Tribe dedicated to the best Britcom ever made: The Vicar Of Dibley.
UK, BBC, Sitcom, colour, 1994
Starring: Dawn French, Gary Waldhorn, James Fleet

When their ancient vicar, Pottle, dies during the middle of a service, the villagers of Dibley prepare for a suitable replacement, hoping that the new man is young and enthusiastic enough to stir the locals from their apathy and get a decent-sized congregation packing into the church instead of the recent single-figure attendances. What they get is Geraldine Granger, a chocolate-guzzling, joke-cracking, irreverent reverend who breezes into the place like a breath of fresh air. The parish council is generally bemused by its new spiritual guardian but its head figure, local squire David Horton, is simply outraged by her appointment and takes steps to have her replaced. Geraldine's optimistic outlook and obvious enthusiasm prove popular with the wacky villagers, however, and David is forced reluctantly to accept her appointment, forming a working friendship although often disagreeing fundamentally on policy or method.

Although, on paper, this may seem like yet another entry in the canon of religious-themed sitcoms, The Vicar Of Dibley, like Father Ted had a decidedly 1990s feel and approach. The ordination of female vicars was still a controversial and topical issue when the show first aired, and that debate fuelled the comedy for the first few episodes. Later however, when the novelty of a woman vicar wore off, the show relied upon the interplay between the major characters. Although Geraldine (reputedly inspired by real-life Reverend Joy Carroll of Streatham, south London) was the centrepiece of the show, it was performed as a comedy ensemble, with the inner-sanctum of the church council providing the team support. Apart from the pompous, Conservative, egocentric Horton, the council members comprised his son, the hapless Hugo; the vague parish clerk, Frank; the incomprehensible Jim Trott; the straight-talking land worker Owen; and the elderly flower-arranger Letitia. The other main player was the verger, Alice Tinker, a staggeringly naive, off-beam young woman with the IQ of a kettle, who went on to become engaged to Hugo, much to the distress of his father. All of these characters were extreme in one way or another (Dibley was described in one episode as 'the in-breeding capital of the world') and their particular idiosyncrasies - like Alice's massive lack of reasoning, Hugo's bizarre waffling and Letitia's mind-boggling culinary creations, mixing, for example, anchovies with peanut butter, or ham with lemon curd - all helped bring a greatly pleasing, surreal tone to what was otherwise a relatively straightforward situation. (The Letitia character, portrayed by the great Liz Smith, was killed off in the April 1996 Easter special.) Romance eventually blossomed between Hugo and Alice (despite David's opposition) resulting in marriage and the birth of their first child.

In the middle of it all, as the fun-loving but comparatively 'normal' Geraldine, was Dawn French, giving yet another spot-on performance that utilised her talent for delivering complicated funny lines. The show's creator and principal writer, Richard Curtis (a guiding light in the Comic Relief events) worked on Not The Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder and Mr Bean before this and had touched upon religious themes in sketches for Rowan Atkinson and, of course, in sections of his smash-hit movie Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994, director Mike Newell). With Curtis and Dawn French at the helm of the show it was a little surprising that The Vicar Of Dibley was not more extreme and hard-edged - initially, in fact, there were criticisms that it was twee and middle-of-the-road - but closer inspection revealed just how clever it was, the scripts managing to convey subversive ideas in such a subtle and humorous way that they passed by almost unnoticed. The very notion of a woman vicar being sexy and cracking ribald gags was revolutionary in itself; most episodes featured a short post-credits sequence in which Geraldine told Alice a bawdy joke, with Alice - being too dense to understand them - reacting in a number of weird ways, all inappropriate.

The ultra-busy careers of the main creative personnel has meant too few visits to Dibley and its colourful inhabitants. But the 16 full episodes produced over five years have all been exceptionally enjoyable.

*Notes. The 1997 Comic Relief short special BallykissDibley crossed The Vicar Of Dibley with BBC1's other hit religion-based show, the light-drama Ballykissangel, with Stephen Tompkinson reprising his role of Father Peter Clifford from that show. Five years later, French and Tompkinson co-starred again, in comedy-drama Ted And Alice(BBC1, 4-18 April 2002).

**The 1999 Comic Relief short special was aired as a revised stand-alone programme by BBC1 on 28 August 1999.

On 1 March 2002 BBC1 screened The RealVicars Of Dibley, a spurious tie-in that combined clips with interviews with real-life female vicars.

Cast
Dawn French - Geraldine Granger
Gary Waldhorn - David Horton
James Fleet - Hugo Horton
Emma Chambers - Alice Tinker
John Bluthal - Frank Pickle
Trevor Peacock - Jim Trott
Roger Lloyd Pack - Owen Newitt
Liz Smith - Letitia Cropley (to Apr 1996 special)

Crew
Richard Curtis - Creator
Richard Curtis - Writer (12)
Paul Mayhew-Archer - Writer (12)
Richard Curtis - Writer (6)
Dewi Humphreys - Director (11)
John Howard Davies - Director (1)
Gareth Carrivick - Director (1)
Jon Plowman - Producer (7)
Sue Vertue - Producer (7)
Jon Plowman - Producer (6)
Jon Plowman - Producer (4)
Margot Gavan Duffy - Producer (4)
Sue Vertue - Producer (1)

Transmission Details
Number of episodes: 18 Length: 9 x 30 mins ? 6 x 40 mins ? 1 x 45 mins ? 2 x short specials
Series One (6 x 30 mins) 10 Nov-15 Dec 1994, BBC1 Thu 8.30pm
Special (40 mins) 8 Apr 1996, BBC1 Mon 8.30pm
Special (45 mins) 25 Dec 1996, BBC1 Wed 10pm
*Short special part of Comic Relief, 24 Mar 1997, BBC1 Tue 8.45pm
Special (40 mins) 26 Dec 1997, BBC1 Fri 9pm
Series Two (3 x 30 mins) 8 Jan-22 Jan 1998, BBC1 Thu 8.30pm
**Short special part of Comic Relief, 12 Mar 1999, BBC1 Fri 7pm
Series Three (4 x 40 mins) 24 Dec 1999-1 Jan 2000, BBC1 various days around 9.30pm

http://vicarofdibley.tribe.net