Dawn French is, I think, my absolute favorite (favourite, sorry) British comedienne. Her character, Geraldine, THE VICAR OF DIBLY, never fails to make me giggle, when I'm not laughing right out loud. One of my favorite birthday presents of all time was a boxed DVD gift set of three seasons of her show (The tea-time conversations between Vicar Geraldine and the loony Alice at the end of the program are even more hilarious than the show.)
Truth be told, I also love Patricia Routledge, who plays Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Bouquet") of the British comedy "Keeping Up Appearance." 
Hyacinth Bucket is the ultimate Queen of Snobbery. She is a classic British classist who does not possess an iota of class. Draging her long-suffering husband, Richard, along with her, the sole purpose of her life is to devise whatever strategy is necessary to cross paths with Britain’s upper crust, win their good graces, and wedge herself into a new niche, however ill-fitting it may be. Unfortunately, her climb up the social ladder is often sabotaged, in her mind anyway, by her own family - including sisters Daisy and Rose (a veritable Bucket - "Bouquet" - of sisters) - whom she sees as a constant source of embarrassment.
So, imagine my delight to find this gem over at my beloved MadPriest's BlogThe middle-ground of the Anglican Via Media has recently been reclaimed as the moral high ground by the March 20th Statement from the House of Bishops in The Episcopal Church. The danger of traveling neither the Left nor the Right side of the road, of course, is that you risk a greater danger of being run over.
Even so, it feels good to be back where we belong.
"Mind the Anglican," indeed!
9 comments:
Elizabeth,
I'll have to come back and visit more. Just finished a study of some individuals of the Anglo-Catholic persuasion. (The RO crowd.)
Collin
http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com
http://philosophyforchristians.blogspot.com
Elizabeth,
If you've never seen it, and get the chance, there is a wonderful short film about Hildegard of Bingen with Patricia Routledge as Hildegard.
You can imagine, with that lady, the idea of a nun facing down a German abbot and an episcopal court of inquiry becomes imminently believable! :D
The episode where Alice got married was one of my favorites. That was one funny show. Dawn French was also one of the founders of "Absolutely Fabulous" or AB FAB as it was known.
As for "Keeping Up Appearances", I'm sure that Richard Bucket is on the list of Anglican Saints.
Elizabeth+, Great post. Glad to find something we can agree upon.
Matt
It's probably very easy to agree that British humor is wickedly funny, Matt. Thanks for stopping by this part of the Vineyard.
Rather than 'Mind the Anglican', how about we continue to ask the detractors to 'Mind the Via Media'. Although telling them to mind it, would imply that they actually think it still exists.
The Vicar of Dibley is one of my all time favorites! Loved Keeping Up Appearances also. It's too bad that Vicar of Dibley was so short lived -- I loved Dawn French in that role.
I also used to love watching All Creatures Great and Small years ago, but haven't seen the repeats of those on PBS for many years now. I'd love to see those again -- the humor was of a gentler sort than Dawn French, and I fell in love with the Yorkshire countryside as shown in the show.
(And of course, Are You Being Served was classic, but we've already paid homage to that on Mad Priest's blog!)
actually, I think Tobias Haller did that as a tribute to Madpriest:
http://jintoku.blogspot.com/2007/03/just-for-madpriest.html
Actually, dear Elizabeth, this was my gift to MadPriest, in response to his concerns about our dear Bishops' finding their spines. I'm very happy to see that he has added it to his sidebar.
Peace, and a blessed Triduum and Easter!
tobias
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