Vicar of Dibley

People are not objecting to the fact that this was upsetting, but the fact that it was stuck at the end of a COMEDY programme that is about a group of idiots who think Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister.

The purpose of comedy programmes in the schedules is to make people happy, not to make people miserable. Nobody is saying that the plight of starving people should be ignored, just that there are more appropriate and effective ways of doing it than sticking it at the end of the Vicar of Dibley.

And for all of your self-richeous preaching, Marcus, I'll bet you've done no more for that campaign than post up the website on this forum in order to take the moral highground.

It may have been talked about already, but I can't tell, but the end of The Vicar Of Dibley last night touched me. I never thought a Helpline caption would appear on a comedy.

Congratulations Tiger Aspect.

I thought it was effective and well considered. People who feel angered should take a wider view. Do you really feel cheated out of a few laughs?.... is that really more important than world poverty?

Well done VoD and BBC for having the courage to do this (I'm sure they anticipated complaints).

Admittedly, it did sit slightly uneasily given the recent Tsunami disaster, but that added suffering in the world doesn't make issues in Africa less.

If anything, the positive response from the UK public over the last week really does show what a difference people could make if they want to. Undoubtedly, the contrast between the stuffed Christmas day that most of us had and the events on Boxing Day had a big impact on the level of donations. The VoD was attempting the same thing.

By the way... £60m donated... 65million population..... hmmm not so much afterall.

I'll take that as a "no" then as it's closer to "no" than it is to a "yes".

No I didn't feel cheated out of laughs (there were very few in the "comedy" part of the show anyway), and enjoyment of anything is not "more important" than a million and one world problems. I think it comes down to:
A) I think it was badly written
B) I think it was mis-scheduled / unsignposted by the BBC and therefore the context was inappropriate.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That is NOT what people are complaining about.

What people are saying is that making appeals for dying children in Africa are best left to direct appeals and not incorporated into comedy programmes.

Playing that video straight after the programme with a number at the bottom of the screen inviting people to donate would have been far more effective than having seven village idiots standing there with white ribbons on and just the ''BBC Action Line'' at the end of it.

I imagine most people thought that the website Dawn French looked at was just some made up organisation, and didn't directly link it to a genuine appeal.

A - This is a matter of personal taste, so clearly everyone is entitled to an opinion.

B - The non-signposting of this was the whole point. Without that, the context would be lost and the effect very different. The programme makers wanted us to think about it in a different context. Personally, I found it very uncomfortable viewing... and that was intentional... I welcomed it. We do need to be shocked from time to time.

I'm stunned at the reaction of some of you writing complaints about this.

Yes the clumsy segue should have made you stop and think - but if the only bubble that came off your think tank was to say it 'ruined a comedy show' then you should really take your hands off your keyboard and go and think about it.

Some of you don't even know you are born, do you?

Boll0cks cat.

There is no right and wrong way to make people aware of what is going on. Comedy writers don't exist in a vaccuum, and neither should they. Dibley has had one of the largest audiences of any comedy this season and made the most of the sheer numbers of families tuning in.

If there had been a stand alone appeal, I suspect most of you would have channel hopped away.

Donate or shut the hell up. It's really that simple.

Direct appeals DO work... and I dare say many people who are voicing opinions on here already frequently respond to those. However, sometimes it needs something a little different to make a point to those who ignore/dismiss/switch-over for direct appeals.

As you say, a number of people are making the point about the inclusion into a comedy programme... but in reality... what does it matter if it achieves the desired effect?

The very fact that we are all discussing it has to be a good thing...

Well said Gavin.

Taking a step back from it all, perhaps the problem here is one of timing.

Imagine the situation - you're a member of an average family in an average in town in Britain. You've been touched by the Band Aid appeal and have decided to help out, you've got your Live Aid DVD and probably bought five copies of the single.

Then the tsunami disaster happens. Shocked, you rush out and donate what you can to that appeal.

You've been watching news programming showing shocking images for several days, and before the Vicar of Dibley in fact. Every second advert over Christmas is a charity appeal, partially because of this event, but also because advertising is so cheap at this time of year.

You tune in to The Vicar of Dibley, hoping for a bit of light relief, and you're given yet another appeal for your help.

I'm not going to say it was necessarily wrong to make this appeal, but I can see why some people may be a bit upset.

No doubt this was planned to coincide with Band Aid - the programme makers may have hoped they could link in the charitable beliefs of people and got them to get involved in getting rid of poverty for good, to take their help one stage further. They couldn't have forseen this disaster.

A lot of people are probably wondering why they're getting press-ganged into helping, when the government and those with a ton of money aren't helping too much (indeed, the money contributed by the people in this country is again higher than the aid given by the government).

It appears to just be one appeal too far for many. Of course, you could argue that the tsunami has shown appeals like this are even more important than usual. The programme makers will simply be happy that they've created this much discussion, and Points of View will be worth watching for once I suppose. The only danger is that people, feeling they are being bullied into doing something, will just turn completely the other way.