Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special

Following on from their extremely successful production last year of the play, ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ and giving an opportunity for most of the original cast to be reunited, the Society decided to perform the sequel, ‘The Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special’. 

There were two main plots in the play, which involved the hilarious Radio Broadcasts and the organising and staging of the outdoor Christmas Nativity play. 

Carrie Gilham was the epitome of the Dawn French character Geraldine, the Vicar. It is a huge role , the lynch pin of the whole play, and Carrie’s performance was very good indeed. Mannerisms, facial expressions, her excellent comic timing and enthusiasm, were all skilfully portrayed along with a wonderful array of jumpers. 

Carly Cousins was delightful as Alice, the Verger, She brought out the naivety, vulnerability and excitability of Alice’s loving nature, perfectly and the rapport between these two characters was superb.

The domineering and sarcastic David Horton, Chairman of the Parish Council, was impeccably played by Jim Markey and Barny Shergold gave a heart-warming performance as Hugo, his dim-witted son with a heart of gold. 

John Bain gave us a  brilliant interpretation of the dithering Jim Trott and Martyn Broyd captured the pedantic and boring nature of Frank Pickle impeccably. What a great pairing. 

David Cousins splendidly managed to both disgust and amuse with the outrageous behaviour of Owen Newitt and Pat Lay was splendid as Letitia Cropley. Her playing of the organ was a masterclass in comic timing. Loved it!

Radio Dibley proved to be rather more chaotic than expected (surprise, surprise) especially when Frank decided to ‘come out’ on air – a wonderfully delivered speech by Martyn. Then there is the Christmas Nativity play to sort out, the auditions, casting, and rehearsals. The audition process was absolutely hilarious. Frank, a wannabe Wise Man mimicked the voice of Stephen Hawking – a ‘wise man’, Owen was strikingly dressed as Elvis for his audition as ‘the King’ and would you believe Jim came to also audition for a King dressed in a very short skirt etc. as Billie Jean King, the tennis player! Sitting ‘respectably’ not being his forte. Hugo and Alice were eventually cast as Joseph and Mary and David turns up for the role of Herod but wants to change it slightly to make the character more likeable. Forgotten lines, impromptu innuendoes, Mary being wheeled in on a trolley and to top it all, she actually goes into labour made for priceless goings-on. It concluded with Alice asking, “Is this really Jesus?’’ and the vicar replying, “Alice, it’s a baby girl” – Alice then said, “Good clue!”. 

The split stage depicting Geraldine’s home on one half and the village hall, set up for the parish meetings on the other, worked well. Also the use of the apron on stage right doubling as Geraldine’s office was a useful addition to the set.

Lighting and sound were exceptional and well executed, props were perfect for the era and costumes were just what we expected. I particularly enjoyed reading “The Dibley Times”. A nice addition and most appropriate.

The pace, for the most part, was good.  The second half had the edge and by the end I just couldn’t stop laughing.

The audience has certain expectations when they come to see a show which is straight off the television.  The characters are so well known that the cast can’t afford to fall short of the mark. Through the careful direction of Linda Dyne, they did not disappoint.

Throughout the show I found myself counting the ‘Blackouts’ of which, in my opinion, there were far too many. Whilst I appreciate the problems of moving from one extremely short scene to another –I’m sure the audience would have looked kindly on the necessary comings and goings of the cast and stage crew if just lighting effects had been used. This, if it were possible, would have helped considerably the flow of, in particular, the very disjointed and bitty first half of the play. Putting that aside, this exceptionally talented cast delivered a terrific night’s entertainment no, no, no, no, yes, I loved it! Well done to everyone involved.

Thanking you once again for your generous hospitality.

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