There is one thing that fascinates me about improv and that is how it is portrayed in Television and Film. This is becoming more and more apparent in recent years because the comedy art form is sort of in fashion. There are some interesting topics that we can gain from these ways they are displayed so every so often we are going to look at different scenes from different shows and films.

The Vicar Of Dibley

I have spoken on this feature before about the British sitcom Vicar of Dibley and the great scene in which can inspire improv. Well I have recently rewatched the wonderful show and I came across another scene on a different episode that is really beneficial to the world of improv and again inspiring.

In the episode named Winter, the village are getting ready for Christmas and are rehearsing the Nativity play that is set to be performed on the farm. They are in the village hall and the cast are going through how to perform different scenes and they are doing a sort of warm up and in that scene it had something that reminded me of improv rehearsals.

Geraldine decides to step in as the role of Joseph as she feels Hugo is not stepping it up as the character and decides to do some Adlib scenes with Alice as Mary. It is a great scene because throughout the two iconic characters are heightened to this dramatic finale. This reminded me of improv because the more dramatic you are about the simplest things in an improv scene, the more hilarious is can actually become.

It is such a great scene, it really shows that the more you elevate something the more silly it becomes. This is a great thing for improv because I think it is something that is sometimes missed in rehearsals – focussing on the little things. It may not seem like a lot but by making something that is really small matter of fact a huge deal you can create these really dramatic scenes and it works wonders for the show.