Another Dibley episode on the cards

The sitcom’s New Year’s Day special was billed as the final episode after 12 successful years on BBC One.

But now creator Richard Curtis has said Dawn French’s vicar Geraldine Granger will be back for a short ten-minute as part of Comic Relief night.

Fans can expect ‘a little 10-minuter to keep them going’, Curtis told BBC Radio Five Live, although he admitted it would be ‘tough’ to write a new script now the lead character was happily married.

‘I can reveal that there is going to be one more small episode of Vicar of Dibley that we're doing on Comic Relief this year,’ he told Simon Mayo. ‘So if people are really worried, there's something coming on March 16.’

News of the extra episode comes after the BBC had to respond to calls from many of the 12.3 million fans who saw Monday’s episode not to axe the series – even though it Curtis and the stars who decided not to continue.

Only yesterday a BBC spokesman said: ‘The intention is that this will be the end. Part of the whole plot of the show was that Geraldine was always marrying people in church, but could never find a man herself. Getting married herself brings the programme to a natural conclusion.

‘It is also important to remember that the reason many shows are loved is because they end at the right time and don’t get dragged out too long.’

Published: 3 Jan 2007