Rev. is a British television sitcom produced by Big Talk Productions. Written by actor Tom Hollander and James Wood, the show premiered on BBC Two on 28 June 2010 and ended on 28 April 2014. The show's working titles were The City Vicar and Handle with Prayer. The series revolves around a Church of England priest, played by Hollander, who becomes the vicar of an inner-city London church after leaving a small rural Suffolk parish. Hollander said: "we wanted to define ourselves in opposition to the cliché of a country vicar, partly because we wanted to depict England as it is now, rather than having a sort of bucolic-y, over the hills and far away, bird-tweeting England – we wanted the complications of the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic inner-city, where everything is much harder."
Plot
Adam Smallbone is an Anglican priest who has moved from a small rural parish to the "socially disunited" St Saviour in the Marshes in Hackney, East London. Unwilling to turn anyone away from his pastoral care, he is faced with a series of moral challenges as he balances the needs of genuine believers, people on the streets, and drug addicts, as well as the demands of social climbers using the church to get their children into the best schools. Adam has a difficult job as a modern city vicar. His wife Alex, who has her own career as a solicitor to worry about, supports him through his life as a priest, while not being engaged with his work. He is also supported by lay reader Nigel, who believes he should be running the church. In supervision is Archdeacon Robert, who puts pressure on Adam to increase the congregation and church income. Parishioners include Colin, a heavy drinking, unemployable lost soul who is Adam's most devoted parishioner; Adoha, known for her romantic intentions towards the clergy; and Mick, who is homeless and appears on Adam's doorstep in different situations asking for money.
Future
Interviewed in April 2014, Tom Hollander said that he did not know whether there would be a fourth series, and that after the third series "we all want to just pause". He added that "The idea of not doing it any more is sad but also quite attractive, because you wouldn't want for it to ever get worse."
Six episodes were produced for the first series by Big Talk Productions for BBC Two. The show was created by Tom Hollander and James Wood. The church scenes were filmed at St Leonard's in Shoreditch, east London. The BBC Two comedy was renewed by the BBC in September 2010 and filming began again in the middle of 2011, with the second series of seven episodes premiering in November 2011. In August 2012, the show was renewed for a third series of six episodes, which aired in 2014. Richard Coles, a Church of England priest and former member of the pop groupthe Communards, was one of several priests who advised the show's writers and has been cited as an inspiration for the Adam Smallbone character.
Episode list
Series 1 (2010)
Series 2 (2011)
Series 3 (2014)
The six episodes of Series 3 commenced filming on 31 October 2013 and premiered on 24 March 2014.
Episode #
Title
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Reception
The series was commended by The Independent as intelligent comedy, with Hollander "as good as ever" and a strong support cast. In 2011, Rev. won the South Bank Award for Best Comedy and was nominated for the Royal Television Society Programme Awards for Best Scripted Comedy and Best Comedy Performance. The series also won Best Sitcom at the 2011 British Academy Television Awards. Colman was nominated for Best Female Comedy Programme at the BAFTAs in 2015. It is BBC2's highest rated sitcom and has sold to 140 countries.
DVD releases
released the complete first series on DVD on 21 November 2011. The second series was released on 19 November 2012. A boxset containing the first two series was also released. The third series was released on 5 May 2014, a week after transmission of the final episode. A boxset containing the first three series was also released.
