While Dawn French may have changed people’s thoughts about the concept of women serving in the clergy, the actress recently revealed that she finds herself constantly apologizing to real-life reverends concerning her slapstick portrayal of the Vicar of Dibley.
The 64-year-old comedy legend says that she’s often approached by women of the cloth who tell her how people call them “Geraldine” after the name of her famous sitcom character, and she always replies with an apology, saying:
However, they typically refuse her apology and find her comedic portrayal charming rather than offensive.
While chatting with presenter Rylan-Clark-Neal on the Ry0Union podcast, Dawn said she researched her character by speaking with Joy Carrol, one of the first real-life female vicars.
She even recalled her interesting line of questioning.
The character Geraldine Granger made a return for a series of BBC short films last year, in which she poked fun at the pandemic.
While reruns of The Vicar of Dibley are still shown, Dawn says she wishes to revise the show in some form in the near future.
You can also watch an episode of The Vicar of Dibley in Lockdown in the video below.
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