Just saying the words ‘Vicar of Dibley’ has the power to make you feel all warm and fuzzy, such was the effortless charm radiating from its wonderfully diverse characters. Originally airing from 1994 until 2007, this popular sitcom starred a wealth of acting talent including, of course, Dawn French, Roger Lloyd-Pack and Gary Waldhorn.
The show also featured such talents as Miranda Hart, Mel Giedroyc and Peter Capaldi. The Vicar of Dibley was set in the titular fictional small Oxfordshire village, which was assigned a female vicar – very unusual at the time. Written by prolific British screenwriter Richard Curtis, who also penned Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, the series went on to become a huge success, receiving multiple British Comedy Awards, two International Emmys and placed third in a BBC poll of Britain’s Best Sitcoms.
All good things come to an end, however, and the show’s final service concluded with Geraldine marrying hunky Harry, despite a series of hilarious mishaps including a very muddy wedding dress. But our favourite vicar returned for a series of festive episodes, where in 2020 the series opted to mirror real-life events by showing Geraldine preparing to deliver a sermon via webcam to the locked down people of Dibley.
