Back (at last) for a third series, Tom Hollander's beleaguered cleric Adam Smallbone and wife Alex (Olivia Colman) are now the parents of a baby daughter, but the finances of St Saviour's are still threadbare. Enter two welcome additions - played by Getting On's Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine - an area dean and diocesan secretary intent on shutting down Adam's church. Can an ecumenical church fête, shared by the go-ahead imam of a nearby mosque (and played by Kayvan Novak) save the day?

Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman interviewed by vicar

Rev Dr Giles Fraser discovered one of the Rev characters is based on him...

Series 3 gets off to a quite unforgettable start tonight as we witness the sudden birth of Adam and Alex's baby daughter in the back of a black cab. But what will burn this scene forever into your memory is the unlikely member of the cast who has the honour of acting as midwife.

Fast forward several months and while Adoha and Colin (Ellen Thomas and Steve Evets) are both desperate to be godparents to baby Katie there's a much less welcome arrival in the shape of two church officials.

The new area dean and diocesan secretary (the great double act of Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine) will put the future of St Saviour's in doubt. Adam (Tom Hollander) has to go all out to convince them that his church is thriving, even if it struggles to achieve even a tenth of the turnout of the nearby mosque. So he teams up with the local imam (Fonejacker's Kayvan Novak) to raise funds to pay for a children's playground.

Apart from that terrific opening set piece, Rev isn't a comedy that tends to go in for grand gestures, preferring instead for the humour to bubble up gently from the depth of its wildly assorted characters ranging from Archdeacon Robert (Simon McBurney) at the top all the way down to Mick (Jimmy Akingbola).

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The third series of Rev is back tonight and those who haven't opened their hearts and minds to the show yet, this is the perfect chance.

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Olivia Colman says: "I really liked Rev because it's well written, it's beautiful and the people are both lovable and flawed."

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Best of all in this episode is the aforementioned Kayvan Novak as Yussef. Novak has come a long way since Fonejacker and really is a very versatile comic actor.

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Rev, since it burst onto our screens in 2010 has remained one of my favourite TV sitcoms of all time. I love the way it's acted, the mix of characters, and of course the subject matter and the way that's dealt with.

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