The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review

WHAT TO WATCH THE VICAR OF DIBLEY IN LOCKDOWN

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BBC One, 8.50pm

Following a brief skit on The Big Night In, Dawn French’s “buxom vicarette” Geraldine Granger returns for three more lockdown shorts conjuring the same blend of chaste innocence and utter filth, all delivered with a straight face and a dog collar, and written once again by Richard Curtis. A combinatio­n of Zoom sermons to parishione­rs and familiar faces (in this case James Fleet’s nice-but-dull Hugo Horton), the set-up allows for careful negotiatio­n of off-screen sadness (Owen Newitt and Alice Tinker, as played by the late

Roger Lloyd-Pack and Emma Chambers, are acknowledg­ed but not seen), although Geraldine’s

husband Harry (Richard Armitage) is so far conspicuou­s by his absence.

Amid the hair disasters and jokes about chocolate, the highlight comes with an exchange between Geraldine and some local primary school children over the relative merits of Dynamo and Jesus Christ. For the most part, the gags are as middling and laboriousl­y telegraphe­d as ever – those bewildered by the series’s enormous success will remain unconvince­d – but the underlying message of kindness just about skirts Curtis’s customary sentimenta­lity, while French throws herself into it with her usual gusto. Gabriel Tate

Navy’s deadliest jet fighter, the Super Hornet. It includes some genuinely exciting cockpit footage.

CORONATION STREET: 60 UNFORGETTA­BLE YEARS ITV, 8.30pm

Remember Emily Perkins? She only graced the cobbles of Weatherfie­ld for eight episodes back in 1973, but the actress who played her, one Joanna Lumley, narrates this celebratio­n. Expect anecdotes from the cast including William Roache, Michelle Keegan and Julie Hesmondhal­gh.

 ??  ?? James Fleet and Dawn French return for three specials
James Fleet and Dawn French return for three specials

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