History Main / TheVicar

* An archetypal example is the Reverend Timothy Farthing in ''Series/DadsArmy''. The actor who played him, Creator/FrankWilliams, also got to play him in the 2016 film adaptation, in addition to which he played a bishop in ''Series/YouRangMLord'' [[note]]In RealLife, Williams was a regular churchgoer who served as a lay member of the General Synod (the Church of England's legislative body) for many years.[[/note]]

* An archetypal example is the Reverend Timothy Farthing in ''Series/DadsArmy''. The actor who played him, Frank Williams, also got to play him in the 2016 film adaptation, in addition to which he played a bishop in ''Series/YouRangMLord'' [[note]]In RealLife, Frank Williams was a regular churchgoer who served as a lay member of the General Synod (the Church of England's legislative body) for many years.[[/note]]

* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'': The HardGay, sociopathic Midnighter ends up as one in one issue, while fighting a British reality altering villain.

* ''Film/BridgetJonesDiary'', understanding this, hangs a lampshade on it with a "Tarts and Vicars" costume party.

* Entertainingly subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'', where Rick the Vic looks the part; quiet, neatly dressed and wearing half-moon glasses. However, he deals in blasphemous "foreskin bibles", collects "angel spunk" for unspecified reasons, does cocaine, laughs up his sleeve at the scriptures, fornicates in the vestry, is best friend of ViolentGlaswegian Header, and on one occasion -- and because of "a bet with the Pope" -- asks his congregation to join in worship with a really bizarre group of Satanists, and STILL would've gone to heaven if he hadn't shot himself instead of facing Satan himself...

* The HardGay, sociopathic Midnighter ends up as one in a issue of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'', while fighting a British reality altering villain.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': In the Hob Gadling arc, the story starts with the OrphanedPunchline "[[CountryMatters Hunting for rabbits again, friar?]]" At the end (several hundred years later, with almost the same dialogue), the friar is replaced with a vicar.

* Anything played by Derek Nimmo. He was a monk in ''Series/OhBrother'', later spoofed in a series of ads for crisps, a vicar in Comedy Playhouse and ''All Gas and Gaiters'', a priest in ''Series/OhFather'' and the Rev. Green in ''[[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} Cluedo]]''.

* Long before ''Dibley'', a sketch on ''French & Saunders'' [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on the trope when Dawn French announced she was to be the first female comedy vicar. Her "kit" included thick glasses, false buck teeth, an unflattering wig, etc. The outfit referred to was a clear reference to the comedy vicar played in the 1970s by Creator/DickEmery.

[[caption-width-right:288:Morning, Father!]]

The ''word'' "vicar" technically just means "deputy"; one of the Pope's titles is "Vicar of Christ," for instance. In the Middle Ages, the word 'rector' meant the person that had the right to collect the income of the parish (known as the 'living'), but this could be a bishop, a canon, an abbey, or a pluralist rector with multiple livings. The 'rector' would hire a deputy, the vicar, who was a priest who did the actual work that we associate with ministers and priests. So folks got into the habit of using the term 'vicar' to refer to any 'working priest'[[note]]the officially 'done thing' is to call the rector 'vicar' in a parish that traditionally had one, which means the rich important ones that were formerly attractive to pluralist prelates. So, in one of the strange inversions of which British custom is so fond, the originally lower title of 'vicar' is now used by the rectors of the richer and more important parishes.[[/note]], even though today most 'vicars' are really 'rectors'.

* [[FrenchBelgianComicBooks Cedric]] features a "vicaire" (of the young, trendy type, more or less.)

* ''Film/HotFuzz'' has Reverend Shooter, who fully fits this trope, and exists to establish early on that Nicholas Angel is agnostic ([[FelonyMisdemeanour but at least not atheist]]). [[spoiler: He turns out to be a vicious killer, just like every other authority figure in the town. Being played by Belloq / Ivan Ooze might have been a giveaway.]]

'''Rev. Shooter:''' [[spoiler: Oh, fuck off Grasshopper. (''pulls guns out of his sleeve robes and shoots Angel'')]]

** [[spoiler: Sher Mirza's imam, Dr Jettou]].
** Father Paddick is, after all, a [[spoiler: widower]], capable of [[spoiler: punching out a footballer]], a former schools [[spoiler: boxing champion]], and perfectly well aware of what a sexy [[spoiler: same-sex]] couple he and [[spoiler: Sher Mirza]] would make were it not that each [[spoiler: [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants the other to be happy – including by being each at ease with his conscience]]]].
*** He and and Fr Campion, his ranking curate, are GoodShepherd [[SexyPriest Sexy Priests]] ("Becks in a biretta" and "a young Jonny Wilkinson in a cassock", respectively), for whom GoodIsNotSoft and GoodIsNotDumb. Incoming curate Fr Bohun is [[spoiler: a RetiredBadass with a Military Cross to his name; a baronet; and a long-time Home Missionary living in deliberate poverty: RealMenLoveJesus]]; incoming curate [[spoiler: Fr Harry Gascelyn Levett is a Cambridge Fellow, a newly-retired professor, a member of numerous learned bodies, and the primary expert on church architecture in Britain]]. Canon Judith Potecary in Beechbourne is an IronLady of the cloth; the Dean and the Archdeacon are not to be trifled with; and even the Bishop has a spine … and, although a ''Grauniad-''ista, is a former chaplain RN. As Fr Paddick preaches in a ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' sermon, "We are the Church of England, quiet in our ways, redolent of tea and cakes, yet terrible as an army with banners."

* The main character of Creator/LordDunsany's ''The Blessing of Pan'' is a country vicar whose parish is the site of a sudden revival of the pagan cult of Pan. Naturally, he tries to stop this. [[spoiler: He converts at the end, and his wife's only response is "We've been waiting for you."]]

* An archetypal example is the Reverend Timothy Farthing in ''Series/DadsArmy''. The actor who played him, Frank Williams, also got to play him in the 2016 film adaptation, in addition to which he played a bishop in ''Series/YouRangMLord'' [[note]] in RealLife, Frank Williams was a regular churchgoer who served as a lay member of the General Synod (the Church of England's legislative body) for many years[[/note]].

* The original ''Series/{{Survivors}}'' did a DayInTheLimelight episode about a man deciding to resume his pre-apocalyptic duties as a Vicar. Then [[spoiler: in a ShootTheShaggyDog moment, a couple of episodes later he is casually murdered by a thug.]]

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', Vicar Amelia and [[spoiler: Laurence, The First Vicar]] are both downright '''[[BodyHorror terrible]]''' [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent beasts]].

* ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley'' is a highly noticeable subversion of this character type; the overturning of the stereotype being the main premise of the comedy. The vicar is not just a (gasp) woman, but a self-described "babe with a bob cut and a [[BuxomIsBetter magnificent bosom]]". She's worldly-wise and boisterous with an earthy sense of humor, about as far from prim or stuffy as you can imagine. Naturally this requires a bit of adjusting for the quirky townsfolk.

* A Vicar appears in the classic serial ''Series/QuatermassAndThePit'', but he's played straight as a decent man of the cloth confronted by forces he can't begin to understand.

In [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Bonnie Scotland]], they will be replaced by the Minister of the local Church of Scotland[[note]]The established national Church, of which UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen is only a member, rather than leader, as she is with the C of E[[/note]] congregation, who is often portrayed as dour and grim, and generally the opposite of their prim English counterparts. He will frequently be from the isles.

* The Reverend Leonard Clement in Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/MissMarple'' series is a subversion. While his elderly parishioners see him as a [[NiceGuy harmless shepherd]] who is far too unworldly and trusting for his own good, he is actually [[GoodIsNotDumb quite perceptive]], and he plays a significant role in helping Miss Marple find the truth in ''Literature/TheMurderAtTheVicarage'', which he narrates. He does, however, discourage the GossipyHens from spreading untrue scandals, which is why he's often thought as being "unworldly".

* The Reverend Timothy Farthing in ''Series/DadsArmy'', which also features the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verger verger]] of the parish. The actor who played Rev. Farthing, Frank Williams, also got to play him in the 2016 film adaptation, and was also a bishop in ''Series/YouRangMLord''.

->''"Here's a health to the Anglican Vicar,''\\
''And his church without meaning or faith''\\
''For the foundation stones of his temple''\\
''Are the bollocks of [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII Henry the Eighth]]."''
-->-- '''Brendan Behan'''

''For the foundation stones of his temple are''\\
''The bollocks of UsefulNotes/HenryVIII."''

** Dr Daly also reminisces on how, when he was young, he used to be other sort described above, the vicar all the young women in the parish were in love with (while being oblivious to the fact that one of them loves him now, despite his age).

British vicars are generally portrayed as docile and gentle elderly chaps, with white hair and little glasses and ever so prim and prissy ways that epitomize BritishStuffiness. They take [[SpotOfTea afternoon tea]] ("more tea, vicar?"), have a tendency to be a bit liberal with the altar wine and don't believe that anything remotely sexual happens ever, despite the fact that Church of England vicars are allowed to marry. So, to be caught ''[[CaughtWithYourPantsDown in flagrante delicto]]''--or even [[NotWhatItLooksLike mistaken for being so]]--by the vicar is, of course, the second funniest thing ever. Catching ''the vicar'' in the act is the only thing funnier.

* [[Music/JethroTull "And the bloody Church of England,]] in chains of history, requests your earthly presence at the vicarage for [[SpotOfTea tea]]."

* Tom Hereward—technically a curate—
in ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' is a transitional form between the earlier "Sexy Vicar" and the later "Trendy Vicar". A young man of the cloth, he can, because it's the late '50s, be both as alluring as his natural handsomeness makes him and be actually "cool"--as evidenced by his relationship with the emphatically modern Trixie.

* Long before ''Dibley'', a sketch on ''French & Saunders'' [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on the trope when Dawn French announced she was to be the first female comedy vicar. Her "kit" included thick glasses, false buck teeth, an unflattering wig, etc. The outfit referred to was a clear reference to the comedy vicar played in the 1970s by Dick Emery.

* Tom Harewood in ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' is a transitional form between the earlier "Sexy Vicar" and the later "Trendy Vicar". A young man of the cloth, he can, because it's the late '50s, be both as alluring as his natural handsomeness makes him and be actually "cool"--as evidenced by his relationship with the emphatically modern Trixie.

[[quoteright:288:[[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vicar_of_wellsworth.jpg]]]]

* Pictured is the Vicar of Wellsworth from ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' who is featured in some episodes. ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' writer Wilbert Awdry himself [[WriteWhatYouKnow was a reverend]] (and often signed himself "The Rev. W. Awdry" on the books).

* ''Film/HotFuzz'' has Reverend Shooter, who fully fits this trope, and exists to establish early on that Nicholas Angel is an atheist. [[spoiler: He turns out to be a vicious killer, just like every other authority figure in the town. Being played by Belloq / Ivan Ooze might have been a giveaway.]]

* Reverend Timms from ''WesternAnimation/PostmanPat''. It's amazing that a character like him, who regularly quotes ''Literature/TheBible'', didn't catch a case of ''ChuckCunninghamSyndrome'' like some other characters on the show, despite his character's lack of ''JesusTaboo''.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vicar_of_Bray_%28song%29 Vicar of Bray]] cares about very little other than the length of his tenure.

* The Reverend Timothy Farthing in ''Series/DadsArmy'', which also features the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verger verger]] of the parish.