MORE TV VICAR?
Christians on the Telly:
The Good, The Bad and the Quirky
By Bryony Taylor
Darton, Longman & Todd. 155 pages. £9.99.
ISBN 978 0 232 531 701
Many of us have giggled at The Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted or the BBC’s recent Rev. But how helpful are the fictional representations of clergy and, by extension, Christians, on the box? Bryony Taylor, a curate in the diocese of Durham, examines a variety of TV’s most famous vicars to come up with an answer.
Her underlying premise is that telly vicars can be put into one of three categories.The ‘good’ are vicars who find themselves in over-idealised pastoral settings – idyllic English villages infused with a nostalgic glow, in which the local vicar bumbles around on a bicycle, offering cups of tea and being generally ineffectual. Although drawn with affection, Taylor argues that the characters unhelpfully promote an idea of Christians as ‘practically perfect in every way’.
Baby-eating Bishops?
The ‘bad’, figures like Blackadder’s famous baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells, are satires of Christianity gone bad. Such portrayals can be offensive, but Taylor suggests that on the whole they are designed for comic effect. As such, we should be flattered by these ‘over-the-top role reversals’, which work as comedy precisely because they are so far from the truth.
The ‘quirky’ are an attempt by television makers to find a role for the clergy in a world where they are increasingly irrelevant – and as such they often miss the mark. Interestingly, she also identifies another group, which she bundles in with the good: a group of realistic, ‘rounded’ vicars, like Rev’s Adam Smallbone or Broadchurch’s Paul Coates. These vicars are far from perfect, but perhaps help the church to shake off its fusty image and to seem more relevant today.
Taylor, along with her advocate Kate Bottley from Gogglebox, seems to think that allowing ourselves to laugh at poorly represented Christians and relate to imperfect ones is the best response. Why not read the book and see if you agree? It’s highly readable.
