The Vicar of Dibley

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The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis, and mostly written by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. The show was written for its title actor, Dawn French.

The sitcom is about a small fictional village called Dibley that gets a female vicar (set after the real-life change in Church of England law allowing the ordination of women). It is a comedic study of the effect that this has on a small rural community. The Vicar of Dibley came third in a 2004 BBC poll to find 'Britain's Best Sitcom'.

In November 2005 BBC released a DVD boxset of the entire collection, including the 2004 Christmas specials and the 2005 Comic Relief special.

Contents

Cast

The show centres around eight main characters, seven of whom sit on the parochial church council (PCC):

Boadicea Geraldine Granger, the female vicar, played by Dawn French, self-described as a bon-vivant.
Councillor David Horton MBE, Conservative chairman of the PCC, gentleman farmer, pillar of the community and local councillor, played by Gary Waldhorn, and main opponent of the female vicar. In later episodes of the series, Horton comes to fall for the Vicar and even proposes to her (she accepted his proposal but later decided to withdraw).
Hugo Horton, David's somewhat dim-witted son, played by James Fleet. He and Alice Tinker are always shown to have feelings for each other, but they do not get together as a couple until Geraldine plays Cupid in "Engagement". They eventually marry and have numerous children, the majority of which are named Bernard...no matter their gender.
Frank Pickle, likeable, but [[Wiktionary:boring|boring]] and [[Wiktionary:pedantic|pedantic]] secretary to the PCC, played by John Bluthal. He is so boring that nobody wants to listen to him. He is also the only gay character on the show, as he confessed about his homosexuality on the local radio in the 'Dibley Live' episode. He decided to confess about his homosexuality to the village after 20 years of staying in the closet. However, it appears that the villigers still don't know this as all of the characters in the 'Dibley Live' episode (besides Geraldine, who was with Frank at the time) didn't listen to his radio show therefore are unaware of his sexual preference.
Letitia Cropley, played by Liz Smith, PCC member and creator of such revolting 'delicacies' as 'bread and butter pudding surprise' (a recipe for which she was breeding snails), not to mention marmite cakes (which she served for Frank's birthday) and chocolate mixed with cod roe, Letitia only appeared in the first series and the special "The Easter Bunny", in which the character died.
Jim Trott, PCC member, played by Trevor Peacock. He has an idiosyncratic way of saying "no no no no no..." before almost everything he says, including "yes". His wife does the opposite, saying "yes yes yes yes yes ...". Jim was a good dancer, though a long-winded singer.
Owen Newitt, farmer and PCC member, with a very earthy manner of speaking, played by Roger Lloyd Pack. He was the first to support the new Vicar's appointment, saying that a woman wouldn't be a bad thing since the previous vicar was an old woman anyway. His signature running gag was that he was chronically late for the PCC meetings, and had humorously legitimate, if graphic, reasons for his delays. He proposed to the vicar in "Engagement". She rejected him, but he was not upset, having found she was a drinker.
Alice Springs Tinker, verger at the church, blonde and ditzy, played by Emma Chambers. Alice is the only main character who does not sit on the PCC. She is the product of a one-night stand between her mother and the cousin of her father-in-law's dad. She and Hugo are fond of each other and the vicar plays cupid successfully in one episode. They eventually marry (See Hugo's entry, above). One running gag about Alice at the end of each episode involved Geraldine telling Alice a joke (What do you get if you eat too many Christmas Decorations? Tinsilitis!), which Alice proves unable to understand (going off, in this case, about the ravages of the disease).

Other guest appearances have been made by Sean Bean, Darcey Bussell, Johnny Depp, Kylie Minogue, Terry Wogan, and Rachel Hunter.

Episodes

Series 1 ( The first episode was broadcast on the BBC in the UK on 10 November 1994. This series was written by Richard Curtis.

"Arrival"
"Songs Of Praise"
"Community Spirit"
"The Window and the Weather"
"Election"
"Animals"

Specials (
"The Easter Bunny" — First broadcast: 8 April 1996
"The Christmas Lunch Incident" — First broadcast: 25th December 1996

Comic Relief Special (
BallyKissDibley — with the protagonist from Ballykissangel

Special (
"Engagement" — First broadcast: 26 December 1997

Series 2 ( First broadcast 8–22 January 1998

"Dibley Live"
"Celebrity Vicar"
"Love and Marriage"

Comic Relief Special (
Guest starring Johnny Depp and Sarah Ferguson

Series 3 (
This series was broadcast across Christmas holiday period in 1999. "Autumn" followed Geraldine's relationship with David's brother Simon, played by Clive Mantle. "Winter" dealt with the village Christmas pageant and birth of Hugo and Alice's first child. "Spring" saw David asking Geraldine to marry him. "Summer" focused on the villagers' fight to stop Dibley from becoming a reservoir. Curtis had also used the metaphor of seasons in Notting Hill, which had been released that year. In The Vicar of Dibley DVD boxset, released in 2005 by Universal UK (not the BBC, who only had early VHS rights), this series is packaged as "Love and Marriage".

"Autumn"
"Winter"
"Spring"
"Summer"

Christmas 2004 specials

In 2004, to celebrate 10 years since the conception of the sitcom, the BBC commissioned two special episodes to lead the 2004 Christmas line-up on BBC One. Both episodes were filmed in mid-October 2004, and featured the original cast.

Rachel Hunter guest-starred in the first episode, "Merry Christmas", screened on Christmas Day, and is soon confused by Alice to be having a lesbian fling with Geraldine. The newsreader Brian Perkins appeared as the Archbishop of Canterbury; on the show, the Archbishop was said to be an old university friend of David Horton. The second, "Happy New Year," was screened on New Year's Day; at the end of the episode Geraldine shows a video of two poverty-stricken children on her laptop. This episode was one of many movements to introduce Make Poverty History to the general population. Both episodes were released on DVD following their Christmas screening, along with a special bonus episode filmed for Comic Relief 2005.

Comic Relief Special (
Featuring The Antiques Roadshow

The End of the Show

On 29 March 2006, Dawn French told Davina McCall on BBC1 chat show Davina that she did not think there would be any more series. However, she said that more Christmas Specials were in the works for the end of the year.

This news was confirmed on 6 July 2006 by Richard Curtis, however it came with the news that the series was coming to an end. While the reason given was that Richard Curtis wanted to give the show an proper ending and say goodbye, BBC governers would not comment on speculation that the series was axed on the back of government recommendation that BBC comedy series should be more mutli-cultural. There will be two episodes, to be broadcast over the Christmas season. It is likely that another Comic Relief special will be filmed at the same time, ready for broadcast in March 2007.

According to the statement released by the show's makers, the storyline of the special Christmas episodes is the Vicar's marriage to a new character, who will be introduced in the first episode.

Location

In the show, Dibley is said to be located in Oxfordshire; however, real places are mentioned such as High Wycombe and Princes Risborough, both of which are in Buckinghamshire. The outdoor scenes of the show are filmed in the village of Turville, which is also in Buckinghamshire, and all the scenes that feature in the opening titles are in and around South Buckinghamshire, although the aerial tracking shot shows M40 traffic approaching Oxfordshire through the Chilterns cutting.

The village of Turville has also been used for many other programmes and films such as numerous episodes of Midsomer Murders, the adaptation of Goodnight Mister Tom, and more recently, a Miss Marple episode.

Theme music

The theme music was composed by Howard Goodall to Psalm 23, and was performed by 'George and the Choir' (The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford). The conductor is Stephen Darlington. It was released as a charity single with proceeds to Comic Relief.

Running gags

Following the closing theme music and credits, Geraldine was shown telling a joke (usually off-colour) to Alice, which, rather than laughter, would elicit a literal translation from Alice; she would go on to explain to Geraldine in great detail why the premise of her joke was implausible.

Also, at the end of the theme songs in most episodes, there is usually a humorous depiction, eg. a woman knitting straight off the sheep.

Critical reaction

Although it was commended for raising the issue of women priests, the show has been criticised for taking to extremes the worst stereotypes of rural communities and for showing people living in rural communities as being less intelligent. At least initially, some viewers found Geraldine's light-hearted approach to her vocation to be bordering on blasphemous. But while certainly bawdy, her theology is quite orthodox, believing that Jesus is the son of God and that the biblical miracles occurred.

External links

[BBCi]
[DawnFrenchOnline] About The Vicar of Dibley, and episode guide
[The British Sitcom Guide]
[The Vicar Of Dibley at booksmusicfilmstv.com]
[Vicar of Dibley to end after 12 years]

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