The Vicar of Dibley

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The Vicar of Dibley
The Complete Collection (R2 DVD)
Genre	Sitcom
Running time	Varied between 30 minutes, 40 minutes and 45 minutes
Creator(s)	Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer
Starring	Dawn French Gary Waldhorn James Fleet John Bluthal Liz Smith Trevor Peacock Roger Lloyd Pack Emma Chambers
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original channel	BBC
Original run	10 November 1994–Present
No. of episodes	18 plus three short specials

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 English 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. However, the BallyKissDibley short sketch for Comic Relief was not included (although the 1999 and 2005 specials were).

1 Cast
2 Guest stars
3 Episodes
4 Location
5 Theme music
6 Running gags
7 Critical reaction
8 External links

[edit] Cast

The show centres around eight main characters, seven of whom sit on the Parish Council:

Boadicea Geraldine Granger (known as "Geraldine"), the female vicar, played by Dawn French, self-described as a bon-vivant. The vicar is a liberal woman who enjoys nothing more than a good laugh, much to the consternation of one David Horton. But despite her fun-loving and sometimes outrageous behaviour, she is incredibly caring and does her best to help those in her parish in any way she can. She is well aware of her weight, but doesn't seem to care. Also a professed chocoholic, she often will go on a diet only to break it within a few minutes by eating one of her innumerable chocolate bars hidden throughout the house. As such, she gave up chocolate for Lent and nearly went mad. Her unusual first name was revealed late in the series, much to David Horton's amusement.
Councillor David Horton MBE, Conservative chairman of the Parish Council, 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 served as his father's campaign manager one election year – but inadvertently wound up going door to door with the opponent, delivering adverts and making introductions for him. Hugo 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".
Frank Pickle, likeable, but boring and pedantic secretary to the Parish Council, played by John Bluthal. He is so boring that nobody wants to listen to him — even when he wants to discuss something exciting (to his own mind) such as the time he went down to the pub "and they'd completely run out of crisps" or "the time when the milkman was 47 minutes late". He decided to confess, on radio, about his homosexuality to the village after 20 years of staying in the closet, but, apart from Geraldine (who was with Frank at the time), none of the other villagers listened to his broadcast — so they still do not know.
Letitia "Letty" Cropley, played by Liz Smith, Parish Council 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, Parish Council member, played by Trevor Peacock. He has an idiosyncratic way of saying "no no no no no..." before almost everything he says, most of all "yes". His wife does the opposite, saying "yes yes yes yes yes ...". Jim was a good dancer, though a long-winded singer. Despite his marriage, he still has no qualms about joining Owen in flirting with the Vicar. Frequently comments about her "lovely arse."
Owen Newitt, farmer and Parish Council 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 "a regular old woman anyway". His signature running gag was that he was chronically late for the Parish Council 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. Despite this, he frequently makes several crude attempts to flirt with her, though they are all comically misguided.
Alice Springs Tinker (later Horton), verger at the church, blonde and ditzy, played by Emma Chambers. Alice is the only main character who does not sit on the Parish Council. 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).
Geraldine Horton, the first child of Hugo and Alice, born while Alice played Mary in the town nativity play. Had a stature erected in her honor which the vicar had assumed would be of her instead. In later Christmas specials it is revealed that Alice and Hugo have many more children.

[edit] Guest stars

Guest appearances have been made by:

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Series 1 (1994)

This series began on 10 November 1994. This series was written by Richard Curtis.

"Arrival" ~ The new vicar arrives at the village, but to everyone's suprise (and disgust on the part of David), it's a woman.
"Songs Of Praise" ~ The team from Songs of Praise come to Dibley.
"Community Spirit" ~ The Vicar invites Elton John to open a fete when she discovers that he is Alice's cousin. Guest starring Kylie Minogue.
"The Window and the Weather" ~ In a storm, the main window of the church is destroyed, so Geraldine sets up a campaign to buy a new one.
"Election" ~ The Vicar falls foul of David Horton over his broken election promises.
"Animals" ~ The Vicar organises a service for animals, much to the disgust of David Horton.

[edit] Specials (1996)

"The Easter Bunny" ~ (First broadcast: 8 April 1996) Easter time comes to Dibley, but Leticia passes away, leaving Geraldine to be this year's easter bunny.
"The Christmas Lunch Incident" ~ (First broadcast: 25th December 1996) The Vicar is invited to three different Christmas dinners and doesn't know which one to go to.

[edit] Comic Relief Special (1997)

BallyKissDibley ~ with the protagonist from Ballykissangel

[edit] Series 2 (1997-1998)

The first episode of the series aired on Boxing Day, 1997. The rest of the series was first aired 8-22 January 1998. 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".

"Engagement" (40-minute Christmas special)
"Dibley Live"
"Celebrity Vicar"
"Love and Marriage"

[edit] Comic Relief Special (1999)

Guest starring Johnny Depp and Sarah Ferguson

[edit] Series 3 (1999–2000)

This series was broadcast across Christmas holiday period in 1999. 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, this series is packaged as "The Seasonal Specials".

"Autumn" ~ Geraldine has a relationship with David's brother Simon, played by Clive Mantle.
"Winter" ~ The village's Christmas pageant and birth of Hugo and Alice's first child.
"Spring" ~ David asks Geraldine to marry him.
"Summer" ~ The villagers fight to save Dibley from becoming a reservoir.

[edit] 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.

"Merry Christmas" ~ Screened on Christmas Day. Rachel Hunter (who guest stars) is 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.
"Happy New Year" ~ 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.

[edit] Comic Relief Special (2005)

Featuring The Antiques Roadshow

[edit] 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 a proper ending and say goodbye, BBC governors would not comment on speculation that the series was axed on the back of government recommendation that BBC comedy series should be more multi-cultural. Two 45 minute episodes were filmed in September 2006 to be broadcast over the Christmas season. It is unknown whether a Comic Relief special will be filmed 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. This character will be played by Richard Armitage.

[edit] 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 at Stokenchurch Gap.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. At the end of the series, Geraldine simply beat Alice over the head with a large book when she did this, with the rationale that someone had to do it at some point. There is one exception to this running, which is on the episode Happy New Year (first aired New Year's Day 2005, the second of the 2004 Christmas specials), where the joke is at the start of the episode (as the end shows the Make Poverty History campaign and it was thought a joke would not be suitable).

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

[edit] 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.

The presentation of a church-oriented parish council (in reality, a part of civil local government) seems to owe more to the nature of a Church of England parochial church council.