Interviews

You’re the co-creator of this character. Can you tell me where the inspiration for the Rev. Adam Smallbone came from?

There was a news story about a West London Vicar who had suddenly become the most invited man in the district because the shadow cabinet was trying to get their children into his school. I thought that sounded quite funny because if you think of a classic image of an Anglican vicar being slightly socially awkward, and being thrust into the metropolitan world with people fighting over themselves to get his attention is a rather funny story to tell.

Another inspiration came from attending the christening of one of my God children. As I looked at the father, an old friend, I remembered while at university he’d come back from home one Christmas and apparently said he reduced his mother to tears by finally proving the non existence of God and here we were twenty years later christening his son! I then realised his very practical wife was sorting out the educational issue early!

So those two things started as a funny idea of ‘Oh here’s an urban comedy’ in essence, but then it became much broader and more interesting, as we met and talked to vicars all over the place.

I met the wife of the vicar when I was at university who was a very contemporary vicar’s wife. So the conventional idea I had of her wearing an Alice band and making cakes were dispelled as I met this high powered barrister who earned six times more than her husband. Although she dearly loved him, she was irritated by the fact that her house was not her own, and so you can see where the character of Alex (Olivia Colman) came from.

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