It’s not such a horrible thing, a life of faith,” says Kelsey Grammer, with the soft, faintly amused cadence of a parent reading a picture book to a child. The 68-year-old actor, best known for his multi-Emmy-winning two-decade stint as psychiatrist Frasier Crane in Cheers (1984-1993) and its spin-off Frasier (1993-2004), can certainly testify to that. He’s bringing the good doctor back to life later this year, of course, in a hotly (and anxiously) anticipated revival series. But today he is mostly here to talk to me about faith – about being “reborn” as a devout Christian, and his new religious biopic, Jesus Revolution.
Grammer speaks to me over video from a sparsely decorated room “in the bowels of ITV” (he’s appearing on This Morning shortly after our interview). From the moment he starts talking, I find it almost impossible not to hear the voice of Frasier Crane emanating from Grammer’s formidably square jaw – the mix of honeyed warmth and baritonal gravitas that rendered him so thoroughly convincing as a lovelorn headshrinker.
