The Vicar of Dibley

Oh how I love "The Vicar of Dibley," let me count the ways! This divine comedy was technically in production from 1994-2007, but from 2000 through 2004 nothing new was produced. The show was created by Richard Curtis, who was the creative mind behind such offerings as "Bridget Jones's Diary," "Love, Actually," and served as the writer for Steven Spielberg's 2010 movie, "War Horse."

"The Vicar of Dibley" is a sitcom centered around the idea of a female vicar, Geraldine Granger (amiably portrayed by the brilliant comedienne Dawn French, of "French & Saunders") being assigned to lead a church in a small town after the Church of England began to allow the ordination of women in 1992. Geraldine is all at once feisty, but earnest. Liberal, but eager to please. Teasing, but sensitive. Faithful to friends, but willing to take them to task. And just plain laugh out loud funny. She comes to town and initially finds that no one wants a female vicar, but eventually finds friends among the quirky townspeople.

I did not watch it during it's original run, but rather I discovered it on Netflix streaming last summer. Sadly, since that time Netflix has removed it from their streaming programming but is still available through their DVD services.

The show charmed me from the beginning, but British tv shows have much shorter seasons than in America. "Vicar" only had 6 shows per season for the first two seasons, and less for the third. While I was a fan of the show by the 4th or 5th episode in Series 1, it was when Richard Armitage joined the cast as love interest Harry during the two 2006 Christmas specials that I became an addict of the show. I can remember emailing someone who was a fan of the show saying, "That Harry had BETTER BE GOOD TO GERALDINE!" because I was that invested, and I wanted Harry to be a good guy.

Richard Armitage is about to hit it big in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" which is due out in theaters in December 2012 (he's playing Thorin). But for those of us who watch British TV, we know him already from his roles on "Vicar," "Robin Hood," and "MI-5." Given his roles in "Hood" and "MI-5" (which are dramas), it's disarming to see him smile and laugh in "Vicar," but makes his character all the more charming.

Below is a scene from the first of the two Christmas specials, when Harry and Geraldine are on their first date. At this point she hasn't had a chance to tell him she is the vicar he has heard so much about since his move to Dibley.

If you haven't already caught this series, I highly recommend you seek it out. The show occasionally runs on PBS, and as I mentioned before, you can rent the DVDs from Netflix. With a quick search I also found them for rent from Blockbuster. If you have an Amazon Prime membership you can watch "Vicar of Dibley" for free through their online streaming service as well.

So there's no excuse! If you haven't watched this sweet, funny show, then you are doing yourself a disservice! Is it worth watching? No no no no no no no no no no...yes!