Due to an unfortunate scheduling coincidence, in the previous week prior to the initial UK broadcast, there had been the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake which occurred on 26 December with the epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Some of the audience felt that certain portions of this episode's dialogue was inappropriate.
This episode is set at the start of the 2005 "Make Poverty History" campaign. It is appropriate that the congregation become involved it in, but many of the audience felt the series handling of it jarred with the feel-good escapism of the series. This is why the ending feels more shocking.
This episode did not go down well on its initial broadcast in the UK. Many felt that, for what was a standard episode broadcast over Christmas and New Year, it became overly preachy and would have been more suited to a Comic Relief special episode. By a horrible further scheduling coincidence, in the previous week, there had also been the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred on 26 December with the epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Geraldine says Dibley has a population of 1000. In real life, Turville (Dibley) has about 300.
Miranda Hart guest stars in this episode. Geraldine's green desk chair in the Dibley series finales is the same as the pink one in 'Miranda', filmed three years later.