The Ultimate Vicar Of Dibley Collection - Series 1-4 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

This is a review on the box set version of the entire programme of the Vicar of Dibley, aired on BBC1 with subsequent viewings on UK Gold and other programmes I am sure! I would just like to add my own views, or rather 'holy notes' on it.

First off, the boring bits.

Written by:

Richard Curtis
Paul Mayhew-Archer
Kit Hesketh Harvey

Produced by:

A small number ...
...Geraldine 'Gerry/ Grrr' Granger - the vicar of the parish church of St Barnubus, Dibley. We are not sure as to the current location of the church, but Wolverhampton and Oxford are mentioned.

Gary Waldhorn: David Horton- the chairman of the parish council. Tries to get the Vicar sacked during the first part of the series, but then warms to theh fact that she is not quite so bad after all.

James Fleet: Hugo Horton - ... more

This is a review on the box set version of the entire programme of the Vicar of Dibley, aired on BBC1 with subsequent viewings on UK Gold and other programmes I am sure! I would just like to add my own views, or rather 'holy notes' on it.

First off, the boring bits.

Written by:

Richard Curtis
Paul Mayhew-Archer
Kit Hesketh Harvey

Produced by:

A small number of people, names of whom escape me but are still very important!

Staring/ cast as:

Dawn French: Rev Geraldine 'Gerry/ Grrr' Granger - the vicar of the parish church of St Barnubus, Dibley. We are not sure as to the current location of the church, but Wolverhampton and Oxford are mentioned.

Gary Waldhorn: David Horton- the chairman of the parish council. Tries to get the Vicar sacked during the first part of the series, but then warms to theh fact that she is not quite so bad after all.

James Fleet: Hugo Horton - his son. Overpowered by his less than affectionate father at first, he does in fact stand up to him when he decides to marry Alice.

John Bluthal: Frank Pickle - the secretary to the council. The most pedantic man on earth.

Trevor Peacock: Jim Trott - with his catchphrase being 'No, no, no, no - yes!' (His wife doing the opposite, although we very rarely see her). We assume that is wife has died, as he regularly tells us of his romantic exploits with Oriental women.

Roger Lloyd-Pack: Owen Newitt - the local farmer. Smells worse than his cows do, he is always trying to seduce the Vicar (including proposing to her on one account). But despite this, appears to have a good heart that is somewhere in the right place.

Liz Smith: Leticia Cropley - the worst cook in the Universe, her cooking is to culinary skills as to what Frank Pickle is to being entertaining. She sadly passes away during one of the specials, the after effects proving to be amusing (see below).

Emma Chambers: Alice Tinker (later Horton) - the Verger, who is a bit thick. After marrying Hugo, her personality changes (for the worse in my opinion, as she becomes less funny).

Richard Armitage: Harry (?) - along around in the very last two shsows of the programme, he does in fact propose to along with ending up marrying the Vicar.

There is a usual routine to the show, it being opening credits; show; end credits; joke between Vicar/ Verger. The Vicar usually tells the joke, but Alice never gets it until it has been explained. On one occasion, Alice attempts at knock knock jokes - the person at the door usually being an actor. One further occasion David sits in, as Alice is on honeymoon.

But now on to the DVD! It has been rated as a 12, due to the nature of some of the shows. This box set has been split in to 6 separate DVDs, all of which are explained in detail below:

DVD 1: The complete first series.

Arrival: The Vicar first arrives in Dibley following the death of thehir former vicar, at the grand old age of beinng over 100 (plus being there since the age of 17). Being a traditional village, they are of course all up in arms.

Songs of Praise: of course, the title gives it away. But during the show, Gerry fanices the producer; David fancies the camerwoman - and the two unbeknown to all those involved are actually an item.

Community Spirit: the annual village fete. Hoping to improve on the abysmal effort of the previous year, Gerry foolishly lets Alice in to inviting her second cousin Reg Dwight to open the fair - thinking that he is of course, the one and only Sir Elton John. This fails, with him not being who he made out to be. But as luck would have it, Kylie Minogue turns up (to the delight of Hugo Horton who fanices her).

The Window and the Weather: a storm damages the main window in St Barnubus Church, and the Vicar wants to replace it with the original one. After much discussion on what the original was (and failing to agree on it), she finally manages to settle on a plain glass one. The rest of the money (donated by a friends of David's) is donated to an orphan earthquake appeal, as seen earlier on in the show.

Election: David stands for election, making all of the usual pre-election promises that they do. However, as the village is so up in arms at this they all support the Vicar in standing. But she backs down, and the winner is David - who in turns backs down on his promises post-election. The villagers than go all out, in order to make life a misery for him.

Animals: the Vicar decides that as a country parish, they should celebrate the animals of the village. This results in to the church becoming an Ark for the day!

DVD 2: the specials.

The Christmas Lunch Incident: Gerry agrees to have three sets of Christmas dinners with her parishoners, so as not to offend any of them. But she thinks and hopes that all is well after the third - or is it? As a fourth person asks her at the last minute, to which she can only oblige. Her fave Songs of Praise producer turns up to ask her to marry him, but she gets the wrong end of the stick when he then introduces her to his fiancee....

The Easter Bunny: Leticia sadly passes away, but on her death bed asks the Vicar to dress up as the Easter bunny in order to go around the village during the course of the night before giving out chocolate eggs to the children of the village. However, Gerry soon realises that the whole village has been asked to dress up!

DVD 3: the complete second series.

Engagement: Hugo and Alice get engaged, much to the outrage of his father. Much to the outrageof the Vicar, Owen asks her to marry him - say no more!

Dibley Live: Gerry gets a licence to run 'Radio Dibley' for a week, and gets the villagers involved by doing their own shows. However, Frank comes out as gay - but Gerry is the only to hear hhim do so, because the others wouldn't listen to his show.

Celebrity Vicar: As a result of Radio Dibley, Gerry is invited to take part in various newspaper/ radio interviews. However, as her media career takes off - her church career goes down, resulting in a bad way. However, her reputation is restored during the village talent show.

Love and Marriage: Alice and Hugo get married, but at the same time Gerry becomes acqauinted with Simon who is David's younger brother. The sparks start to fly, but nothing comes of it for now.

DVD4: the seasonal specials.

Autumn: Simon turns up, much to the delight of Gerry. Things really heat up, and Gerry spends more time with him than in the pulpit - resulting in her giving in her notice, as a result of the downturn in her morals. However, Simon goes back to an old flame - and Gerry returns to the pulpit.

Winter: Alice is heavily pregnant, which seems to have done he trick in giving her a good idea. They stage a real-life Nativity on Owens' farm, during which Alice goes in to labour and actually gives birth in the stable - a girl, called baby Geraldine.

Spring: Baby Geraldine is christened; a creche is formed - and David asks Gerry to marry her.

Summer: A reservoir is planned for the valley in which Dibley is situated in, much to the disgust of the villagers. However, it is only stopped after they all chain themselves to the church - and animals with less than 4 legs are found on the farm.

DVD 5: a very Dibley Christmas.

Merry Christmas: it is Gerry's tenth anniversary as Vicar, so there is a party held in her honour wuth a surpise visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury. A new carol is also written to be sung at Midnight mass, to which the Vicar turns up at drunk. They try to pass this off as her way of showing the effects of binge drinking, especially if a Vicar turns to this.

Happy New Year: it is Gerry's birthday, so as a present the villagers enrol her in speed dating. However, the only snag is that they are all there to - she is unaware of this, until the night.

DVD 6: a holy wholly happy ending.

The Handsome Stranger: Gerry is appalled that another house/ cottage has been sold to a Londoner, until she meets him - and they both fancy each other something rotten. This is, of course Harry. He proposes to her, what a to do when she accepts! As a grateful thhank you present to her, the villagers agree to arrange the wedding for her.

The Vicar in White: she marries Harry, and flies off in to the sunset.

This DVD I actually bought for half price at £20 from Woolworths just after Christmas, although I would like to point out that this can be bought more than likely for a lot cheaper on the net. The bar code number for those who want it, is 5050582532029. 

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