Rev

picture from the BBC

Have just watched the first episode of the new BBC comedy series "Rev" about the Rev Adam Smallbone - a Church of England vicar, newly arrived at East London's inner-city parish of St. Saviour's from a sleepy rural parish in Suffolk!

Not a bad portrayal of the actual problems clergy face, and for once a sympathetic script which implies that those who wrote it have actually investigated parish life. The human side of the vicar is allowed to come through, and the parishioners are also frighteningly accurate.

Best bits in this episode?

When the Rev Smallbone removes his clerical collar and tells the builders who have been taunting him to "f*** off!"

Seeing him in the pub arranging the wedding of the licencees.

Refusing to talk attendance numbers with the Archdeacon.

And above all this, having a storyline that rings true for virtually all CofE clergy - how to deal with the parents who turn up to worship some weeks before the church school admissions date, and then disappear again afterwards.


A promising start.