Review of Vicar Of Dibley, The Christmas Specials

Introduction

The Vicar of Dibley ran for three seasons over the space of ten years. This disc contains the most recent outings for Geraldine Granger (Dawn French) and her wonderful supporting cast of loonies and grotesques. These are the Christmas 2004 and New Year 2005 episodes (in other words shown a week apart last Christmas). Extras on the disc include a nice little behind-the-scenes video diary and two of the Comic Relief episodelets.

Dibley, while a star vehicle for Dawn French, shows its strengths as an ensemble comedy in the tradition (although not the style) of classic shows such as Dad`s Army and Are You Being Served. As with those shows, a lead is surrounded by a cast of eccentrics or characters. Arthur Lowe had wonderful character actors including Clive Dunn, John Laurie and John LeMesurier to work off; John Inman had Mollie Sugden, Frank Thornton and Nicholas Smith among others. Dawn French is blessed with the likes of Emma Chambers, Trevor Peacock, Gary Waldhorn, Roger Lloyd-Pack and John Bluthal. Together these weird characters, with their motivations and eccentricities, complicate a pretty straightforward job for a pretty straightforward woman (Geraldine).

The two Christmas episodes bring us up to date with the denizens of Dibley, last seen in the classic four-episode third season in December 1999.

Video

These episodes are presented in their original 16:9 anamorphic format. Being so recent, video quality is excellent. The older of the Comic Relief clips and the video diary piece are in 4:3, but video quality is still excellent.

Audio

The episodes and extras are all presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround.

Features

Dibley Defrocked is an 11 minute behind-the-scenes DVcam piece shot on the set of the Christmas Special. It gives quite an insight into the making of a television sitcom in spite of itself.

Comic Relief Celebrity Party is the 15 minute Red Nose Special which includes appearances from the Duchess of York and(!) Johnny Depp.

Comic Relief Antiques Roadshow lasts 14 minutes and gives some of the experts from Antiques Roadshow the opportunity to exercise their acting chops. Fun.

The Epilogues is a collection of all the epilogue gags from the three seasons of the show and the specials.

Sadly, Universal haven`t included subtitles for the hard of hearing on this disc.

Conclusion

For devout Dibleyians, this is a terrific disc full of Dibley goodies from the show`s three-seasons-over-ten-years run. While it doesn`t include all of the Vicar`s Christmas adventures (most seasons were screened around Christmas and included a Christmas episode in their normal run), it does present us with Geraldine`s most recent excursions on to the box. Delightful.