like a father?
In your eyes, he could do no wrong.
Until the day he did.
You realized the skeleton and the cross,
they weren't from the same era.
Yes, it's more likely Flavian.
Our young apprentice still has much to learn.
That's when you knew.
The professor was everything he claimed to stand against.
He was a common black-market thief.
Kate stole the cross from the museum.
Henry planted it to fool the Blakelys.
To give them hope that there was more out there in that field.
And then he got the villagers
to put their hands in their pockets.
And if there was nothing in that field,
win-win.
He'd already made a small fortune.
He understood the value of a sign.
That cross was a sign to the Blakelys, to all of us.
Keep digging... there's more out there.
The first lecture I ever saw him give,
he told us archaeology isn't about money.
It's not about riches.
It's about the search for meaning.
We had to be scrupulous in our actions,
or that meaning would be lost.
"We should never lose our way," he said.
Then he did exactly that.
You tricked them, Henry!
You lied! You told us never to tell lies!
Oh, grow up, Billy.
You're becoming a real bore.
I thought he believed in what we did.
If you don't believe, if there's no meaning,
then what else is there?
Come to return the cross?
I'm not sure it was yours to be returned.
Keep it if you like.
Funds for the needy.
How about if I bury it again?
Dig it up in a hundred years?
Who knows? Might make your fortune.
But then again,
I don't think it's a fortune you're looking for, is it?
And what am I looking for?
Somewhere you belong.
Same as the rest of us.
Do you believe in signs?
Lot of nonsense.
You?
Well, I believe in God, so it's not much of a leap.
Have you had a sign?
I think so.
And?
And I have my answer now.
What was the question?
Stay or go.
What's the fun in staying?
Life is a search for meaning.
We search for meaning everywhere.
We look for signs in the stars.
We look for them in the earth beneath our feet.
We look for it in the faces of the people we love.
Perhaps they have the answers.
We try to find meaning in the smallest of things.
Because without meaning, what is the purpose of our lives?
The struggles we endure, the worries, the fears,
it all has to amount to something, doesn't it?
And so we search.
We find it here,
in this very building.
And there is value in that search.
Because in searching, we find answers.
And in answers, we find truth.
He has a plan for us,
even if we don't see it straightaway.
He will let us know.
God gives us a sign when we need it most, and...
When he does, we must follow it, wherever it takes us.
Even if it means leaving a place
and people we have grown to love.
*CREDITS*