[laughs]

She said, "I know, I know it probably wouldn't have happened back in those days, but they should be a family." And I was like, "Of course they should be a family.

Of course they should." And, and we just decided to embrace the fact that, you know, it's, it's unlikely in the '60s that two men would've been allowed to be alone with a child.

But it's like it's so perfect for Leonard because it's meaning, and it's family, and it's everything.

A- and also, it's about that whole community coming together to bring up that child, which again, was that idea that in microcosm, you, you help each other.

So I was so happy, and that little kid is so good.

Was there a deliberate effort to mirror that first episode as we close the door on Grantchester for the last time?

Yeah.

How much of that optimism is baked into the DNA of the show, and how much comes from its head writer?

It's very interesting, 'cause I think at first this show was quite dark, and the more...

Maybe it is, it's sort of baked into our heads and where we're at, and I think Series 11 is quite, despite that kind of framework of sort of slight dread and slight something big's gonna happen, I think there's quite a lot of optimism in it, and quite a lot of...

I c- I don't know.

I keep thinking in times like these, it's, it's about the small community around you, isn't it? It's about how you treat those around you.

That's all you can control, is, is that, your, your family, your, your made family, and I think that's what Grantchester always gives me, is that sense of there's optimism to be found in the smallest levels, and I think that's what we tried to get from this series.

'Cause, you know, it is bleak out there, and I don't know.

Does the uneasiness here mirror the instability in this new dynamic between Meera and Alfie? Are they just pretending that everything is happy families to conceal their very real uncertainties?

Uh, Al doesn't come in till episode two, but what do these three represent in terms of the core of the show?

Just the s- I was thinking, we, we, we, the other day we did a little, uh, interview thing, and it was ... and I was saying that they're just such quality actors who are dedicated.

They didn't need to, they didn't need to dedicate themselves to the show.

They didn't need to put their all into it, but they did.

And also, they happen to be really nice people, and I think, I think that's what's kept us going, actually, is, is they are good people who care, and it's, it's sort of fueled the show all the way through, actually.

So we- we're very lucky.

I mean, like Tessa Peake-Jones, I d- I, in America, I don't know whether Only Fools and Horses was a big, I don't think it was a big thing particularly there, which is this comedy show that was so big in this country she'd have to leave England at Christmas because it, it was like 30 billion viewers would watch the Christmas special of...

So you talked about giving sort of everyone a, a moment within that final episode, but what sort of emotions did you experience while writing the final episode or episodes? I mean, how difficult was it to say goodbye to these characters on the page?