Granville joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in 1907, soon understudying the role of Lord Mountararat in "Iolanthe" at the Savoy Theatre in London. When the season ended, he toured with the company in the chorus and played the small role of Selworthy in the curtain raiser "After All!". The next season, at the Savoy, he played John Lloyd in Fenn and Faraday's "A Welsh Sunset", given as a curtain raiser to "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance", and he understudied Henry Lytton in the role of Dick Deadeye in "Pinafore".