The Royal Mail is issuing 12 special stamps to celebrate the 1990s BBC comedy series The Vicar of Dibley.
Eight stamps depict memorable scenes from the sitcom, including a guest appearance by former ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell, while four stamps show a Dibley parish council meeting.
The Vicar of Dibley starred the comedian Dawn French as the chocolate-craving Rev Geraldine Granger and ran for three series from 1994 to 2000, followed by four special episodes between 2004 and 2007.
The Royal Mail’s director of external affairs and policy, David Gold, said: “The superb writing and the warmth and idiosyncrasies of its characters made The Vicar of Dibley one of the most loved TV comedies of all time. We celebrate the series with new stamps revisiting some of the show’s classic moments.”
The sitcom, created by Richard Curtis, was written after the Church of England’s decision in 1993 to allow the ordination of women. The series charts French’s character, Granger, as she is appointed vicar in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley, and learns to live and work alongside its idiosyncratic locals, including the parish councillor Jim Trott (played by Trevor Peacock) and church verger Alice Tinker (Emma Chambers).
The Royal Mail set includes two second-class stamps, one showing Geraldine at the chaotic wedding ceremony of Hugo Horton (James Fleet) and Alice, and another of Geraldine forcing David Horton (Gary Waldhorn) to smile after hearing that Alice and Hugo are expecting a baby.
The moment when Geraldine jumps into a deep puddle, and a recurring scene in which she attempts to tell Alice a joke in the vestry over a cup of tea, are both depicted on first-class stamps.
Also included are £1 stamps of Frank Pickle (John Bluthal) and Owen Newitt (Roger Lloyd-Pack) performing in the Dibley Christmas show, while another shows Jim writing his characteristic response: “No, no, no, no, no” on a piece of paper to avoid waking Alice and Hugo’s baby.
One of the £2.80 stamps features the sitcom’s most famous scene, in which Geraldine and Dame Darcey follow a dance routine, while another shows Geraldine sampling a sandwich made by Letitia Cropley (Liz Smith).
The Vicar of Dibley won multiple British Comedy awards, an International Emmy and several British Academy Television awards nominations. In 2020, it was named Britain’s third-favourite sitcom of all time in a BBC poll.
Several Comic Relief sketches and mini-episodes have appeared since the series officially ended, including three short “sermons” broadcast during the Covid-19 pandemic.
