FOUR performances of The Vicar of Dibley in Roadwater and Porlock by the Hole in the Wall production group from Minehead have raised £2,500 for charity.

The small group of friends from Minehead and district, formed the drama group a year ago, with the aim to bring drama to the outlying villages with all the profits going to good causes.

This year, the production raised money for Musgrove Park Hospital Maternity Unit and Baby Bereavement Suite and Comic Relief. The production was directed by Chris Rendell and assisted by Hayley Rendell.

Review by Jon Curley:

On Saturday 29th November I had the pleasure of seeing the finished production at Porlock Village Hall.

The first impression as you entered was that the sell out audience were full of anticipation of a good nights entertainment, most of them returning after seeing last years production and they were not disappointed.

Bringing a TV show to the stage has it’s problems, there was no stage script so Chris had to adapt the TV script, a task he managed so well bringing out all those scenes that we remember from the TV.

One of the big problems was to get all the scene changes in, 34 in all was no mean feat a credit to John Allaway stage manager and his team they were as smooth as the restrictions of the stage would allow.

The set it’s self was minimal but sufficient to take you from one location to another without loosing credibility.

Added to this the lighting by Brett Rendell and the sound effects created by Tim Brown who also created a different version of the main theme tune for each scene change was truly inspirational.

Any TV show creates characters that we all feel we know so well.

Hole in the Wall Productions actors are pass masters at this as the evening progressed so did the characterisations.

Chris Rendell took on the difficult task of directing and playing the pompous Parish Council chairman David Horton this he did with great skill creating a rude and bombastic privileged chairman.

His son Hugo Horton played so well by Paul Knight blundered his way through life dominated by his father and unable to admit his obvious love for the Verger Alice Tinker played by Sarah Hudd.

Alice's first entrance superb particularly in the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” sketch which I am sure you remember from the TV programme, the audience certainly did.

She said to me afterwards that she will now have to get Alice to leave, her husband said it was like living with Alice.

From her entrance the new vicar Geraldine Granger played by the talented Sallyann King was that character a part that was likely to be hard to fulfil given the talent of Dawn French but for all of us at Porlock she was Geraldine the chocoholic down to earth modern vicar who dealt so well with Owen Newitt (Colin Tennant) the local bachelor farmer.

Colin brought the character to life and for me just got better as the night went on.

She also coped well with the indecisive Jim Trott (David Shevels new to the group) who captured the no, no, no, yes timing so well.

The parish council pedantic secretary Frank Pickle was played superbly by Pete Osbiston he managed to capture the voice and aged himself to look and sound like the original Frank so well.

Then there was Letitia Cropley (Kim Hughs also new to the group) who managed to arrive on stage in every scene with a different hat, her wardrobe must be a Milliners delight unlike her Marmalade and Anchovy sandwiches.

Last but certainly not least we must not forget the opening by John Allaway as the Reverend Pottle who set the standard for the show to follow and it did.

It was for me and the sell out audience a show to remember as we left talking about the pleasure we had just experienced and looking forward to next years performance already.

This years production was to raise money for “Comic Relief” and “Musgrove Park Hospital Maternity Unit and Baby Bereavement Suite” and they most certainly achieved the goal by collecting a staggering £2500.

Thank you to all those who came out on the four nights, two at Roadwater and Two at Porlock.

They will be back!