WHY’S GILLIAN BLUE?

Who better to lift our spirits this Christmas than The Vicar Of Dibley, returning for three heavenly new episodes

The Crown’s Gillian Anderson has hit back at critics of the show, saying, ‘I’m not playing Mrs Thatcher, I’m playing a character based on Mrs Thatcher. Other actors are playing characters based on members of the Royal Family. We’re never going to know what happens behind closed doors, so creative licence has to be employed and there’ll inevitably be a lot of subjective judgement.’

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She’s the woman for a crisis, the buxom vicarette, as she calls herself, on a mission to help the people of Dibley – not to mention the whole nation – through the pandemic.

The Vicar Of Dibley, chocolateloving Geraldine Kennedy (her surname was Granger before she married accountant Harry Kennedy), is back for three tenminute lockdown instalments on BBC1, 22 years after the last episode of the hit sitcom.

‘Geraldine realises many of her parishioners have been struggling during the pandemic, so she’s been delivering a monthly sermon to them via Zoom,’ says Dawn French, who’s played the vicar since 1994 and reprised the role for Comic Relief and occasional specials. ‘As viewers will see, they haven’t always gone to plan.’

The sermons are delivered from the living room of Geraldine’s cottage in the Oxfordshire village of Dibley and span the nation’s Covid crisis. The first is dated 19 April, four weeks into the first national lockdown – and it’s not exactly a success.

Dodgy broadband means she gets cut off at inopportune moments, giving parishioners the impression she’s telling them the end of the world is nigh and it’s inevitable they’ll catch Covid-19. ‘There,’ she says once the internet connection has been restored, ‘I hope I’ve put your minds at rest.’

She has help in one episode from old friend Hugo Horton (James Fleet), who steps into the breach when the vicar and her husband Harry embark on a presecond lockdown pilgrimage.

Geraldine also uses her platform to reach out to members of her flock, such as Jim Trott, the eccentric parish councillor played by Trevor Peacock. Unfortunately, Jim has mistaken the two-metre

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