Winner of the Week: Tom Hollander

BBC sitcom Rev returned to our screens this week, and with it the wonderful Tom Hollander as the Reverend Adam Smallbone.

Hollander not only stars, but shares creator and producer credits on the series, and his perfect portrayal of a troubled inner-city vicar shows his passion for the character undiminished by ever-rising star status. Superficially the role shares a bumbling meekness in common with Hollander’s In the Loop MP Simon Foster, but beneath there is a more sensitive edge to Smallbone.

We hear his inner thoughts, often in a less thorned cathartic style to Peep Show, but perhaps more shocking for humanising, of all people, a vicar. This extends even into hearing his prayers, which frequently amuse the viewer by mixing earthly problems with higher soul searching.

At the same time, however, it does not refrain from simply giving an intelligent man’s thoughts as he questions his faith.

Rev is more of a gentle comedy than other big contemporaries, even when compared to my usual tastes; but the sympathetic, realistic characters grow on you and the series only improves with familiarity.

One criticism often made is that it’s too soft on the church, but I disagree. The irrelevancy of the church and the futile job of a London vicar is most apparent because the tragic touches don’t feel like exaggeration.

After his sermon, Smallbone walks back through a tiny congregation, most of whom have ulterior motives for attending, backed from the chancel not by a choir but a small CD player.

Similarly, his associates feel like genuine odd people rather than outlandish caricatures. The patronising archdeacon, and pathetic, pedantic lay-reader are most damning in that they feel perfectly appropriate.

It is Tom Hollander that lies at the heart of Rev though, and his struggles as a man attempting to do good in trying circumstances transcend the clerical setting, and the sitcom format itself.

If you want to see just how great Tom Hollander really is in Rev, check out Series 2 now on BBC iPlayer or flick on to BBC Two at 9 o’clock this Thursday!