Our take
A softer, more serious New Year follow-up that wears its cause openly, ending on a campaign film rather than a punchline. The speed-dating night and the kilted volunteers keep the laughs coming, and Miranda Hart pops up early in her career. It drew criticism for blurring comedy and campaigning, which makes it a curiosity as well as a comedy. Watch it straight after the Christmas Day episode, as it was meant to be seen.
What happens
The second half of the 2004 Christmas pair. Geraldine wants the village to back the Make Poverty History campaign by writing letters to the Prime Minister, which leads to the discovery that Frank, Owen, Jim and Hugo still think Margaret Thatcher is in Number 10. Her 40th birthday is coming up and she wants no fuss, preferring to mark the twentieth anniversary of Live Aid. Her friends, worried that she seems lonely, club together at one pound fifty each to buy her a ticket to a speed-dating night. There, the one man she likes goes for a glamorous blonde instead, and the other men in the room turn out to be the men of the village. Afterwards the villagers queue at the vicarage to cheer her up: Alice and Hugo offer his services so she can at least have a baby, and Frank, Owen and Jim turn up in kilts as reserves, in honour of her love of Mel Gibson. She turns them all down and shows them a campaign video instead.
Can the kids watch it?
Rated 12 on DVD for moderate language and sex references, so better for 12 and over.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Dawn French as Geraldine Grainger
- Gary Waldhorn as David Horton
- John Bluthal as Frank Pickle
- Trevor Peacock as Jim Trott
- Roger Lloyd-Pack as Owen Newitt
- Emma Chambers as Alice Tinker
- James Fleet as Hugo Horton
Guest stars
- Nathalie Cox as Hettie
- Cristian Solimeno as Steve
- Geraldine McNulty as Voice on Radio
- Miranda Hart as Suzie
Writers
- Paul Mayhew-Archer
- Richard Curtis
Director
- Martin Dennis