Rating: 
Summary: This Series is Just Heavenly!
Review: My wife and I discovered "The Vicar of Dibley" by accident when we were going through the cable channels and it came up on our local PBS station. Soon we became addicted to this hilarious little BBC comedy and now we walk around the house going "no, no, no, no,...YES!" O.K. maby things are not that bad, but it is certainly delightful, that the show in it's entirety has been released as a three disc, box set entitled, "The Devine Collection". For those unfamilar, the show takes place in the bucolic, British country village of Dibley. In the first episode, the elderly (bordering on ancient) parrish, Vicar dies in his sleep. The citizens of the village council send for a replacement.To their shock and astonishment the new Vicar turns out to be (gasp!)...A FEMALE! She in fact turns out to be Geraldine Granger (a comically great, Dawn French), a short, roly-poly women, who's preferences include junk food, good looking men and cracking racy jokes. But the town council are not the only ones to be surprised. Geraldine soon finds out that her new flock puts the capitol 'E' in the word 'Eccentric'. In other words...there all pretty nuts! They include David Horton, the village Grinch, Jim Trott, who's a stuttering letch, Frank Pickles, the most boring man alive, Owen Newitt, an outspoken farmer, who seems to do unspeakable things to livestock, Mrs. Cropley, an elderly women, who creates culinary nightmares and finally, Alice Tinker, a pleasant young women, who has raised being an idiot to a high art form! It's with this looney bunch that the new Vicar gets into some really gut busting, funny situations over the course of sixteen episodes. The DVD quality is only fair but the series truely makes up for that. Extras include two "Comic Relief" sketches plus some back stage footage. Also included is a documentary "The Real Vicars of Dibley". If your a fan of British Comedy or just good comedy in general than I highly recommend "The Vicar of Dibley-The Devine Collection" (no, no, no, no, ...YES!).
Rating:
Summary: This Series is Just Heavenly!
Review: My wife and I discovered "The Vicar of Dibley" by accident when we were going through the cable channels and it came up on our local PBS station. Soon we became addicted to this hilarious little BBC comedy and now we walk around the house going "no, no, no, no,...YES!" O.K. maby things are not that bad, but it is certainly delightful, that the show in it's entirety has been released as a three disc, box set entitled, "The Devine Collection". For those unfamilar, the show takes place in the bucolic, British country village of Dibley. In the first episode, the elderly (bordering on ancient) parrish, Vicar dies in his sleep. The citizens of the village council send for a replacement.To their shock and astonishment the new Vicar turns out to be (gasp!)...A FEMALE! She in fact turns out to be Geraldine Granger (a comically great, Dawn French), a short, roly-poly women, who's preferences include junk food, good looking men and cracking racy jokes. But the town council are not the only ones to be surprised. Geraldine soon finds out that her new flock puts the capitol 'E' in the word 'Eccentric'. In other words...there all pretty nuts! They include David Horton, the village Grinch, Jim Trott, who's a stuttering letch, Frank Pickles, the most boring man alive, Owen Newitt, an outspoken farmer, who seems to do unspeakable things to livestock, Mrs. Cropley, an elderly women, who creates culinary nightmares and finally, Alice Tinker, a pleasant young women, who has raised being an idiot to a high art form! It's with this looney bunch that the new Vicar gets into some really gut busting, funny situations over the course of sixteen episodes. The DVD quality is only fair but the series truely makes up for that. Extras include two "Comic Relief" sketches plus some back stage footage. Also included is a documentary "The Real Vicars of Dibley". If your a fan of British Comedy or just good comedy in general than I highly recommend "The Vicar of Dibley-The Devine Collection" (no, no, no, no, ...YES!).
Rating:
Summary: Hmm..
Review: Okay, Vicar of Dibley is in the running of being the greatest British Comedy ever (officially and not just my opinion) but it is very unfair that the complete collection is available in America when we can't get it here in Britain!! I own series 1 on DVD and apart from the "best of" DVD, I haven't seen any other series, let alone a complete collection. Unjustice!
Rating: 
Summary: No, no ... no, no, no. Yes!
Review: THE VICAR OF DIBLEY series must be seen if for no other reason than for the delightful eccentricity of its characters. It played on the British telly from 1994-2000.As the first episode opens, the aged male vicar of the St. Barnabus Anglican church in the small, rural, village of Dibley dies during Sunday service. The parish council, chaired by the sensible and straight-laced landed gent David Horton (Gary Waldhorn), requests a new vicar from the local bishop. Much to the council's surprise, who should be assigned but the Rev. Geraldine Grainger (Dawn French). On her arrival by cab in the midst of a rainstorm, Geraldine, a young, single, full-figured woman, stuns Horton by saying, "I'll bet you weren't expecting a woman. Or someone with these" - while gesturing to her ample bosom. Thus, Grainger invades the Dibley community. And, as Horton later - much later after many differences of opinion - admits, she's the best vicar the parish has ever had. The strength of the series is in the supporting roles. There's squire Horton, of course, driven to frequent bemusement and exasperation by Geraldine and his council members. These include his own dim-witted son, Hugo (James Fleet), who's in love with the mentally challenged parish verger, Alice Tinker (Emma Chambers), who has the intellectual capacity of a brick. Then, there's Jim Trott (Trevor Peacock), who has the nervous habit of prefacing any statement with "No, no ... no, no, no." (During one episode, the viewer is introduced to Mrs. Trott, whose foible is the opposite: "Yes, yes ... yes, yes, yes". But she's never seen again.) There's Frank Pickle (John Bluthal), the council secretary who records the minutes in infuriatingly compulsive detail, and Owen Nesbitt (Roger Lloyd Pack), the profane and blunt-speaking farmer who develops a lust for Geraldine. Finally, there's Letitia Cropley (Liz Smith), killed off in the 1996 Easter special, who has a penchant for experimenting with the most bizarre food recipes, which she trys out on her hapless council colleagues. Filmed in the quaint hamlet of Turville, just off the M40 about 20 miles west from its junction with the M25 Ring, THE VICAR OF DIBLEY is consistently amusing. For me, the funniest episodes were: "The Easter Bunny" (disc 2), wherein each member of the parish council must decide what to give up for Lent, which, for Geraldine is chocolate; "The Christmas Lunch Incident" (disc 2), wherein Geraldine bites off more than she can chew, literally, by rashly accepting several Christmas lunch invitations; "Autumn" (disc 3), wherein Geraldine is seduced and abandoned by David Horton's hunky brother Simon. And, there are a couple of celebrity guests in brief appearances: Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and Johnny Depp. You know, the Duchess is a Babe. I can't award five stars because there are a couple of clunker episodes. But, on the whole, THE VICAR OF DIBLEY is top drawer British comedy, and certainly superior to the ubiquitous garbage sitcoms on American TV nowadays.
Rating:
Summary: Heavenly Fantastic!
Review: This is one of those shows that's just so funny that you never get tired of watching it over and over again. The comedy is fantastic! My favorite episode is the one titled "The Window and the Weather." The funniest scene is when everyone is trying to figure out the image of the church window before it was smashed. Everyone thought the question was answered when Jim pulls out a picture. Unfortunately, the picture wasn't a picture of the church window but a picture of Jim's dog. The Vicar say's to Jim, "This is a picture of your dog, Jim." Jim responds with "That's right, but he was standing outside the church, so I thought you might be able to see the window in the reflection in his eye." Hilarious! You've got to see it to understand what I mean. The jokes at the end of each episode are pretty funny too!
I highly recommend you buy this DVD set. It's very, very funny.
Rating:
Summary: Brillo Pads!
Review: This is the best television series I have ever seen! It is laugh out loud funny yet heart warming without being corny. The acting is brilliant as is the writing. I wish American television would take a page out of the Vicar's book.
Rating:
Summary: Dawn French is a GENIUS
Review: To say Dawn French is a Genius is like saying the Sistine Chapel is a nice work of art. Dawn French is comedic Platinum! Gold is beneath her.
I thought Her husband was the epitome of humor, Lenny Henry of Chef, The Lenny Henry, and other comedic genius, but I must be honest Dawn is the greater talent of the two. Lenny You must admit that is pretty excellent company.
Mrs. French is truly untouchable in her portrayal of a back country Vicker who is breaking a long time tradition as the town's first female church leader.
In the Easter episode where she wears an Easter Bunny costume, let's just say wetting yourself is possibly in the cards.
A must buy if you like Dawn French, and a Must have if you like good British Comedy
Rating:
Summary: No - No - No - No - No - No - Yes, What a Joy !
Review: Vicar of Dibley - The Divine Collection was worth the wait. To those who have not seen this series, it can be irreverent and naughty about the Anglican Church, but never vulgar and very poignant and even sweet. And funny, really funny; it borders on the Pythonesque, not that dry British humor. Dawn French (along with Jennifer Saunders, AbFab) have set the standard for female lead BritComs; the cast of characters in this series are smartly written and terribly funny; local folk whose simple ways are both charming and hilarious. My favorite episodes are the Easter Bunny and the Dibley Talent Show. Recommended for those addicted to BritComs, but even if you're not, if you can handle "Are You Being Served?", then this series will be a "Joyous Praise! Hallelujah!"
Rating:
Summary: God bless Dibley and America
Review: When I recently logged into Amazon.co.uk, I was so disappointed to discover that only series 1 of The Vicar of Dibley was available to buy on DVD, which I had already purchased when it was released here in the U.K at the beginning of 2002. I've been looking high and low for series 2 & 3 for well over a year. Even here in London, a city where you would expect to find anything and evereything, not one HMV store stocked the next 2 series'. I'd waited long enough, I knew what I had to do, search for it on Amazon.com. Sure enough there it was, due to be released within day's, not just series 1 but the entire collection! I was over the moon and pre-ordered my copy immediately. I knew that multi-regional player of mine was destined to serve it's purpose! It was nice also to read up on the reviews, and to see what an American audience had to say. I was dead chuffed (extremely pleased) to learn that it had been widely appreciated by our friends across the lake. The Vicar of Dibley is by far the best comedy sketch ever created here in Britain. I urge all who have not seen it, to do so!
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of High Praise
Review: While five stars may be half a star too high, this is definitely high quality material, well worth the investment of money and time. To those who are considering just buying one of the DVDs, I would suggest that you'll probably enjoy that one enough that you'll want the others as well, so you might as well buy the complete set.
Dawn French shines as the lead in a talented and funny cast, and this is as well written as TV comedy gets. It's charmingly evocative of both the English pastoral countryside and the small church environment. Even those familiar only with the American small church experience will find plenty to make them smile in recognition, which is the charm of this whole series: while there is plenty of silliness and some really good laughs, it never goes for the cynical jugular, nor does it make snide statements putting down the church or church people. The stereotypes are here, but they're not here to get eviscerated, just a gentle ribbing. For Anglophiles, church folks, and people who like smart comedy, this collection really is pretty close to divine.
(Just one word of caution: the humor is always spot on, but not necessarily appropriate for the whole family, particularly given the differences between what's considered "appropriate" in the US and the UK. Parents will want to watch it once before showing it to the kids. Trust me....)
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