The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley is a British situation comedy or sitcom created by British writer and screenwriter Richard Curtis, co-written with writer Paul Mayhem-Archer, and written especially for lead actress Dawn French. The series first aired on British television between 1994 and 2007.
“The Vicar of Dibley” is set in the fictional village of Dibley in Oxfordshire, where a woman is appointed to the vacant position of parish priest (vicar). This appointment may have taken place after the 1992 changes in the Church of England to allow for the ordination of women. The heroine of the sitcom is a fictional persona invented by Curtis, but he and Dawn French consulted at length with the Venerable Joy Carroll, one of the first female priests in Britain. This made it possible to create a very characteristic image of the heroine and to refine important details.
In terms of popularity figures, the program is one of the most successful in modern British television. The Vicar of Dibley has won several awards for Best British Comedy, has received two international Emmy Awards, and has been nominated many times for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). In 2004, the sitcom ranked third among the best sitcoms in Britain.
When the elderly vicar of the small village of Dibley dies during a church service, the residents of Dibley expect another old man with the same beard and terrible breath to be appointed as the new vicar. However, the cheerful and sometimes eccentric Geraldine Granger-as she describes herself, “a lush-breasted beauty with short hair”-arrives to replace her. The members of the parish council, who are the main characters of the sitcom: the conceited chairman David Horton, his indecisive son Hugo Horton, the incomprehensible Jim Trott, the tedious council secretary Frank Pickle, the straightforward farmer Owen Newit and the talentless cook Letitia Cropley, and the dim-witted assistant vicar Alice Tinker, meet her with distrust, not being ready to see a woman as a priest. Very soon, however, Geraldine proves that she is not only an excellent vicar, but also a warm-hearted and sympathetic person. She becomes an integral part of village society (without adopting its traditional stereotypes).
The Vicar of Dibley is set in the fictional village of Dibley in Oxfordshire, although the sitcom was filmed in the village of Turville, Buckinghamshire. The scenes in the village church of St. Barnaby were filmed at St. Mary’s Church in Thurville. It’s also where the local pub, where some scenes of the last episodes were filmed, is located. Scenes from some other movies and television series, such as The Midsomer Murders, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Miss Marple, were filmed in the same village. The opening credits are shown against a backdrop of the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire countryside and a stretch of the M40 highway near High Wycombe, which is only a few miles from Terwill.