God Squad

I watched another episode of Rev last night. I actually really liked it. As a devout atheist I generally avoid anything 'God' as the temptation is to find mockery - and in truth I have no problem with faith - I'm not one of the evangelical church haters -  I actually think that the COE is a really important part of our culture and we lose it at our peril.

It's interesting how much better it is than I expected - I absolutly fucking despised The Vicar of Dibley - apparently one of the most popular comedy programs ever on British Telly, I thought it was unbelievable shite and quite patronising - all I could see in that bloody travesty of a concept was a constant stream of stereotypes and cliche. I read that Rev is co-scripted by 'real' vicars  and I suspect it's chock full of clever references ( the wife is called Mrs Adam Small-bone - gettit!) and Tom Hollander is very good, I like they way they use his tiny stature as part of the physical manifestation of his personality - something he did in Gosford Park, and the way that there is no comfy, warm, revelatory niceness about anything. It's as if he is happy to roll with all the punches because that's all he's ever done,

The vicarage is an ugly, unimaginative 60's architectural abortion stuck on a tired and neglected gothic pile. Something I've always noticed in this country - as if during the middle of the last century the architects of Britain clubbed together to play a cruel trick on the church, it would have been rude to smash the windows - so stick a bland prefab box on the side to mock it.

It also contains some exceptionally good scriptwriting, including the immortal..

"What did you do today"
"......I shoplifted some Jaffa cakes and watched back to back 'Farmer wants a wife' with Louise Redknapp and I had a nice wank"

In the Guardian this morning they asked a number of real reverends how they felt about it, all were positive - except the one, young ( 3 weeks in!) trendy vicar who felt that the episode that dealt with young, trendy vicars was too harsh... he even admitted to wearing a hoodie.. I think the joke was on him.