Rev
Image: BBC
In case you missed it, ‘Rev’ is a recently-aired comedy about a vicar in a London parish. It received much coverage from the Christian media at the start of the series, as the show promised to examine being a vicar today in a much more realistic, sympathetic light than shows such as The Vicar of Dibley and Father Ted.
In order to ensure that the show didn’t stray too far from what actually goes on in a parish – particularly an inner-city London parish – several vicars were brought in as consultants while the show was being written, and also during production.
The show was brimming with promise – but would it deliver? Well, let me first review the things which I think the show got right:
The situations the vicar, Adam, found himself in were incredibly close to the mark. Even though I’m not a vicar, I still managed to empathise with many of the situations and see that they were based on truth. I think this is where having those consultants on board really paid off: the trials of an everyday parish vicar in the real world were really brought home, in a variety of circumstances which I’m sure many vicars would recognise as being not too far from their own situations!
A particular favourite of mine was one of the last scenes in the second episode. The vicar of a local church has brought his congregation along to Adam’s church while their church is out of action. The congregation is large (much larger than the congregation at Adam’s church – St. Saviour’s), and very generous with money. However, one of Adam’s congregation – Colin – does something which he shouldn’t, and the charismatic vicar wants to have him barred from the church.
Adam (and the Archdeacon) refuse to bar him, and the charismatic vicar walks out. (This story loses something in the retelling, it’s much more powerful if you watch the actual episode). Now, I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea and think I’m picking on the charismatic church at all! – but I think there is a serious point being made here. Some churches seem to have lost sight of the fact that we are all sinners, we are all in need of redemption, and ultimately the church is really made up of failures. We are all ‘failures’ in God’s eyes, in the sense that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
To see what is really quite a subtle topic examined sensitively on a comedy programme was a real treat! Although I think the characters were made a little more black and white than perhaps they would be in the ‘real world’ – probably for the benefit of a secular audience who might not otherwise understand these things so readily – the characters themselves were recognisable as being those who you could almost have run into at a church service near you.
The other thing which I think Rev did well is fairly accurately portray the life of a vicar. I’m sure many people in this country don’t really have much idea of what a vicar actually does! If they watched this, they would have a much better idea. The relationship with his wife, the relationship with the Archdeacon, people knocking on the door – from things I have witnessed and from what friends have told me, they managed to get a lot of things right in these areas as well.
So, broadly speaking I think the plus side of Rev was its accuracy to normal parish life, and indeed the life of a contemporary inner city Anglican church. However, I do think it got a few things wrong.
The main thing was summed up best by my wife when she said: “I wish Adam was a bit more… Godly!” I’ve also heard similar comments from other people who watched the programme. Adam wasn’t really a man of strong principles – he seemed to blow wherever the wind took him. In the last episode he says, “I’m fed up of telling people what they want to hear.” It seems to me that the job of a church minister – a lot of the time – is to tell people what they don’t want to hear! The goal of preaching has been described as “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. Indeed, the message of the gospel is an offensive message to some.
The way Adam behaved, although he did refer and pray to God occasionally, seemed much of the time to be a little too divorced from Him. Of course we are all imperfect and struggle to follow Christ, but I would have liked to see Adam struggling a little harder.
Still, despite these things I think Rev did a good job in general. It’s refreshing to see a comedy on TV which takes a positive attitude to spiritual matters, and manages to do a pretty good job of it! Rev’s strongest quality was probably its realism – in the sense that many of the situations would have been familiar to any vicars watching. Although the main character, Adam, wasn’t 100% right I think it was pretty good given the show was written by a non-religious writer.
I should note that the realism of the show does mean that I wouldn’t recommend this show be shown to younger people – a lot of the themes are quite adult!
Overall I’d rate the series as 7/10: watch it with a pinch of salt, and you might just find you get an insight into the life of a vicar or the church.
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This is a great review, Phill, thanks! I quite enjoyed the series, but I agree that Adam could have been a little more… Godly!
That said, there was something quite striking about the portrayal of a vicar who doesn’t want to be the vicar full-time, like the moment where he hides his dog collar to yell at builders. It was quite a touching moment: although Adam often spoke about it being a calling, not a job, for that moment he did not look like a vicar so did not have to conform to the character of a vicar.
Ultimately, I guess, Christians are Christians full-time, regardless of the responsibilities of church leadership. It’s sad that the show did not have room to show this kind of tension of faith amongst the non-ordained congregation.
Thanks Ali. Yes, that’s true – I think often we forget that our leaders are not the only ones who are called to full-time Christian work! We all are, obviously that work will take many different forms but we can’t just ‘leave it to the professionals’. Sometimes I wish it were so!