It was a double-wedding flurry

Actors’ lives are full of extremes — long lulls and busy bursts.
Still, few can match Melissa Johns’ packed stretch. In two weeks, she had two weddings (one real, one not), two grooms, two churches and strong emotions … up to a point; “It stops feeling special when you’re on the 11th take,” she said.
That was for the fictional wedding, for “Grantchester.” The real one didn’t require any do-overs.
As “Grantchester” nears its season-finale (9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3), let’s look back:
In a previous story, we described the surprising romance of two side characters. Larry Peters (a sometimes-bumbling cop, played by Bradley Hall) has been on the show for seven years; Jennifer Scott (the efficient police secretary, played by Johns) has been there for five. (They’re shown here.)
To avoid spoilers, however, that story didn’t tell the key details: In recent episodes, there was a proposal and plans for a secret wedding … which Geordie (the police boss) and Alphy (the vicar) learned about. They steered them to a full-scale, church one.
All of that blurred with reality, like this:
— On the show, Johns filmed an almost-wedding at City Hall. “We worked until about 7 or 8 o’clock” … and then she rushed to her home town.
— A few days later, she married Dan Hampton, who has been an American-rules football player in England. The church crowd included Hall and his wife and two of the show’s producers.
— Then came a honeymoon (a “mini-moon,” she said) and back to work. A week after her real wedding, “I was walking down the aisle again — not with my father this time, but with Geordie. It felt very surreal.”
That was in the gorgeous church where “Grantchester” films many of Alphy’s key secenes. The wedding felt elegant … at least, for the first 10 takes.