Vicar of Dibley

What we ought to do is lobby the BBC to launch 'Leader Relief'. To relieve Africa of the scourge of leadership like Robert Mugabe... maybe we could ask Dawn French to spare some time?

Didn't they do this in one of the original episodes, there was an earthquake and the church window broke or something, the whole show was about fundraising and then giving it all to the earthquake victims?

The only difference here is that it highlighted a real issue, it was show on the first day of the year of which will hopefully change the way people think, not once did they mention fundraising, donating money, they only mentioned the Make Poverty History campaign in the last five minutes, hardy a hijack of the program.

Were else would you have found out about the white band – while listening to the radio in the shower one day while they don’t have your full attention?

Loads of people have said how it came as a surprise ending but then say they were patronised to throughout the program

And for some on here to say they do give to charity like they are some sort of saint and don’t need to be reminded about how the majority of the world population live, how many times do you walk past someone shaking a pot in the street, avoid the bloke that stops you when its raining wanting you bank details? (i know i do) There’s a hell of a difference from putting the 1p you get in change from your Big Mac Meal into the pot and from thinking if i don't go out tonight or some how managed to live without another pair of jeans, i would save £40+ which i could put to more use then just getting me wrecked and waking up in someone else’s bed or having another pair of jeans that look like the rest i already have! Yesterday, i made a deal with myself however much i spend while shopping in Exeter i would match that with a donation to DEC - i did and last night i donated £60, if i could afford a new shirt and jumper i could afford to help someone with nothing.

OK the timing of the program may not have been best but that’s the problem with natural disasters...you can’t plan or control them.

30,000 people die every day from poverty around the world, 210,000 each week , That’s the Asia disaster and more every week, but just because we aren’t shown it on Sky News with their fancy graphics we (As a whole) carry on with out lives like it doesn’t happen.

We (an i include me in this) forget how lucky we are to have been born in a developed country, here I am sat in a warm living room, typing this on a laptop, with the TV on in front of me, munching on a massive slice of Christmas cake. The cost of the clothes I’m wearing now exceeds £120 for Christ sake…… we are so unbelievable lucky.

So while you lot argue about a TV program (the cost god knows how much money to make) I’ll take it for what its was, a reminder about how lucky we are and how we can as a whole make a difference.

It may be a good idea to bring this thread back up in a few months time and see how many times you have thought about charity, avoided the bloke in the street and see how many people have died from poverty since the start of this year…..

So yes how dare they steal 5 minutes of my life and inform me of what’s happening this year, shocking isn’t it….

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And before people say that what I have said isn’t the point and that you wanted to sit down and watch a comedy, wasn’t it nice that you were able to watch it and that you weren’t one of the unlucky 1250 people that died of poverty while you were watching it.

How many times do you walk past someone shaking a pot in the street?

I believe that a few years ago someone discouraged us from doing so, as they would probably end up just using that money to buy cigarettes, booze or drugs, and not ameliorate their situation. So therefore, I will support organisations like Centrepoint, that can take that person into their care and provide them with a roof over their head, put some food in their bellies and provide other basic services such as helping them address their drug/booze habits. Throwing money at them in the street will only continue the 'steady state' of their current position rather than improve it.

It may be a good idea to bring this thread back up in a few months time and see how many times you have thought about charity, avoided the bloke in the street and see how many people have died from poverty since the start of this year…..

I believe my conscience will be pretty clear. I will continue to shop in charity shops regardless of the stigma some put on them. I don't have an awful lot of money as I'm unemployed and work only voluntarily (hospital radio), but I do as much as I can to help others. Whenever I can, I shop with conscience and support shops that have a good ethical work policy, or stock 'Fair Trade' produce.

I ment the charity pots that people shake not homeless people bekking, but dont know what they were called!!!

and to you second reply (with out sounding patronising) thats good, wish i did that but (like so many others) i say one thing but carry on as i always have, i do give many of my old clothes to charity but thats about it, pathetic really isn’t it....

now that the episode last night has been done and dusted and my thoughts have been tidied, I actually think that The Vicar of dibley was superb last night. at first i felt angered at the way they used the show to highlight this terrible, terrible situation. The Church would donate and assist in such events so, as a vicar Geraldine would also bring the problems to the villagers. I now realise that the reason I was angered was because I was shocked and disturbed by what I saw and on a day when minor bickerings with my family seemed major, woke me up and actually felt that I was such a lucky person. dawn french is a wonderful actress who in real life donates a lot of her time and money to worthy causes such as this and in that respect why should she feel guilty for bringing this to our attention.

the only critiscism i now have of the programme is its rushed and clumsy plotline in order to get the shock. I feel that that the speed dating storyline could have been dropped and indeed characters attempting to recreate characters from Live Aid would have been better. Indeed alice suggested she could be Madonna, that would have been wonderful.

I donated £50.00 today to the tsunami appeal and have also rung the action line as stated on last nights programme and have donated £50.00 to them to. Well done Vicar of Dibley. You woke me up.

Not really, kudos to you for doing so! I've noticed more high street shops do have tins on their checkout counters. And if for no other reason, those charity cans are good at keeping a purse free of excess copper coinage!

It wasn't the last few minutes at all.

The scene with the letter reading (I agree this was close to poignent and would have worked if left alone and then backed up with a charity appeal AT THE END OF THE PROGRAMME).

The horrible, horrible scene with the discussion of traffic lights and Sainsburys and caring about "people in Africa" in which the death figures were repeated far too often to not sound like a party political broadcast.

And then the abomination of an ending that just DIDN'T WORK.

Do you honestly believe that LESS awareness would have been raised by having the letter reading scene, a normal rest of show and then an appeal by Dawn French (not as Geraldine) on behalf of Make Poverty History?

I think it would have done a hell of a lot more for the charity than the effort last night.

Oh and for those of you saying this "wasn't about fundraising, but awareness"....wake up. The whole point of wearing a white band around your wrist is not to "show you care" but more about the few pounds it costs to get one (which go to the good cause). The show couldn't have been a larger fundraising exercise if it tried.

Honestly.

The appeal seems to have done the job for the MakePovertyHistory website according to the early edition of The Sun - 17,500 hits a minute once it was mentioned on the show.

I got bored reading through the fairly similar, and largely tedious, comments in this thread, so I'm just throwing this milk on the floor and seeing if any cats lick it up.

The scene was mentioned during Breakfast this morning. It was deliberately planned as part of the episode in order to kick off a week of special event programming on the BBC to highlight the Make Poverty History campaign; Bill did highlight the fact that it was supposed to serve that purpose, but that ultimately its aim was cast aside by the tsunami disaster.

So at least it's clear why it was chosen to include such a blatant "advert" for the cause; had the tsunami not occurred, no doubt its purpose would have been made clearer by now.

I see. Someone else who wants to pressure us and make us feel totally guilty if we don't want to give every penny we have to charity. I don't see why we should be made to feel this way all the time. And this is nothing to so with being selfish and not caring- I do care. In fact I have dontated to the tsunami fund. But having charity shoved in our face and being made to feel guilty for living like we do just really isn't on.

It should have been billed as that in the first place then and not promoted as a family comedy Christmas entertainment programme.

Yes but it would have been billed as the start because there would ahve been more progrrammes now if they Tsunami hadn't happened.

Also you may not ahve noticed but there was a considerable chunk of the programme before this bit.