DAWN French has revealed The Vicar of Dibley Christmas special will pay tribute to those who have died of the coronavirus.
The 63-year-old actress lifted the lid on what viewers can expect on the episode during a segment on The One Show last night.
Dawn will be reprising her role as Geraldine Granger for The Vicar of Dibley in Lockdown, which is set to hit our screens this Christmas.
After premiering in 1994 to 1998 on BBC One, and then again from 1999 to 2000, fans of the much-loved show are ecstatic with about the news.
Although the BBC One sitcom is known for its hilarious storylines following the adventures of female vicar Geraldine in the fictional Oxfordshire town of Dibley, the special will have a much more serious tone when touching upon the issue of the deadly bug.
She told hosts Alex Jones and Amol Rajan: “Like everything in Dibley, there’s funny silly stuff, you know, there’s stuff about people getting stuck in the church when they were flower arranging when this lockdown started, so they’re still in the church now.
“There are silly jokes, but we also pay a tribute to those who aren’t with us anymore, so you know, Dibley has always been able to wrap its arms around the truth as well as being silly and funny.”
Coronavirus victims aren’t the only individuals the show have paid tribute to in the festive episode.
Dawn and writers of the show Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer have also praised Alice Tinker actress Emma Chambers for all her hard work on the show, after she sadly passed away two years ago.
The award winning actress also gave an insight into how the special will pan out, explaining that it will follow everything that has happened over the past year with Covid-19.
She told Alex and Amol: “We decided, what would Geraldine be doing at Christmas?
“She would be zooming her parishioners and ministering to them like that, so that’s what we’ve done.
“The first one is 10 minutes long but it’s three little sermons, so it takes us all the way through the lockdown from March all the way up to Christmas.
“It’s a cross between a newsletter, community notices and a sermon for everybody that’s there.”
Last month the BBC shared a first peek of Dawn French’s return as The Vicar of Dibley.
The Christmas series will include three, 10-minute episodes spread over the holiday period, which will the BBC will also air as a 30-minute compilation show.
The special will touch upon Geraldine’s work with her local primary school, people getting annoyed with their families during isolation and even making light of everyone who needed a haircut after lockdown.
Dawn is beyond excited to get back into her Vicar robes for her on-screen alter-ego, as she previously said: “Back in the dog collar, back in Dibley and back on your telly at Xmas. I couldn’t be happier. Bless you.”
