Television series

Rev.

Name: Rev.
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2010
Cast: Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman, Steve Evets, Miles Jupp, Lucy Liemann

Rev. follows Adam Smallbone, a well-meaning vicar plucked from a quiet parish and dropped into a struggling inner-London church, where the congregation is tiny, the archdeacon unhelpful, and faith keeps getting tested by everyday chaos. It's a low-key, beautifully sad sitcom — funnier than it sounds, gentler than it looks — for anyone who likes their comedy laced with real doubt and real kindness.

TVMaze rating

7.6

If you liked this

Fleabag2016

Same city, same interrogation of faith and self-worth dressed as comedy — Phoebe Waller-Bridge's confessional wit and its own priest storyline make an eerily perfect companion piece.

But Far more acidic and sexually frank than Rev.'s gentle melancholy; the fourth-wall breaks aren't for everyone.

Detectorists2014

Mackenzie Crook's hobbyist comedy has the same soft, forgiving heart — small lives, small victories, and a real ache under the jokes.

But Almost nothing happens by design; if you need plot momentum this will feel glacial.

The Office2005

The template for British cringe-comedy that loves its characters even while it's laughing at them, much like Adam's hopeless parish.

But Colder and more embarrassing than Rev. — David Brent has none of Adam's grace.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Diary of a Country Priest1951

Adam Smallbone is this priest's comic descendant — same thankless parish, same private crisis of faith, played for warmth and laughs instead of tragedy.

Robert Bresson's austere masterpiece follows a young priest failing, physically and spiritually, to reach an indifferent rural parish — the ancestor of every exhausted, doubting cleric since.

But Slow, silent, unsmiling arthouse cinema; there is no joke here, only ache.

Parks and Recreation2009

An earnest public servant fighting bureaucracy with relentless decency — swap council chambers for a vestry and it's the same fight.

But Broader, brighter, and American-optimistic where Rev. stays wry and British and sad.

This Country2017

Mockumentary about a tiny community's oddballs and outcasts, with the same instinct for finding tenderness in hopeless places.

But Rural rather than urban, and even more absurdist — less faith, more feral cousins.

Derek2012no page yet

Ricky Gervais's care-home comedy shares Rev.'s belief that kindness is its own kind of heroism, played completely straight.

But Gervais's sincerity divides people — some find it moving, others find it mawkish.

W1A2014

If you love watching a decent man drown in institutional nonsense, this BBC satire is the corporate cousin to Adam's ecclesiastical headaches.

But Pure satire, no spiritual stakes — it's about meetings, not meaning.

Grantchester2014

Another vicar wrestling with doubt and duty, this time solving murders — same collar, very different genre.

But Plays it straight as a detective drama; the comedy and melancholy balance Rev. nails is mostly gone.

The Vicar of Dibley1994

The obvious ancestor — a vicar comedy that proved village life and the collar could be properly, warmly funny.

But Broader, sillier, sitcom-by-numbers next to Rev.'s more melancholic, character-driven comedy.

MAS*H1972

Same engine as Rev.: an overworked good man cracking jokes to survive an institution that keeps failing the people it's meant to serve.

Wartime dramedy about decent, funny people trying to hold onto their humanity inside a broken institution — gallows humour as survival, not cynicism.

But American, episodic, and forty-plus years old; the laugh track and pacing feel dated.

BoJack Horseman2014

Both shows use comedy as a Trojan horse for real despair — Adam's quiet crises of faith and BoJack's crises of self are the same joke wearing different costumes.

An animated Hollywood satire that starts as jokes about a talking horse and quietly becomes one of TV's most honest studies of guilt, failure, and trying to be good.

But Much darker and more explicit than Rev., with a nihilism the vicarage never touches.