Episode Guide
EPISODE ONE: THE ARRIVAL
The Bishop appoints Geraldine Grainger as the new Vicar. Everyone is optimistic about the change until they actually meet the Vicar and discover that she's a woman. Though there is much disapproval at first (most from David), they finally agree to let Gerry stay. After all, as Jim reflects, things have to change -- "look at traffic lights."
EPISODE TWO: SONGS OF PRAISE
The BBC comes to St. Barnabas to film an episode of "Songs of Praise". Everybody in the village is excited and nervous to begin with; to complicate matters, both Gerry and David fall for members of the BBC crew, Alice gets stage fright, and Jim has to cue the congregation when they should laugh. The choir sings "Love is All Around" (why can't we do that at my church?), there's a discussion on John Inman, and Hugo quotes from Monty Python's "Nudge Nudge" sketch. What more do you need?
EPISODE THREE: COMMUNITY SPIRIT
It's time for the village's Autumne Fayre, and Gerry promises to make it one to remember. While she attempts to find a celebrity to open the fair, Alice mentions her cousin Reg Dwight. Gerry concludes that her cousin is Elton John and asks him to open the fair. Everyone in Dibley seems to be a fan of Elton John, and they dress up like characters from his songs. Hugo in a dress is not to be missed. Unfortunately, Reg Dwight turns out to be just a guy named Reg Dwight. David is ready to gloat his little head off. But joy of joys, Kylie Minouge appears out of nowhere and agrees to open the fair when Gerry promises her the best seat in Heaven.
EPISODE FOUR: THE WINDOW AND THE WEATHER
A great storm (not to be confused with the Great Storm, the Great Snow, the Really Great Storm, or the Great Dark) destroys one of the church's stained glass windows. Gerry attempts to raise the money for a new one but runs into problems when no one can remember what the window actually depicted. After endless discussions concerning llamas, sheep, and Moses, the parish council discovers that the window depicted Noah's Ark. Gerry is ready to proceed with the replacement of the window when she finds an even better use for the money. The church gets a clear glass window, and the money goes to help earthquake victims.
EPISODE FIVE: ELECTION
Surprise, surprise. Gerry and David are having a disagreement. It's a question of a bus service or a golf course (guess who's on which side). The villagers take Gerry's side, and before she knows it, she's running against David in the District Council elections. Everyone on the parish council supports her, painting signs, writing songs, and even working on a mud-slinging campaign. The Vicar doesn't want to run, but she does want the bus service. Everything works out in the end, of course; and as a bonus, we get to meet Jim's wife, watch Hugo dance, and hear Frank's fascinating tale of the time the pub completely ran out of crisps!
EPISODE SIX: ANIMALS
Gerry plans a service for the pets of the village, which David finds completely ridiculous. Of course, it does give Dibley and St. Barnabas some publicity (the tabloid headline reads, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Goat -- BAA-MEN"). Surprisingly, the church is packed on the day of the service, and most of the animals behave. Also in this episode, Alice discusses her slightly paranoid theories about I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and learns that her budgie Carrot never rose from the dead.
SPECIAL: THE EASTER BUNNY
During the Vicar's first Lent in Dibley, she discovers the village's tradition of the Dibley Easter Bunny, a mysterious figure who leaves eggs outside every house each Easter. While she struggles to make sense of this, she must also deal with the ultimate sacrifice of giving up chocolate and Letitia's sudden death. Although no one will miss eating radish jam, everyone is saddened when she passes away. Letitia's dying wish keeps the episode from becoming depressing, though, as it leaves everybody -- even David -- hopping around Dibley in ridiculous rabbit costumes. Also in this episode, Jim says sentences which are not preceded by "Nonono", Owen uses clean language, and David has yet another conversation about John Inman.
SPECIAL: CHRISTMAS LUNCHES
It's Christmas time, and everyone is busily preparing for the big day. Gerry is in the throes of vicar's block, trying to write an interesting sermon, when she suddenly finds herself invited to three (later four) Christmas lunches and unable to find a way out of any. On Christmas Day, after a riveting sermon about (of course!) the Spice Girls, Gerry makes the rounds. A Dibley Christmas lunch, as Gerry quickly learns, is a lunch to be reckoned with. Not even Jim's Dr. Who joke, a sprout-eating contest with David to defend Hugo's honor, and a meeting with Alice's even denser sister and the Rabbit Questioner herself can save Gerry from certain indigestion. To make matters worse, a stuffed and dazed Gerry reencounters Tristan of "Songs of Praise," who, joy and rapture, finally asks her to marry him -- to his fiancee, that is. But this is Dibley, so things can't remain sad for too long. All the villagers visit Gerry just when she's at her most depressed, and finally engage in Frank's long-awaited "thrilling game of charades." Gerry, meanwhile, has the perfect excuse to avoid the game, as she's stuck in the loo, busily filling out change of address cards.
SERIES 2
EPISODE 1: Romance is in the air as our favorite little bunny rabbits, Hugo and
Alice, finally acknowledge their feelings for each other and get engaged, much to the chagrin of David. That's not the only place Cupid's arrow has struck though. After a particularly tonsil ripping snog, Owen decides that Gerry is the gal he wants to marry, much to her horror. To give her courage to turn him down, she takes to the bottle, which luckily disgusts Owen.
EPISODE 2: Tune into Dibley Radio with Gerry the holy lady-o! Yes folks, Dibley has its own station in this episode and everyone gets to do a show. While Hugo spinning disks garbed in leather pants and lounge lizard jacket is pretty spiffy, the real excitement is on Frank's show. Gerry is preparing herself to go into a coma when she hears him say "I first realized I was gay when I was 18" He says that he's been trying to come out for twenty years, but he's never worked up the nerve. Only problem is-no one is listening to his show. Meanwhile, Gerry enters a contest on the back of a chocolate bar wrapper and wins a trip to Disneyland Paris, which she offers as the prize for that year's Dibley Quiz. This prompts Hugo, Frank, Owen, and Jim to dance around singing songs from The Jungle Book, despite the fact that David has won the quiz for the past 27 years. But fate steps in and this year's winner is not David Horton,but..........
(drum roll) Alice Tinker!
EPISODE 3: Will success spoil Geraldine Grainger? The vicar gets carried away by glamour as she appears on many chat shows and in magazines and becomes a bit more concerned with celebrity than with her true vocation (the Vogue fashion shoot is a bit much for a vicar). She comes back to Earth when a magazine publishes a particularly vicious account of the villagers and they let her know how betrayed they feel. Alice (of all people) comes up with a plan that will restore Gerry into Dibley's good graces which involves real life dancer Darcy Bussell. Ms. Bussell appears at the St. Barnabas Charity Talent Show in a comic duet with Gerry in a scene rather reminiscent of a French and Saunders skit. She makes a fool of herself cheerfully and she is forgiven. Other talents include Owen's amazing farting duck, Frank's impressions of his relatives, and Jim's one man show version of The Full Monty.
EPISODE 4: Tonight is the night that two become one! Yes folks, it's the wedding of the year and it's the tasteful affair we all knew it would be. Alice is convinced by Gerry that "lots of hearts with a different Dr Who in each one" really is not a good idea for a wedding dress and settles for a giant pink heart with I LOVE HUGO embroidered inside on a very poufy fluffy gown (to quote from Four Weddings and a Funeral, "she looks like a meringue"). And of course no bridal ensemble would be complete without a headpiece that lights up. Further touches of elegance are added with the Teletubby bridesmaids, catering by Burger King (you can never have too many gherkins at a wedding), and the inclusion of the song Wild Thing as the recessional hymn. While this is happening, Gerry meets and flips over David's brother, dyes her hair platinum blonde, and tries to decide if she should stay in Dibley or do mission work in the inner city.
SERIES 3
Autumn: Alice and Hugo are back from their honeymoon in which he spent 19 months in prison for cocaine posession after carrying a bag for a woman who seemed quite tired. She can't understand why she's putting on weight and qualifies for the vomit olympics. When Gerry suggests Alice could be pregnant, she replies that the hamster test says she's not. Needless to say, the hamster was wrong. Also in this episode, Simon returns and has a rather steamy night with Gerry before turning into a total jerk and making her hole herself up in her house, consume enormous quantities of ice cream and refer to men as the spawn of satan.
Winter: The parish council is trying to come up with something truly memorable for their millenium Christmas pageant and Alice suggests doing a live nativity at a farm with real cows and everything! Among the highlights are the appearances of the three kings- Elvis, Martin Luther, and Billie Jean, David's kinder, gentler Herod, and of course, Alice actually giving birth in the manger (though in my mind, her and hugo suddenly being fluent in hebrew was quite impressive). She and Hugo welcome a daughter whom they plan to name "Vicar" after their favorite person. Luckily she suggests that Geraldine may be more suitable.
Spring: Alice and Hugo prepare for the christening of baby Geraldine, we meet the randomly shouting bishop, and in a "where did that come from?" moment, David falls in love with Gerry and asks her to marry him. The lengths he goes to to win her heart are totally adorable- he trades in his suits for jeans and wild shirts, has an orchestra come to the church hall so he can waltz her about, and even *gasp* joins the labor party. She's overcome by it all and consents, only to have a surreal nightmare about what it would really be like to marry David Horton. Yet, from this point on, they are quite affectionate toward each other- leaving one to wonder what would happen if there had been a fourth series.
Summer: Two weeks without water have turned the folks of Dibley ugly (not to mention pungent). When a member of the zoning council says that the only way to insure an adequate water supply is to build a reservoir over Dibley and that they intend to do that-- it's war. Gerry chains herself to the church for publicity for the cause and is eventually joined by all of the parish council. This is after they realize that being given huge amounts of money will not compensate for the spiritual loss of losing one's ancestral home (we are treated to a particulary spirited rendition of Oh Happy Day by Owen and Jim) Dibley is saved and it's on to the dedication of the millenium statue. Gerry is all pleased because she's been told it will be a statue of Geraldine- and of course, it is- Baby Geraldine. The motto now is look to the future- not the past.
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