Interviewed in 1979 when his father Robert Runcie was announced as the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury, James Runcie, then a 20-year-old Cambridge student, told a reporter he wasn\u2019t terribly certain about things of faith. In the years that followed, almost imperceptibly, that started to change. Towards the end of his time at Canterbury the elder Runcie hinted as much. \u201cFor our children growing up, music was compulsory, religion was optional.\u201d\u009d Now, he said, both his offspring seemed much \u201cmore interested\u201d\u009d in the latter.<\/p>\n
Religion and faith are at the fore in James Runcie\u2019s Grantchester, which premiered on ITV October 6. His fourth novel in the series is due for publication next May. The chief character is a clergyman-cum-sleuth Canon Sidney Chambers (James Norton), whom Runcie cheerfully admits is a loosely based on his late father.<\/p>\n
James Runcie builds in characters bearing associations with family and friends. Sidney is named after Sidney Smith, one of his father\u2019s favourite vicars. In the first of the series Chambers is intrigued by a piano-playing German woman who loves Bach (James Runcie\u2019s mother, Lindy, was a piano teacher). \u201cI didn\u2019t intend them to be a fictionalised, alternative biography of my father \u201d\u201d and I still hope they aren\u2019t \u201d\u201d but one cannot easily escape a strong paternal influence.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n