Faith in the City

When you have a soggy-liberal, agnostic, Church of England Vicar (the excellent Tom Hollander), in an inner-city London parish who's named after the first man, Adam, and shares many of his faults, a supportive and normal-ish wife (Olivia Colman), a waspish Arch-Deacon (Simon McBurney) and a sometimes profound, always intoxicated wino (hilariously played by Steve Evets), you come up with 'Rev' (BBC2), a comic gem shining out among the comedy trash. The humour of the show lies in never being cruel but always being sharp; it's like an eagerly anticipated favourite meal. Hollander never fails to give a brilliant 'pained' look on cue. The other recurring cast members, Miles Jupp as Adam's somewhat superior right-hand man Nigel and Adoha Anyeka as Ellen Thomas, Adam's overly familiar parishioner, perfectly compliment the tight ensemble.  'Rev' is a delight...charming, witty, and perfect fodder for any Guardian-reading, Radio 4-listening types out there.  The comedy touches on issues of faith, addiction, power politics and feminism in a seemingly very light-hearted way but it displays a keen intelligence more perceptive than most 'serious' views of such subjects; it preaches lightly but thoughtfully. While the 'comedy vicar' has been a figure of fun for centuries, 'Rev' has a nice contemporary feel to this most common of tropes. British comedy writing at its best and if you tune in, you, like 'thetvreviewguy', won't be agnostic about 'Rev'.