Dawn French has reprised her renowned Vicar of Dibley role to commemorate the life of cancer awareness organisation founder Kris Hallenga.
Dawn, 65, portrayed Geraldine Granger, who was dispatched to the fictional Oxfordshire village Dibley to perform as the town’s first female priest, where she provided joy as she interacted with the weirdly delightful citizens, from 1994 to 2000.
Dawn has already returned to the job, but this time she’s suited up in the cassock for a very important event.
Dawn uploaded a selfie of herself with CoppaFeel! creator Kris, 37, who is presently facing stage 4 breast cancer, on social media on Wednesday.
Kris explained that she wanted to host the FUNeral to “celebrate a life that I have genuinely cherished, surrounded by people I loved.”
Dawn uploaded her own photos from the celebrations after Kris posted hers.
‘Ok, now that @howtoglitteraturd has posted, I can tell you it was my privilege & joy to Dibley it up at her FUNeral on Sat,’ she shared on Instagram alongside a photo of the two together, as well of one showing her delivering the eulogy.
‘She wanted to host the best possible party. She did. It was phenomenal. So much love filling @trurocathedral.
‘It was her own festival celebrating an extraordinary life. What a total babe.’
Dawn accessorised her coat with a lime green stole with a large red heart on the bottom, while Kris wore a sparkling silver jumpsuit with a black sequin jacket with brilliant feather cuffs.
Kris later described the incident as the “greatest day of my life.”
‘I’ve never felt love like it. I’ve never felt joy like it. I’ve never felt such kinship with mortality. I’ve never felt so alive,’ she wrote.
Giving an overview of the event, Kris said the dress code had been ‘YODO (take of that what you will)’, while there had also been a community gospel choirs, comfort cats, old school TV’s playing old family footage, an ABBA singalong, an aerial performer and a silent disco.
She also labelled Dawn’s eulogy as one that ‘blew my heart into smithereens’.
Kris was given a two-year life expectancy after being diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer in 2009.
She later established her organisation and was featured in the documentary Kris: Dying to Live.
Her best-selling book, Glittering a Turd, won a Pride of Britain Award and was released in 2021.
Dawn said last year that she had given her own burial some considerable thought, and that she had chosen she wanted to be buried in her iconic Vicar of Dibley outfit.
Dawn stated on Kathy Burke’s podcast, Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake, that she wanted to be laid to rest in a gold casket with a Perspex cover so mourners could see her.
She also stated that she wants to be “fully embalmed” with “full makeup and lashes.”
The Vicar of Dibley is streaming on ITVX.
