Product Details

• Actors: Dawn French, Gary Waldhorn, James Fleet, Emma Chambers, Trevor Peacock
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009UZG78
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,054 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Vicar of Dibley - 10th Anniversary Specials" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

VICAR OF DIBLEY:10TH ANNIVERSARY SPEC - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Vicar Loses Faith, February 11, 2006

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vicar of Dibley - 10th Anniversary Specials (DVD)

After a several-year hiatus, the creative team and, remarkably enough, the whole original cast, return to Dibley, the little town that never says die. Except it's approaching dead.

The popularity of this show was originally based on its essentially upbeat, positive attitude and genial self-deprecation at a time when many sitcoms were descending into thirty-minute volleys of insults. So why is so much of the humor in these two episodes based on David slapping down Alice? Is it really funny that he fantasizes about his daughter-in-law's death? Are we amused to see Geraldine drunk in the pulpit, snarking at parishoners in the pews? Is the show really improved by personality clashes that amount to little more than volleys of darts back and forth between the principals?

There are some good concepts underlying the episodes. For example, in the Christmas episode, the village gets the idea in their heads that Geraldine is homosexual. Wow, what a great and timely concept! Just imagine the wacky hilarity as a small English village comes to grips with a lesbian in the pulpit! Go on, just imagine it! Are you imagining it? Good for you, because you've put more effort into the idea than the creative team did. They throw this sharp, fertile idea out, then sweep it aside almost as soon as it finds play.

These episodes aren't a total wash. The New Year's episode is particularly touching, comprising as it does an appeal to the G8 leaders to stop fiddling while Rome burns and do something about global poverty. Though perhaps a touch maudlin, this episode provides an appropriate extension of the characters into a real issue that Christians have failed to come to grips with. This is a very, very good use of the characters and their environment.

The special features are also worth watching. Of the content on the DVD, perhaps the best is a short sketch of the show done for Comic Relief. Though only fifteen minutes long, it's a good capsule of the characters, their conflicts, and the show's potential for social good and for touching interactions. This is why we fell in love with the series in the first place. There's also a gag reel, Dibley Defrocked. We get to see the actors riff on their lines, improvise short scenes in character, and mug for the camera. And it's all surprisingly sharp and witty. Perhaps if the creative team had trusted their actors more, they might have had a pair of episodes worthy of the lingering memory of the original series.

This DVD is for fans of the original series only. Newbies will find it slow, disjointed, and wearing; it depends too heavily on our memory of the characters and their quirks more than on actually developing new insights. Those already invested in the show will find these episodes fairly trying, but there's enough to like, and it has its high points. Just don't confuse this with the original show, or you'll only be disappointed.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ehhh...not so good..., March 22, 2006

By 

J. M. Ethridge (Eastpointe, Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vicar of Dibley - 10th Anniversary Specials (DVD)

After loving all the "Dibley" series and specials and even traveling to Turville, where they filmed the exteriors for the series, I eagerly awaited the new specials. I thought it would be wonderful to see the whole gang reunited, but all I felt was a massive wave of disappointment.

The characters are more chariactures and do not act as they should: I'm sorry, but Geraldine sticking her whole HEAD into a chocolate fountain? Not something she would do. The cup of chocolate, yes. The "baptism by Cadbury"? Not her at all. Alice and Hugo offering a threesome to Geraldine? Nuh-uh. Nope. No way.

Buy these ONLY if you're a die-hard fan, like me. As it is, however, I doubt I'll be watching these again unless the rest of my "Dibley"s get destroyed. I'm sad that Richard Curtis sank so low.

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Would be nice to have the vicar back-she's nowhere to be seen here..., November 2, 2005

By 

cheri - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vicar of Dibley - 10th Anniversary Specials (DVD)

I was so looking forward to these specials. I really miss the series, was thrilled to find that the 2 specials had been produced and would be released. After seeing them, though, I can't help but think they should have left well enough alone and ended VofD with the final series episode. The characters have lost all charm here and almost everyone seems just to be going through the motions. It's beyond obvious that most of the actors have moved on and really weren't interested in returning to Dibley. The jokes and plot lines are simplistic and common -- almost like the blandest of U.S. sitcoms. That kind of silly. The most disappointing thing was that Geraldine seems to have disappeared altogether. In her place is a vicar lacking in all the depth, charm and humor of her former self. I don't know if it was the writers, French or whomever, but I would rather not have seen Geraldine in this way. One of the things I loved about VofD was that Geraldine was this great, complex, compassionate female character. In the specials, she's reduced to being a totally neurotic, desperate-for-a-husband,depressive, pre-menopausal twit who doesn't care about Dibley or her church any longer. You get the feeling she thinks she's wasted her life away over the last 10 years. She's become vapid and stupid. It betrays the positive thread that ran through the entire series. It's a sad swan song for a great character. I'm surprised Dawn French agreed to even play her this way.

The specials brought the reminder that VofD seemed to be losing some steam even in the last series or so of the regular show. The humor got cruder, less witty, less "smart." The characters were becoming caricatured and were losing some of their quirky charm even then. I think it was a sign that it was time to end. As much as I'd love for VofD to go on forever, I think that unless it can keep the magic of its first seasons intact, its time is done. More specials like these would just be depressing.