BBC Four is seeking contributors for a fun, warm, light-hearted programme called ‘Old Vicars Telling Jokes’.
The idea for the show comes from a pair of programmes produced last year for BBC Four called ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’, which in turn was based on an American website of the same name that features short videos of older Jewish folk telling their favourite jokes. BBC Four viewers found it in numbers and really enjoyed listening to and watching regular people with a lifetime of experience articulating the old gags they’ve been telling their whole lives. It’s a really warm, affectionate programme, a bit daft too, but it also works as a portrait of joke tellers and as a celebration of friendship, storytelling and laughter.
The BBC has now commissioned a short series of British versions of this successful programme and one of them is ‘Old Vicars Telling Jokes.’ So, we are searching for vicars, chaplains, rectors, deans, ministers (we’re nothing if not inclusive) and other ‘Persons of Cloth’ (that’s our catch-all term, and we’re sticking with it) aged over 60 who would like to tell us their favourite gags on camera.
If you think you, or someone you know, might be interested, have a quick search on YouTube for ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’ and you’ll get a really good idea of how the programme works (warning: some of the jokes are a little blue…). Jokes can be clean or not, old or new, and don’t have to be involve religion, although obviously we’re hoping there will be a few that are in that area.
Filming will be a lot of fun (we want to make it a friendly, social event), there won’t be a massive, intimidating audience and it won’t take very long. We will be setting up a couple of filming days in August – one in London and one outside of the south east.
If you are interested in contributing, we would love you to get in touch by emailing us at oldvicars@bbc.co.uk or by calling Dan Trelfer on 020 8576 4317. We can supply further details or answer any questions you might have.
Best wishes
The ‘Old Vicars Telling Jokes’ Team.