Dawn French Brings Back Vicar Of Dibley Character For Especially Sweet Reason

Dawn French brought back her legendary Vicar Of Dibley character over the weekend to preside over a living funeral for Coppafeel founder Kris Hallenga.

The cancer campaigner has been living with stage four breast cancer since 2009, and arranged a special celebration of her life with her family and friends, which she called a “FUNeral”. 

As part of the ceremony at Truro cathedral on Saturday, Dawn donned her cassock and collar to become Geraldine Grainger from the hit BBC sitcom once again and deliver a eulogy about Kris. 

The comedian – who originally played Geraldine from 1994 to 2007, while also appearing in a number of Comic Relief shorts airing in 2007, 2013 and 2015 – posted a series of pictures of herself back in character on Instagram. 

“It was my privilege & joy to Dibley it up at her living (she was there) FUNeral on Sat,” Dawn wrote. 

“She wanted to host the best possible party. She did. It was phenomenal. So much love filling Truro cathedral.

“It was her own festival celebrating an extraordinary life. What a total babe.”

Kris said that the eulogy “blew my heart into smithereens”. 

Her celebration also included “a community gospel choir, food made by friends, old school TVs playing old family footage, the best MCing by my friend Georgette, a bar stocked by kind people, an ABBA Singalong, 20 piece orchestra and scratch DJ, an aerial performer and a silent disco”.

“I’ve never felt love like it. I’ve never felt joy like it. I’ve never felt such kinship with mortality. I’ve never felt so alive,” Kris said in a post on Instagram. 

“Living funerals? 10/10 would recommend. Exploring your impermanence? A gateway to appreciation of life.”

Dawn was last seen as Geraldine in a series of mini lockdown specials of The Vicar Of Dibley in 2020, during which she paid tribute to some of her fellow cast members who had passed away since the original series finished.