The Vicar Of Dibley - The Complete First Series DVD

The most British of British sitcoms, The Vicar of Dibley's well-earned success has nothing to do with the whoops-mind-my-bosoms potential in casting Dawn French in the role of a female vicar foisted upon a sleepy and ultra-conservative English village. Rather this series, set in a rural, largely middle-class environment, is essentially the flip side of, say, Inspector Morse. It's resolutely un-dumbed down, with scalpel-sharp dialogue and a standard of humour that owes more to Tom Stoppard than to mainstream primetime comedy. This release includes the entire first series,... in which the vicar has to deal with the inevitable bemusement caused by her arrival and her well-intentioned involvement in the affairs of the community, together with the superbly funny episode in which she realises she's accepted several invitations to Christmas lunch and can't bring herself to disappoint any of the hosts (never before has a sprout-eating contest provoked so much mirth). Above all, though, watch out for the episode which features Kylie Minogue giving the kind of hands-on performance usually associated with classic Morecambe and Wise or Ab Fab--when stars of this stature are happy to send themselves up in a television comedy, you know it's a good sign. On the DVD: The DVD features a slightly bogus "extra" that strings together French's legendary jokes, which, thankfully, also appear in their original locations at the end of each episode.--Roger Thomas [show more]

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