Another day, more British comedy greatness. Started the morning off with a drive to Kentish Town in North London to visit Roger Lloyd Pack, who stars as Owen in The Vicar of Dibley. What a gem of an individual and an unbelievable wealth of knowledge about comedy and acting.

Roger did share some interesting observations on his thoughts about his characters of both Owen in Vicar and Tom in The Old Guys. Thinking about the strengths of British comedy, in general, Roger, as did VOD creator/writer Richard Curtis, believes strongly in the strength of the supporting cast. He felt that one of Curtis’ great strengths in writing is his attention to the supporting characters which give the comedy a lot of dimensions. He also did let on that he seems to remember during that taping of the “chocolate fountain” scene with Dawn doing a head-first dive into the fountain took several takes. Wasn’t sure why, but he remembered that Dawn, being the trooper that she is, “…did it for the authenticity of the scene solely with the audience in mind“.

Interestingly, Roger had recently done an interview with the local paper who asked about the possibility of the Dibley Town Council ever getting back together. He did acknowledge that, up until recently, he had knowledge that the set was still in storage at the BBC somewhere, but had no knowledge of any plans for the series to continue. He did say, it would have to be titled The Bishop of Dibley if one was done. The next day, the local paper printed the cartoon below.

FYI, the caption reads “Oh, forget all that village hall stuff for a minute, Roger — the Beeb wants you to star as daft Owen in a new, follow-up series called The Bishop of Dibley“

Up tomorrow…..the brilliance of Penelope Keith in an interview in Surrey at The Brooklands Museum, the birthplace of British motorsport and aviation.