Christmas Advent: Dawn French is a woman associated with a Christmas TV special and ALL those meals

Here at People World we're continuing our Christmas advent with Dawn French's four Christmas meals on the second day.

Dawn French. Comedy legend. One half of French and Saunders. An actress known for her many roles and stand-up, and of course, the loveable vicar in our Christmas TV special.

The actress and comedienne played the starring role of Geraldine Granger in Vicar of Dibley, the BBC comedy from 1994 until 2007. It has returned at points for short specials.

In what has become an iconic comedy moment in Christmas viewing across the UK, Dawn’s character is forced to endure four Christmas meals to appease her parishioners.

She goes against the laws of the physics of stomach digestion and what the human body can withstand and packs Brussels sprout after Brussels sprout into her mouth, in what is one of many hilarious scenes during the Christmas special.

"The Christmas Lunch Incident" was first shown on Christmas Day in 1996 and has become a stable of Christmas viewing.

It was the eighth episode of The Vicar of Dibley to be produced and transmitted. Repeats are broadcast regularly around Christmas on both the original channel and more frequently on the UKTV comedy channel Gold. The episode was written by regular writers Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer.

Dawn loves her character of Geraldine so much that she even wants to be buried in the vicar outfit with a full face of make-up.

In Kathy Burke’s new podcast, Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake podcast, which sees celebrity guests asked to imagine their deaths and funerals, Dawn explained how she would like to be laid to rest.

The star revealed she wants ‘the full vestments’ and would like to be placed in a gold casket with a Perspex lid so mourners can see her.

"I’d like to be preserved. I’d like to be embalmed, properly – full makeup with lashes,"she said.

"And the perspex front has two holes with my t**s coming through. And if you want, you can rub them for luck. As you enter Cornwall."

When asked if she would love her former French and Saunders co-star Jennifer to read her eulogy, Dawn joked: "It would kill her to have to say so many nice things about me."

Dawn revealed last year that she often apologises to real vicars over her portrayal of Geraldine.

The 65-year-old comedy star says women of the cloth often tell her they are nicknamed 'Geraldine' after her sitcom character, and she always responds: "I'm so sorry."

But she adds: "They say 'Don't say sorry, because it normalised it all' – that's the power of comedy."

Speaking to presenter Rylan-Clark-Neal on his Ry-Union podcast, Ms French said she researched her character by chatting to Joy Carroll, one of the first female vicars.

Geraldine Granger returned to the BBC for a series of short films in 2020, marking various moments from the pandemic. The actress believes that Geraldine deserves a promotion.

"I've always said to Richard Curtis, she'd make a great Bishop," Ms French added.