All in Good Faith (1985–1988) User Reviews

The premise and promise of the show are sometimes fulfilled

[allen_w24 · 5/10 · 18 January 2020]

Richard Briers is most familiar to US viewers as the husband from The Good Life, which shows an urban couple who determine to live a self-sufficient life without leaving their middle-class home. All in Good Faith is said to have been written for him and he plays a similar character.

At it's best, All in Good Faith provides plenty of the friendly, even affectionate banter between Vicar Lambe and the supporting characters that fans of Richard Briers' performance on The Good Life will remember, while neatly juxtaposing contemporary British problems with traditional English religion and culture. At its worst, it's nothing more than another chance for Richard Briers to be on television.

The show is always described as being about a vicar from a country parish who decides to move to a crime-ridden urban neighborhood, but that move doesn't happen until the second season, which makes the first season seem like a long, drawn-out exposition.

The second season is more or less what you expected at the beginning, with all the friendly banter and the clash between traditional culture and contemporary life (a long-running, global conflict that in its British setting has exploded into the Brexit battle), but then there is a jarring transition in the beginning of the third season.

In the third season, almost the entire cast is replaced, including the vicar's wife. Barbara Ferris is replaced by Susan Jameson. At the same time, T.P. McKenna is replaced by John Woodvine as the greedy supermarket chain tycoon Oscar Randolph and the kids simply vanish.

Other writers and producers might have dealt with the cast transition by sending the vicar's wife on long trip to another continent, giving him a secretary to bring him down to earth, bringing in a new business tycoon to act as his greedy conservative foil, and regularly describing the absent kids as living active teenage lives. Not All in Good Faith. The confidence of the writers and producers in their ability to make their choice work is impressive, but it's not exactly deserved.

The first two seasons of All in Good Faith are worth watching if you enjoy British sitcoms from the 70's and 80's and haven't seen this one. If not, there are better ways to pass the time.

Would Be Better, If the Family Wasn't Insufferable

[jethrojohn · 5/10 · 9 August 2023]

I was looking around for a nice, comfy British show about a vicar. That's how this popped up on my radar.

The premise is a nice one. A kindly middle aged vicar having a mid-life crisis takes on a church in a "troubled" parish to get some life back into his bones.

Only... that doesn't happen till the second the series. The first series is about his struggles with his original parish, including the bullying old curate who makes him do things he doesn't want to do.

This means that the first season seems stuck on one issue - the arguments about him going to the new parish. A will he or won't he scenario, that is already a forgone conclusion because of the main premise.

What really annoys, however, is the wife of the kindly vicar, who is as supportive of her husband and his plight as a wall full of razor blades. The woman is constantly angry at him for wanting to take on the challenge of a new parish, as her life is too comfortable at the old one.

This is a constant thing throughout season one. The wife is constantly shouting and screaming at him, getting angry and annoyed and conspiring with the kids to keep him at the old parish.

The very same parish that he hates so much. The man is beaten and downtrodden, at one point saying he has very little pride or faith left in himself or even God.

I get not wanting to move... but perhaps, maybe, the woman could be a tad supportive of her terminally depressed husband?

Perhaps she could put her ideas of a "comfortable" existence aside so that the poor man doesn't end up killing himself in a couple years?

This makes the wife insufferable, obstinate, and combative, as she has no empathy for her downtrodden husband. The man doesn't only want a "challenge", he wants to find the will to live again. And he sees helping people in a troubled parish as the only way to do that.

And his wife is so against that mostly selfless act. So content is she with her little cottage in a small English village and her life of doing mostly nothing that she's willing to let her husband suffer the bullying and complete lack of anything interesting.

It really got to me. Especially since the woman is so unwilling to compromise.

If she had just been a tad more supportive of the poor man, who is obviously clinically depressed and close to suicidal (a mortal sin for his ilk, I'll remind you).

And she has nothing really to fight about. Except comfort. She does nothing useful at the old parish. She doesn't do charity or anything that helps the community. She just stays at home being useless.

This constant issue is exacerbated by the length of time it takes our vicar to even GET to the new parish. So, by the time season 2 rolls around, the wife has become an awful person that ruins the show.

Watch it if you can stand a selfish moron shouting amongst the gentler moments. But if you can't, avoid.

very few reviews, - 35 year old dated sitcom

[braquecubism · 1/10 · 18 January 2020]

Now On AcornTv- maybe not seen for awhile- bec no reviews. very banal tedious, what you would expect. have to wonder if this is a laugh track. the lead, Richard has a following. This is a well meaning lukewarm bowl of oatmeal, without any honey or maple syrup.

for various reasons, this was played at home and I heard most till the end. bec this is not something I would watch.

what really annoys me is that by Season #3- they have a new actress as the vicars wife, Emma. At 1st, I thought she was a teenage boy helper. nothing wrong with her, but out of the blue there is a pants and shirt person with short, boyish hair. No wifely affection. and there is no sign of their 2 pre-teen- teenage children. gone not a word. the one other review says, S#3 the children are grown up- they were too young to be gone in how many years?, and there is no reference as to them being gone, or going to Uni, or even a phone call, or where are they living.= or how they are doing why? would it be so hard to mention them. and why get rid of them? since they replaced the wife, they could bring in 2 new actors, a little older.

I can say 2 French Series, and another 1990s English sitcom, replace one or The lead characters. (Cain (Fr) replaced lead. so this seems "acceptable"- - in US beside the 2 Darrins (#1 became seriously ill) at least, they write out 1 character and bring in another. But here they do a "body snatchers".and erase 2 children.

Also, the Vicar doesn't interact with any parishioners except maybe 2 or a 3- a Senior lady who goes to a home, and a homeless alcoholic, who is always imposing with a scheme. So, yes they would be charitable, but he is annoying.

Laughs From The Pulpit

[Rabical-91 · 8/10 · 14 February 2018]

The late Richard Briers has assumed many guises over the course of his career. He was a nervous newlywed in 'Marriage Lines', an office clerk turned naturist in 'The Good Life', a boastful liar in 'The Other One' and an obsessive know-it-all in 'Ever Decreasing Circles'.

In 1985, he donned a dog collar for the role of a well meaning but clumsy vicar in 'All In Good Faith', which was his first ITV sitcom. Despite running for three series, it has never been regarded as one of the most memorable points of his career, which is a pity as it is superior to some of those that are.

John Kane, who appeared in a couple of episodes, was responsible for the scripts. Philip Lambe is an ensthusiastic priest who lives in a cosy Oxfordshire parish with his wife Emma and children Peter and Miranda. Episodes would mainly concern him trying to do things as diverse as playing golf or helping homeless people. By the end of the first series, he has moved from Oxfordshire to the fictional area of Edendale ( a run down district of the Midlands ) after being offered a new job there. By the third series, his children have grown up and left home.

'All In Good Faith' was not a wonderful show, far from it, but it was charming, helped by the energetic performance from Briers. Barbara Ferris was also impressive as his dutiful wife, though I never took to Susan Jameson, who replaced Ferris in series three. Appearing from time to time were James Cossins, Noel Dyson, Jeremy Gittins ( who went on, ironically enough, to play a vicar in 'Keeping Up Appearances' ), Raymond Francis and Frank Middlemass.

'All In Good Faith' was made available on DVD some time back and enjoyable stuff it is too.