'' is a
1990s Television Situation Comedy set around the lives of three priests on the fictional extremely remote
Craggy Island off the west coast of
Ireland . It first aired
April 21 ,
1995 on the UK's
Channel 4 , and the final episode was broadcast on
May 1 ,
1998 . ''Father Ted'' was written by
Arthur Mathews and
Graham Linehan , who also co-created ''
Big Train ''. All the interior scenes were shot at the
LWT studios in
London , while all of the location footage was shot in Ireland.
Three ,
Father Dougal McGuire and
Father Jack Hackett . The three live together in Craggy Island's
Parochial House , along with their manic housekeeper
Mrs Doyle , who is hell-bent on forcibly serving
Tea to all and sundry.
Responsible for the three priests' exile is fierce, uncompromising
Bishop Len Brennan . Bishop Brennan makes frequent visits to the island, often to cast his disapproving eye over the three and their backwater parish. The reasons for the priests' exile are hinted at across the several series, and appear to stem from a mixture of incompetence and embarrassing conduct. Fathers McGuire and Hackett were exiled for reasons of stupidity and alcoholism (respectively) which caused severe embarrassment to the Catholic Church. Father Crilly's offences, on the other hand, were somewhat more severe. He is told to have gone to
Las Vegas on funds intended to send a sick child to
Lourdes . To this day he defends his innocence, claiming that "the money was just resting in my account", and that it was "a perfectly legitimate monetary transfer."
The show also gave birth to many catchphrases that are well known in Ireland and Britain, most notably Mrs Doyle's "Go on, go on" and Father Jack's cursing, with short words including, and usually limited to, "Drink!" "
Feck !" "Arse!" and "Girls!" and also the now obligatory response "Careful Now!" to the protest chant "Down with this sort of thing!"
Father Ted Crilly (
Dermot Morgan ) is the most normal of the priests on the island. He is a ''bon vivant'', exiled to Craggy Island for something referred to only as "that Lourdes thing." This apparently involved his misappropriating church funds intended to be used to send a poor child to
Lourdes in order to go on a gambling spree to
Las Vegas . Ted has frequently claimed that the money was "just resting in my account." Ted was previously in
Wexford , which happens to be the home town of the series producer,
Declan Lowney . His greatest desire is to escape Craggy Island and to find a wealthy parish and a life free of embarrassment.
Father Dougal McGuire (
Ardal O'Hanlon ) is a very simple- minded soul, in exile for a mysterious incident in
Blackrock involving a group of
Nun s, presumably caused by his stupidity. His inability to grasp the simplest of everyday concepts provides much of the humour in the show. Dougal also regularly expresses doubts about the validity of Catholic Orthodoxy (indeed, he appears to have no religious belief whatsoever, even questioning the existance of God in front of a visiting Bishop) and has trouble distinguishing dreams from reality.
Father Jack Hackett (
Frank Kelly ), is an
Alcoholic , lecherous, violent and foul-mouthed elderly priest. He is on Craggy Island for all of the above, and is basically incapable of functioning normally as a
Priest . He spends most, if not all of his time sitting in his chair yelling "FECK! ARSE! DRINK! GIRLS!" or telling everyone to "FECK OFF!!". In his younger days he was a
Fire And Brimstone preacher and is said to have been the first priest to denounce
The Beatles .
Mrs Doyle (
Pauline McLynn ), is the priests' manic housekeeper who is hell-bent on serving
Tea to all and sundry. She must once have been married though no mention of her husband is ever made, apart from a brief slip of the tongue on her part in "Night of the Nearly Dead". Hospitality, especially serving tea, is her mission in life, as is cleaning the large window in the living room, a task which usually sees her plummet to the ground upon trying to get back down from the sill. She occasionally falls off the roof of the parochial house.
Other priests and islanders have recurring roles in the series. Their details are given below. A number of parishioners and other characters appear on the show on a one-off basis. See
Father Ted Minor Characters for a complete list.
Bishop Len Brennan (
Jim Norton ), Ted's boss. Len has little patience with Ted and his friends, whom he refers to as "the cast of
Police Academy ". He also has a terrible phobia of rabbits, due to being stuck in a lift with some once, where they nibbled on his cape and everything. Secretly he has a girlfriend and son living in California.
Father Noel Furlong (
Graham Norton ) and his reluctant St Luke's Youth Group, who turn up in uncompromising places such as a tiny caravan and a dark cave. Father Noel is overwhelmingly enthusiastic to the point of being interminable, regaling everyone with songs, having "screeching" competitions in the cave and doing
Riverdance in the cramped caravan. Even when buried under a "big pile of rocks" he talks incessantly and cheerfully. His version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a high point of the series. His youth group eventually ran off to Paraguay. He occasionally turns up without his youth group, for example, on a plane crammed with priests which is rapidly running out of fuel, where he is looking after Father Faye, the Monkey Priest of Killybashangel.
Father Larry Duff (
Tony Guilfoyle ), a priest with a zest for life who Ted claims is "tremendous fun" around others. Ted often calls Larry for advice on his mobile phone. However, when Ted calls him on his mobile phone, he suffers a horrible accident yet always reappears unharmed in a subsequent episode (much like
Kenny McCormick in the animated series ''
South Park ''). These events include car and skiing accidents, a disastrous donkey derby, a very painful mishap with a stapler, an unlucky incident with a
Knife Thrower , being savaged by a dozen Rottweiler dogs and losing out on a £10,000 prize. He was once arrested by security forces because "a big box of machine guns" were found in a fellow priest's house, with whom he was sharing a car at the time.
Father Dick Byrne () and (
Don Wycherley ), who are sort of equivalents to Jack and Dougal.
Local shop-owners Mary and John O'Leary (
Rynagh O'Grady and
Patrick Drury ) who, whilst striving to appear sweetness and light to the clergy, are constantly at each other's throats and make numerous attempts to murder each other.
Tom (
Pat Shortt ), a bizarre maniac who nevertheless has a polite tone to friends. He wears a T-shirt on which he claims "I shot JR" (a reference to ''
Dallas '', an American soap opera). In the first episode of Father Ted, he confesses to an apparently unconcerned Ted that "I killed a man". He possesses a strange scar on his buttocks, which is never revealed to the audience. Of this scar, Tom proclaims "Would you believe me own dog did that to me?! Doesn't it look like a face?!" A true sign of his insanity is made clear in the original scripts, in which he is the only person on the island to think that Ted and Dougal's Eurovision performance of "My Lovely Horse" is actually good. He does not spare his violent nature from animals. He interprets Ted's request to "take care" of a large family of rabbits as a request to slaughter them with a Japanese Katana, and shoots a crow sitting 3 feet away from him with a shotgun in the first episode.
Contrary to frequent rumours, Mathews and Linehan did not originally pitch the series to the Irish network
RTÉ , but rather offered it directly to
Hat Trick Productions and
Channel 4 in the
UK . Nevertheless, it is a rich irony that what went on to be one of the most popular TV shows in Ireland, performed largely by an Irish cast, and containing so many accurate (albeit comically exaggerated) depictions of national Irish eccentricities, was paid for and shot by a British broadcaster. Somewhat controversially, RTÉ initially did not buy the rights to broadcast the show in Ireland, perhaps for fear of offending more conservative viewers. However, Channel 4 is available on cable and
MMDS in very many Irish homes and the show became a hit in Ireland without any help from RTÉ, who eventually responded to the obvious demand and broadcast the show themselves.
The theme tune for the series was written and performed by on ''Gin Soaked Boy'') used in the episode "Song for Europe", with singer Neil Hannon providing Ted's vocal; and also composed ''My Lovely Mayo Mammy'' for the episode "Night of the Nearly Dead" with the character Eoin McLove, as well as various other musical items heard in the show.
Three series and one
Christmas special were completed. In addition Morgan and O'Hanlon in character hosted an hour of
Comic Relief , during which Kelly and McLynn made brief appearances as Father Jack and Mrs Doyle in one of the routines. Just after the completion of Series 3,
Dermot Morgan died of a
Heart Attack , aged 45. As a result, series 3 was first broadcast a week later than originally planned, out of respect for Morgan. Both the writers and co-stars agree that the third series was always intended to be the last, regardless of Morgan's sudden death.
Location shooting for ''Father Ted'' was done mostly in
County Clare , including locations at
Ennis ,
Kilfenora ,
Ennistimon , and
Kilnaboy . The parochial house is at
Glenquin , near Kilnaboy. The cinema featured in 'The Passion Of St Tibulus' is at
Greystones ,
County Wicklow and "The Field", the location for Funland in "Good Luck, Father Ted", is in
Portrane , North Co. Dublin. The opening sequence (including shots of the ''Plassey'' ship wreck) were filmed over
Inisheer - the smallest of the
Aran Islands . The interior scenes were filmed in London.
The show is currently being aired on
BBC America , and is repeated frequently on Channel 4,
E4 and
RTÉ Two .
# - A film crew offers to interview Ted. He goes to extreme lengths to ensure the other members of the clergy on the island cannot be seen
# - An unbearably boring, yet inoffensive, priest - Father Stone, pays his annual visit to Craggy Island. The title is a pun on
Entertaining Mr Sloane .
# -
Bishop Brennan orders the priests to ensure a blasphemous sexually explicit film being shown on the island is a failure.
# - Ted, Dougal and Jack all plan to appear, as Elvis, in the ''All-priests
Stars In Their Eyes Lookalike contest''. Ted is particularly keen to beat his arch-enemy, Father Dick Byrne of Rugged Island, and goes to great length to get the former television star Henry Sellers on their side
# - Ted finds himself falling for a steamy novelist. The title is taken from ''
And God Created Woman ''.
# - Father Jack dies after consuming a bottle of floor cleaner. However, he comes back to life to Ted and Dougal's dismay after they learned that Father Jack is incredibly wealthy.
# - Ted, Dougal and Jack take their annual holiday and encounter Father Noel Furlong (played by
Graham Norton ).
# - When Ted holds a raffle, he destroys the prize - a new car.
# - Three bishops visit the island. A worried Ted gives Jack elocution lessons beforehand.
# - Dougal starts hanging around with a rebelious priest, Father Damo Lennon. Meanwhile a valuable whistle is stolen. The title is a pun on the
BBC music show
The Old Grey Whistle Test .
# - Ted is goaded by Father Dick Byrne into attempting to write a song for "Eurosong '96" ( spoof of the
Eurovision Song Contest ). Despite having a song with only one note, Ireland's fear of winning again (and having to fund it) plays into Ted and Dougal's hands. Arguably the most famous episode.
# - The parochial house is infested by rabbits, just as the very rabbit-phobic Bishop Brennan plans a visit.
# - A
Feminist singer visits the island just when Ted is judging the annual ''lovely girls'' competition.
# - In a game of one-upmanship with Dick Byrne, Ted decides the three priests must give something up for
Lent . The title is taken from that of an
Oasis song, 'Cigarettes and Alcohol'.
# - Jack's hairy hands get him sent to an old priests' home. Unfortunately his replacement, played by Irish comedian
Brendan Grace is much worse. The title is taken from the movie ''
New Jack City ''.
# - A flight back from a pilgrimage runs out of fuel and there are only two parachutes. Only one man can save the passengers...
- - Ted's quick thinking whilst lost in a Department Store 's Lingerie department earns him the coveted ''Golden Cleric'' award. So why doesn't he feel happy? At the time this hour-long episode was first shown, it attracted the then highest non-film audience viewing figures for Channel 4.
# - Ted's "Chinaman" impression goes down badly with Craggy Island's newly-arrived Chinese community and he is branded a racist.
# - Ted makes a large bet on the ''King of the Sheep'' competition. Unfortunately, Chris, his chosen sheep, has heard rumours about a sheep-eating beast and isn't feeling at all himself. The title is a parody of the
1970s song "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" by
Middle Of The Road . There is a hidden pun in the show's plot — it's all about ''sheep worrying.''
# - When Ted and Dougal expose a philandering
Milkman , Pat Mustard, he takes revenge on his replacement, Dougal, by putting a bomb on the
Milk Float . If Dougal's speed drops below 4 mph... This show was dreamed up by the creators when they decided to "see if you could make a worse sequel than
Speed 2 ".
# - Ted wins some money on the horses and must travel to the mainland to claim it. This is a very bad idea. Even
Richard Wilson doesn't believe it.
# - Ted takes great steps to ensure he wins a bet with Dick Byrne on the outcome of the ''All-Priests Over-75's Five-a-Side Football championship''. The title is a pun on the football movie ''
Escape To Victory '', originally titled ''Victory'', about a football game played between
Prisoners Of War and their guards in
World War II .
# - the only episode to follow on directly from the previous one. Exposed as a cheat, Ted waits in terror for Dick to inform him of his forfeit... can you tell what it is yet?
# - The visit of a young daytime TV presenter, Eoin McLove, causes excitement for the island's aging females. The title is a pun on the movie ''
Night Of The Living Dead ''. Eoin McLove is a parody of
Daniel O'Donnell , an Irish crooner particularly popular among elderly women.
# - Ted gets the opportunity of a lifetime, but can't bring himself to break it to the others that they're not invited. The title is a pun on the movie ''
Coming To America ''. The last scene of this episode was going to show Ted climbing onto a window ledge along with another priest to commit suicide. This was then replaced out of respect at the last minute with a montage containing one clip from every previous episode, in reverse order, as Father Ted actor, Dermot Morgan died just soon after making this final episode. However, the writers have said that the joke didn't really work and would have been replaced anyway.
Pauline McLynn reprised her role as Mrs Doyle in
2001 for a small set of adverts for the
UK Inland Revenue , reminding people to get their taxes in on time by uttering her catchphrase ('Go on, go, on') over and over again. Not surprisingly, it was voted the most irritating ad campaign of that year, beating off competition from the now-infamous
Ferrero Rocher advert. Ironically, Mrs Doyle was also involved in a spoof of this confectionery-related advert in the episode ''Tentacles of Doom''.
