A special ‘The Vicar Of Dibley In Lockdown’ proved its usual incredibly funny self but it gained a greater following than ever after vicar Geraldine was seen ‘taking a knee’.
Walking around the quiet village in the middle of lockdown, she was reflecting on her duties as a woman of the cloth, and the obligations she has not just for the parish, but also for the world at large. And, while speaking to one of the programme’s other major characters, Owen, the vicar, played by Dawn French, said: “This last week, I’ve been thinking about this Black Lives Matter thing, and the horror show that was, the murder of George Floyd.
“Now this is tricky for us in Dibley, because we’re not the most diverse community,” Geraldine said, “but I don’t think it matters where you’re from, I think it matters that you do something about it – because Jesus would, wouldn’t he?”
She went on: “Listen, I’m aware that all lives matter, obviously, but until all lives matter the same, we’re doing something very wrong. So I think we need to focus on justice for a huge chunk of our country men and women who seem to have a very bad, weird deal, from the day they’re born.”
As she walked to the parish notice board, she then took down old posters from the 1970s, and replaced them with a homemade poster that bore the words ‘Black Lives Matter’.
She continued: “I think that in Dibley, perhaps we should be thinking about taking down some of our old notices, like this, and perhaps, we put up one like this instead”.
The show ended with Geraldine taking the knee in front of the noticeboard, looking out over the village.
As the episode ended, she paid a poignant goodbye to beloved best friend Alice, who on the show died of cancer three years earlier. Emma Chambers, who played Alice, died in 2018.
