The Vicar of Dibley is one of those TV masterpieces from my younger days. I grew up on the antics of Dawn French and her fellow cast members and remember laughing all the way through each episode so I was really looking forward to this production of A Vicar Of Dibley Christmas (The Second Coming)….and I was not disappointed. It was also clear, by the number of tickets sold already for second night, that the audience were also ready to relieve their youths – and judging by the laughter pretty much throughout – they were having fun.

Under the direction of Nikki Favell it felt that we had stepped into a TV studio and were watching a recording of the original series as the entire cast fill their ingrained-in-our-minds roles perfectly although I do need to give a special mention to both Geraldine Granger (Kat Seddon) and Alice Horton nee Tinker (Kathryn Lenthall).

I loved Kat Seddon in “The Memory of Water” and I loved her even more in this. Kat absolutely nails all the facial mannerisms of Dawn French’s Geraldine and brings her to life on the Little’s stage. There was nothing that made me cringe about her performance which is a very real danger when portraying someone so well known. Every little pout of the lips, every finger in the teeth – it was all there and just perfect. As for Kathryn’s performance as Alice – the chemistry between these two actresses was as obvious as between the TV series cast. I was definitely not the only member of the audience sniggering at the quintessential joke telling sessions and the subsequent explanations that always left Alice in a world of her own. The confused look in her face as the Nativity on the farm started was more than just the perpetual look of confusion that Alice has. There was a touch of manic panic in her eyes as she realised she was going into labour but was being ignored by all around her. A great touch!

It is definitely a treat to see Ian Carr’s No no no no yessing of Jim Trott, Jordan Hanford’s interesting take on entertainment as the puppy/kitten juggling Owen Newitt, Nic Adams wonderfully heartfelt confession as Frank Pickle and the constantly knitting Elizabeth Spendlove as Letitia Cropley – showing a different side to her acting talents from the last time I saw her as Miss Marple. The final pieces of the main cast were David Lovell’s David Horton – the pomposity of the “Lord of the Manor” hilariously brought back to earth with a couple of bumps during the week long Dibley village radio show and his son Hugo (played by Keir Watson) as the lovable but slightly dimwitted husband of Alice. It was also fun having Tabitha Fogg as the cameo – which I was waiting for since the beginning and I tried to guess what she would be until it actually happened. 😀

The beautifully detailed set, designed by Tristan Knowles, was mainly a mix of the vicarage and the parish hall with the various settings being shown by the lighting changes (designed by Sam Milton). Whilst the set was fab I did get quite frustrated in the first half with the many changes between each venue (there are sixteen scene changes in the first half as opposed to the much more fluid nine of the second half). I totally appreciate that, due to the TV nature of Vicar of Dibley, the scenes change rapidly but the way these scene changes were done seemed to add so much time onto the performance as we waited for performers to file back on stage just minutes after they had exited. Personally I would rather, with the lighting changes showing each scene’s location, that the characters in the parish hall went into freeze whilst the action took place in the vicarage – a bit like during The Mirror Crack’d – as I felt this would help with the fluidity of the first act however this is a picky thing and it doesn’t detract too much from the wonderful performances.

Talking about time – the title is slightly misleading as the action takes place during the 9 months of Alice and Hugo’s pregnancy and we are given a rolling timepiece as we watched the “Lady of the Lump” get progressively bigger – with believability from Kathryn.  I had it in my mind that this was going to be the episode of the many Christmas dinners so was pleasantly surprised that it was the other iconic Christmas special and very pleasantly impressed by the entire show.

All in all a fabulous production and, if the second night sales were anything to go by, I would suggest getting your tickets quickly as this one might just sell out as word spreads. Tickets are available from the Little Theatre Box Office: here.

Tickets gifted for an honest review.