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"The Vicar of Dibley" (1994)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
10 November 1994 (UK) morePlot:
A boisterous female minister comes to serve in an eccentricly conservative small town's church. full summaryAwards:
5 wins & 15 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(5 articles)
French and Saunders earn BAFTA fellowship (From digitalspy. 20 April 2009, 10:04 PM, PDT)
3.1m turn out for Malone's Bb eviction
(From digitalspy. 18 January 2009, 9:51 AM, PST)
User Comments:
Praise be, there's no no no no no no no more moreCast
(Series Cast Summary - 7 of 18)| Dawn French | ... | Geraldine Granger (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| Gary Waldhorn | ... | David Horton (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| James Fleet | ... | Hugo Horton (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| Emma Chambers | ... | Alice Tinker / ... (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| Trevor Peacock | ... | Jim Trott (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| Roger Lloyd-Pack | ... | Owen Newitt (24 episodes, 1994-2007) | |
| John Bluthal | ... | Frank Pickle (23 episodes, 1994-2007) |
Additional Details
Runtime:
10 min (Comic Relief Specials) | 30 min (Season 1-2) | 40 min (Season 3, 1996 Easter Special, 1997 Christmas Special, 2005 New Years Special) | 55 min (2004 Christmas Special) | 60 min (2006 Christmas Special, 2007 New Years Special - finale)Country:
UKLanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorSound Mix:
StereoCertification:
Singapore:PG | UK:12 (some episodes) | UK:PG (some episodes) | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PGFun Stuff
Trivia:
Dawn French initially requested to play Alice Tinker, because she felt the vicar wouldn't be funny enough and that she understood Alice's humor. She later requested that the Vicar have some sort of faults -- hence her being a bit lonely, a bit vain, and having a massive chocolate obsession. moreQuotes:
Owen Newitt: I am a great supporter of sex before marriage. Otherwise I wouldn't have had sex at all. moreSoundtrack:
Psalm 23 moreFAQ
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Firstly, don't get me wrong. To begin with I thought the Vicar of Dibley was a great comedy, full of good story lines, interesting and eccentric characters and a lot of genuine laughs.
However it has been a case of diminishing returns for some years now. Just look at the episode guide and see the large gaps in production of the series, so disjointed that in 12 years only 23 episodes were produced, in the same period a successful American comedy would probably output around 250 episodes. The first series or two were brilliant, but then the superior Father Ted came in and when VoD does return it feels more tired each time. It probably should have ended after this point. It is a mystery to me why British comedies struggle to maintain quality for more than two series, but it is nonetheless true that most sitcoms produced in this country end after either two seasons (Fawlty Towers being the prime example - and John Cleese looks more sensible for doing so all the time) or after three possibly. because the third series did not match the first two (Black Books).
I was surprised to like it at all since I am no fan of Dawn French, but I found that without Jennifer Saunders she can be very funny. My opinion changed in the last two episodes however as the programme rapidly descended into the 'Dawn French Show,' with her running round screaming and generally leaving other characters with very little to say. This brings me to the conclusion that much of the praise that this comedy deserves belongs to Emma Chambers as Alice who plays the village idiot exceptionally well. Other characters like Roger Lloyd-Pack as Owen started off well but has more recently become a one-joke sheep farmer stereotype which only needed a Welsh accent to reach rock-bottom.
Based on the early episodes, Vicar of Dibley deserves an 8 or 9 out of 10, but the last few series have been increasingly poor in comparison so I have awarded it 5/10.