Advanced search

Geraldine is struck at how upset people are when their pets die and resolves to hold a special day when everybody brings an animal to church. David is appalled and tries to get the bishop to prevent it but he allows it, provided Geraldine takes the blame if it fails. A gutter press journalist turns up and tries to belittle the event with a stupid banner headline, but the day turns out to be a huge success with the furry and feathered congregation on their best behaviour.

Alice and Hugo return from honeymoon, having been imprisoned for accidentally helping a drug smuggler. Alice is pregnant. Simon Horton has come to see Geraldine and they have great difficulty in spending time alone at the vicarage as different council members keep dropping by. Eventually Simon appears in a dressing gown and the villagers know he is sleeping with the vicar. However he does not commit and finishes with her. She considers resigning but everybody talks her out of it.

Catholic Father Peter comes from Ballykissangel in Ireland for a cultural exchange. Geraldine's explanation that her parishioners are normal are sabotaged by Owen, who hates all Catholics and verbally abuses Peter; Alice, dressed as a bee; and Hugo, who has been sponsored to add 'Wibble' to his every sentence. Eventually Geraldine settles down to sell Peter kisses for charity, when they are rudely interrupted by his girlfriend Assumpta.

Geraldine is invited to talk on the religious radio slot 'Pause For Thought' after the planned speaker has dropped dead. She becomes an instant celebrity, appearing on several popular television shows and the parish council fear that she is distancing herself from them. However, she makes amends by performing a comedy dance routine with ballerina Darcey Bussell at the village charity gala, along with Frank's boring impressions and Owen's farting duck, though all are over-shadowed by Jim's Full Monty routine.

The television Antiques Road Show comes to Dibley. Alice is convinced that a small plastic model of a Smurf given to her by her father must be valuable. To prevent her being disappointed, Geraldine bribes expert Hilary Kay to say it is worth two thousand pounds. When Alice wants to sell it to an antiques shop for charity, Geraldine offers to do it for her but has to sell her own belongings to make the two grand.

When finding someone to open the Annual Village Festival Geraldine thinks she's got one over David when Alice mentions that her cousin is Reg Dwight.

Geraldine clashes with David in the Dibley district councilor elections over the issue of local bus service, and finds herself an opposing candidate

Geraldine is at a loss for an interesting front page story for the parish newsletter. Alice and Hugo are a couple but Alice complains that Hugo has yet to kiss her so Geraldine urges her to take the initiative. As a result the couple are found, lying on a path having a kiss which lasts four hours. They can't stop kissing. Finally Hugo stands up to his hectoring father and announces that he and Alice are engaged to be married, giving the vicar her front page story. She herself though manages to talk her way out of Owen's proposal to her.

It's the vicar's fortieth birthday and the villagers club together to buy her a present - an evening at a speed-dating session. Unfortunately the one handsome young man there, Steve, gets snapped up by a blonde girl. The other male participants are all council members. Geraldine is cheered, however, when the parish council all agree to back her support for the Make Poverty History campaign after watching a moving film about orphans in Africa.

Hugo and Alice are finally married, with two bridesmaids dressed up as Teletubbies. There is a nasty moment when a woman bursts in and accuses the groom of being already married but, not to worry, she's gone to the wrong church and everything else progresses smoothly. For Geraldine there is possible romance in the air as she meets, and steps out with, David Horton's charming younger brother Simon.

Christmas coincides with Geraldine's tenth year as vicar and David suggests that she should apply to be a bishop. A coincidental visit by Rachel Hunter leads Alice to believe that Geraldine is gay, but plans go ahead for her to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury to discuss her promotion. At her party she dives into a chocolate fountain, emerging to meet the Archbishop. Sensing that she has blown her chance of promotion, she gets drunk and delivers a bizarre Midnight Mass, whilst Jim's winning entry in a carol contest is similarly unusual.

A film crew comes to Dibley and Geraldine throws a party for Johnny Depp and other celebrities. David does not attend and frankly disbelieves Geraldine when he goes to the vicarage next morning and she tells him what happened. Then Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, arrives, having left her tiara behind and tells Geraldine how much the other famous names enjoyed her bash.

Both Geraldine and David find possible love interests when Songs of Praise decide to do an episode in Dibley.

It's Spring and time for Alice and Hugo's baby to be christened. As Geraldine is one of the godparents the Bishop arrives to perform the ceremony. Somewhat surprisingly David proposes marriage to Geraldine, who says that she will consider it. However, after Sean Bean has appeared to her in a dream telling her not to go through with it, she turns David down.

During a blisteringly hot summer a drought is declared in Dibley but soon afterwards Water Board officials arrive, announcing that the village is to be evacuated in order to make way for the site of a new reservoir. Geraldine leads the villagers in a mass protest, chaining themselves to the church, but it is Jim who saves the day, thanks to his 'endangered species'.

When the Vicar of Dibley dies, David Horton sends for a replacement but is horrified when he finds out the replacement is a woman.

Geraldine is so popular that everybody wants her round for Christmas dinner so she won't be alone - Jim and Frank, Alice and her family, who are even more bizarre than Alice herself and the Hortons. Geraldine is protective of Hugo when David bullies him and indulges in a sprout-eating contest. And then Owen turns up wanting company since he has spent every Christmas alone since 1971. As a consequence she has to be taken home on a bulldozer to sleep it off.

After the "Quite Great Storm" of Dibley, Geraldine discovers that a tree has smashed the church window. Everyone agrees they want the same window design - trouble is no one can remember what it looked like.

For Christmas Geraldine plans to stage a Nativity play in front of the church. David will play Herod,showing his kinder side, and Owen wants to be the King - cue his Elvis Presley impression. Alice and Hugo play Joseph and Mary and, amazingly, learn to speak Hebrew. During the play Alice goes into labour and gives birth, prompting an audience member to declare it is the most realistic Nativity play she ever saw.

With Lent approaching Geraldine suggests that everybody give something up and contribute a pound to charity if they fail - in her case chocolate, which is difficult, though she succeeds. Mrs. Cropley, who has agreed to give up making strange food combinations dies, but on her death-bed, charges Geraldine to dress as the Easter Bunny and dole out goodies, a job Mrs. Cropley had always done. Geraldine agrees but in fact finds that everybody else has also dressed up as the Easter Bunny.

Geraldine decides that, as an experiment, Dibley should have its own local radio station. Alice is due to interview David but he is rude to her on air so Geraldine devises a quiz, pitting them against each other and, as Alice's questions are all about her family, she wins it. Frank has an hour's slot all to himself but, as he is notoriously boring, nobody listens to it - thereby missing his public confession of coming out as being gay.

Geraldine forms a book club at which Alice deciphers the Da Vinci Code and works out that she is the last living descendant of Jesus Christ. Geraldine, however, is depressed. She has conducted a hundred weddings but is still single herself. An attractive young couple arrive to take up a weekend cottage - Harry and Rosie Kennedy. Geraldine is smitten by Harry and is relieved to find that Rosie is his sister, not his wife. They begin dating.

Geraldine turns down Owen's final pleas to marry him and the villagers' suggestion that she should have a sky-diving wedding, to get married to Harry. Alice is charged with being the wedding planner and she chooses a Doctor Who theme. After the Reverend Jeremy Ogilvy has conducted the ceremony and a montage of scenes from Geraldine's life has been shown Alice finally understands the vicar's closing joke, thanks to Harry.

Geraldine and Harry agree to a wife-swap, as in the TV show. He goes to live with Trudie Styler for a week while her husband Sting moves in with Geraldine. Alice warns him off the vicar using Police song titles and Geraldine gets him to do the housework in the nude. On the last day he tells her that if her marriage ends she should come and live with him - but only as his cook. Then Trudie comes in, having got a little too flirtatious with Harry. Mr and Mrs Sting both end up with a cake in the face, thanks to the vicar.

Dawn French reprises her role as the Vicar of Dibley, delivering lockdown sermons to her parishioners via Zoom. Favourite cast members return with a nod to those no longer with us.