Rev.

I like ‘Rev.‘ In case you don’t know, it’s a television comedy programme  about a vicar at a less-than-thriving inner-city church.

Adam (the Rev. of the title) is somewhat hapless, and many extremely silly things happen to him, but the great thing about him is that he’s not a one dimensional character. He’s not just a silly vicar for us to laugh at. He does silly things, but he also displays great love and self-sacrifice. He has what I would say is a realistic relationship with God – uncertain, questioning, confused, but also with moments of great joy and sanctity that he holds on to when the going gets tough.

The storylines can be quite daft (but in an amusing, rather than an annoying way) and yet the series also manages to be quite moving and thought-provoking at times. A couple of lines of dialogue can touch on some of the deepest questions we face as humans, about life, the universe and everything, and then we’ll be back to Colin and Adam shooting drug-addled squirrels in the churchyard, or similar.

‘Rev.’ may take an affectionate jibe at the Church of England now and again, but, watching it as a Christian, I never feel like my faith or the community I belong to is being mocked, nor are Christians  being stereotyped. Adam might be a bit hapless, his curate lay reader [and I call myself an Anglican!] might be extremely annoying, the archdeacon might be the stuff of nightmares and the congregation is certainly motley to say the least, but they all display love and compassion for their fellow human beings in various ways (even the scary archdeacon on occasion), and no one is ever beyond redemption. And it is very funny.

Edited on 18/12/2011 to add: A few people have arrived at this post after searching to try to find out the details of the song played at the end  of episode 6 of series 2 (first aired 15th December 2011). The song was “Our Love Will See Us Through”, performed by Nina Simone. Thanks to Steve, who commented on this post (see below) for the answer!