Review of Vicar Of Dibley, The: Holy Wholly Happy Ending

Introduction

`The Vicar of Dibley` ran for three series and disappeared before returning nearly five years later with a two-part Christmas and New Year Special. In 2006 they did it again, when the cast (minus Liz Smith) returned to give the vicar a happy send-off in these two special hour-long episodes that see Geraldine fall in love with `The Handsome Stranger` and, in `The Vicar in White`, be on the other end of a marriage ceremony for once.

One of the most popular British sitcoms of all time, according to a 2004 BBC poll where it placed at number 3, behind `Only Fools and Horses` and `Blackadder`, `The Vicar of Dibley` obviously has a large fan base who will be delighted to complete their collections with this DVD.

Video

The anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer is excellent, with well-defined colours and good contrast - as it should be for a TV show less than a year old.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is perfectly clear, with crisp dialogue and a horrendous theme tune by BBC stalwart Howard Goodall.

The subtitles are clear, well-written and are faithful to the dialogue.

Features

`The Story of Dibley` is nearly an hour long and is comprised mainly of interviews with the cast and crew, opening with footage of a Mastermind contestant whose speciality is `The Vicar of Dibley`, and the questions are put to Richard Curtis, Dawn French, James Fleet, Emma Chambers etc., who don`t seem to know the show all that well! There is also a real female vicar who is asked about the show in a wider context, and enough clips to take fans on a pleasant trip down memory lane.

This documentary is also subtitled.

Conclusion

In the weekly `lucky-dip` of discs that are sent out for review, some titles are in great demand, others naturally gravitate towards a particular reviewer, and a few have absolutely no takers whatsoever. This was one of the latter and I drew the short straw. So it was with some trepidation that I put it in my DVD player.

That trepidation was fully justified as, sitting through the two 50+ minute episodes, I felt my IQ dropping and will to live slowly ebbing away. I watched an episode or two of the show when it first aired and never returned to the flock and it didn`t take me long to remember why.

There wasn`t a single element of `The Vicar of Dibley` that I appreciated or enjoyed. I found it to be predictable, contrived and full of well-used jokes and comedy clichés. The exchanges between Alice and Geraldine almost felt like they were originally written for Baldrick and Blackadder, but were rejected on the grounds of quality, but have been recycled here by Richard Curtis and co-writer Paul Mayhew-Archer. I couldn`t empathise with Geraldine and hated the assortment of perverted, pompous and clueless characters who made up the rest of the villagers. As such, watching this was an aging and depressing ordeal, although not quite an `I`d rather drink bleach` sort of experience that some DVDs produce.

This DVD will no doubt be welcomed by fans, but I`m not one of them. If you liked the show, you`ll like this DVD - it`s as simple as that. Just in time for Christmas, too!