The Vicar of Dibley

The Vicar of Dibley was a BBC television sitcom created by Richard Curtis and Ian Groves and Paul Carpenter have adapted the scripts for this play. It was a brave decision by Bradford Players to choose a play about such an iconic character as the Vicar of Dibley which was irresistibly played by Dawn French and the series itself is so well known and loved. The play should have been originally performed in 2019 but then lockdown came, and the show was postponed till now. As a lover of the TV series, I didn’t know what to expect but I was absolutely in awe of what I witnessed. All the characters were so true to the original cast in every aspect it was uncanny! Hats off to the actors and their characterisation that was shown on stage. The stage was divided into three parts to depict the four main locations of the play, the Village Hall, the church, David Haughton’s lounge and the vicar’s sitting room. The way the set was designed, and the lighting was used was excellent and helped realistically transport you from scene to scene. This proved to work extremely well as there were so many scenes, some of which were very small indeed, it enabled the dynamics and flow of the play to proceed without interruption. The vicar, The Reverend Geraldine Grainger, was originally played by Dawn French and not an easy act to follow, but Helen Ganney was equal to the task. The vicar is the lynch-pin of the whole piece and Helen was so impressive in this huge role managing to portray the exuberance, the warmth, the self-indulgence, the comedy and the flippancy of the character superbly. Debbie Cross was delightful as the naive, gullible and lovable Alice Tinker, the Verger. Her mannerisms, her great West Country accent and her girly shyness were all delivered exquisitely. Richard Barran epitomised David Horton, Chairman of the Parish Council perfectly whilst his dim witted but sweet natured son, Hugo Horton (madly in love with Alice) was sympathetically played by Jonnie Taylor. Garry Darbey was outstanding as Jim Trott. His lines and ‘no, no, noes’ were delivered with perfect comic timing. As Owen Newitt, Carl Murray, who I didn’t recognise at first splendidly managed to both repel and amuse with his audacious behaviour. The pedantic nature of Frank Pickle, the Council Secretary, was impeccably portrayed by John Mawson and Julie McGovern was splendid as the eccentric Letitia Cropley – not sure if I will be coming round for dinner any time soon though.  

The Songs of Praise scene was originally filmed in 2019 and very cleverly projected onto the stage. It also included the late Joyce Lakey who was a dedicated and long-standing member of the society. Lovely to see her “on stage” for one last time. 

Many congratulations to the production team and to the terrific cast on their well-polished performances and everyone involved in this excellent production. It certainly gets a ‘No, no, no...YES’ from me!   

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