Vicar of Dibley
*all things bright and beautiful*
Background Information
The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvery. The Vicar of Dibley aired from 1994 to 2007. In 2004, it came third in Britain's Best Sitcom.
In May 2007, Richard Curtis received a BAFTA 'Academy Fellowship' award for his humanitarian pursuits as well as his creative work including The Vicar of Dibley.
The Vicar of Dibley is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women. The main character was an invention of Richard Curtis, but he and Dawn French extensively consulted the Rev. Joy Carroll, one of the first female priests, and garnered many character traits and much information.
In ratings terms, the programme is amongst the most successful in the digital era, with the various Christmas and New Year specials in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 all entering the top 10 programmes of the year.