Tom Brittney has said he cried when he was told he was taking over from James Norton in Grantchester.
Norton recently wrapped his last series of the ITV detective drama and Brittney is replacing him as the new lead, Reverend Will Davenport.
The actor, 28, told Radio Times magazine he was in tears when he got the call, saying: “I knew that they liked me.
“But the wait to find out if I’d got the part felt like the longest two weeks of my life.”
As well as passing the audition, Brittney had to have a “chemistry test” with Grantchester co-star Robson Green, who plays Inspector Geordie Keating.
“The chemistry between Sidney and Geordie is at the core of the show, and they had to see if it would work with Robson and me,” he said.
“Luckily, we got along instantly. We knew it would work.
“I went out of the room afterwards and called my mum and said, ‘I loved him! I thought he was brilliant. Oh, I loved him so much!’”
Brittney said he is not too worried about the response from fans of Norton, who was popular as clergyman and private investigator Sidney Chambers.
“I understand that,” Brittney says. “But I’m not worried about it.
“People feel an ownership over a show and the people in it, in a really lovely way. I haven’t had any hate mail yet! And I don’t read any comments online.”
This week’s Radio Times is out on Tuesday.