'Grantchester' Season 6, Episode 1 Recap: "Busman's Holiday"

It's been nearly a year and a half since Grantchester last aired on PBS, and there have been some changes since the Season 5 finale. Though that season ended with Mrs. C. accepting Daniel as Leonard's "BFF" and reconciling with her husband, things have gotten way closer in the vicarage and with the Keating family. Everyone (Will, the Keatings, the Chapmans, and Leonard & Daniel) is apparently up for a holiday as a big family group. Does this seem odd to you? Who, for example, is running the rectory right now? Dickens the Dog?

Will: "It's ok, I'm a vicar."

This week's opening episode may not make a lot of logical sense, but as a period-piece mystery, it's embracing one of the most standard tropes of the genre: The Busman's Holiday. Detective and friends go on holiday, death follows, instead of fun in the sun, it becomes all suspects and shadows. At least Grantchester has fun with it, reviving the era's Butlin's holiday camps as the fictionalized "Merries." It's also a place to put a lot of period piece easter eggs. Leonard's been getting into socialism with Maxim Gorki, while Esme tries to be cool, reading her Famous Five novels alongside him. The camp even features a 1950s British pop cover band played by real-life vintage musicians Dylan Kirk and The Killers.