Vicar of Dibley writer reveals new film about Parkinson’s

The co-writer of The Vicar of Dibley has revealed that a new film he is working on about two people with Parkinson’s disease will “hopefully” shoot later this year.

Paul Mayhew-Archer, from Abingdon, told BBC Radio Oxford he had been working on But When We Dance for the last “five or six years”.

The BBC-commissioned project is a “rom-com drama about two people who both have Parkinson’s and fall in love at a dance class,” he said.

Mr Mayhew-Archer had been talking about the release of a new set of stamps celebrating the The Vicar of Dibley when he made the announcement.

“The film has been commissioned by the BBC, and we’ve got a top director attached and hopefully once the casting is all sorted, we will make it later this year,” he said.

The award-winning writer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 14 years ago.

“I’ve been working on this for about five or six years, and each draft I do it gets a little bit more serious as the illness progresses,” he said.

In the years since his diagnosis, he has spoken openly about his battle with the disease, and is one of six former BBC employees, including Jeremy Paxman, who present the Movers and Shakers podcast.

“I’m doing well,” he said of his condition, adding that a year ago he had undergone deep brain stimulation treatment, which was “extraordinary”.

Royal Mail this week unveiled a set of stamps commemorating Mr Mayhew-Archer’s most well-known work, The Vicar of Dibley.

He co-wrote the award-winning sitcom, which ran for three series on the BBC from November 1994 to January 2007, alongside Richard Curtis.

The series was set in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley, which was assigned a female vicar played by Dawn French.

Mr Mayhew-Archer called the stamps a “real treat”, saying: “I had no idea that it would be quite so iconic really – it’s amazing.”

“It brings back such happy memories,” he added.