So the Rev. Adam Smallbone returned last night to BBC2 for what looks to be his final series  as the long-suffering vicar of St Saviour-in-the-Marshes. Like so many others who have experienced the day-to-day life of living in a vicarage, I have come to love the sharply observed writing of Rev. As is the case with this programme and other great comedies they take the genuineness of real life situations and draw them out with a certain amount of exaggeration to great comic effect. We find ourselves sympathising with Adam as he deals with the variety of oddballs and hangers-on that his church attracts.

If Adam Smallbone was a real person, we might be asking why he bothers putting up with all the stress and frustration when the moments of joy are so few and far between. Adam might have a particularly challenging parish to work in, but there are plenty of real life clergy who find…