Vicar of Dibley, The

1 9 9 4 – 2 0 0 7 (UK)
20 x 30 minute episodes

Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994), Blackadder, Mr Bean) wrote this wonderful sitcom, which cast the generously-proportioned Dawn French as the Reverend Geraldine Granger in a crusade against sexism and snobbery in the (fictional) Oxfordshire village of Dibley – a village not quite ready for a distaff parson.

Arriving in the sleepy village on a dark and rainy night following the death of the previous vicar, Geraldine encountered immediate hostility from parish council chairman David Horton (Gary Waldhorn), who fiercely opposed the very idea of women clergy.

“You were expecting a bloke with a beard, a bible and bad breath, you’ve got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom . . .”

Geraldine soon became an integral part of local life. Her duties included overseeing regular meetings of the parish council, at which her progressive politics and outsized personality were pitted against the conservative, irascible, and oddball personalities of the other members.

Although undeniably a pleasant, benevolent and patient character, Geraldine was clearly all too human. She swore, loved chocolate and had a picture of her favourite heartthrob of the moment (usually Mel Gibson, Robson Greene or Sean Bean) on her wall next to a picture of Jesus.

She typically fell head over heels for any handsome man who stumbled into the village, such as a television executive (Peter Capaldi) or Horton’s younger brother (Clive Mantle).

The topicality of the subject matter aside (the Church of England only permitted the ordination of women in 1993) it was a conventional, cosy British character comedy, redolent of Dad’s Army – and none the worse for it.

The show mined the bulk of its humour from Geraldine’s good-natured entanglements with her strange congregation and featured early appearances from future stars Miranda Hart and Mel Giedroyc, as well as numerous celebrity cameos from the likes of Kylie Minogue, Darcey Bussell, Sting, Johnny Depp, Sean Bean and Sarah, Duchess of York.

Perhaps the stand-out gag from the series was the joke played over each episode’s closing credits: Geraldine told her absurdly literal-minded verger, Alice Tinker (Emma Chambers), a joke, and then had to explain it in enormous detail when Alice inevitably misunderstood the punch line.

Sadly, Emma Chambers died of a heart attack on 21 February 2018. She was just 53.

Roger Lloyd-Pack died in 2014 from pancreatic cancer, John Bluthal passed away on 16 November 2018, aged 89, in New South Wales, Australia, and Trevor Peacock died on 8 March 2021, at the age of 89.

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