Father Ted

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Father Ted is a 1990s television situation comedy set on the extremely remote fictional 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 priests preside over an island parish: Father Ted Crilly, Father Dougal McGuire and Father Jack Hackett. The three live together in Craggy Island's parochial house, along with their manic housekeeper Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn), who is hell-bent on serving tea to all and sundry.

Responsible for the three priests' exile is fierce, uncompromising Bishop Len Brennan (Jim Norton). 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 only hinted at, but appear to stem from a mixture of incompetence and embarrassing conduct.

Although superficially about Catholic priests, the show actually deals with many different situations, often using the church as a microcosm of Irish society as a whole. This includes dishonest, corrupt and insane priests and nuns. This last detail has led to the show being criticised as anti-Catholic, though most Catholics do not take such accusations seriously and many count themselves fans of the programme. According to an interview with the writers, the show is quite popular with nuns. However, it is true to say that many Irish Catholics can draw parallels to the behaviour of priests in their own parishes that they may have encountered over the years. This includes financial scandals and priests having sexual relationships.

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!" The word 'feck' is assumed in the UK simply to be an inoffensive, made-up substitute for "fuck". Such a cagey neologism would seem to be part of a long line of made-up profanities in British sitcoms, like 'naff' in Porridge and 'smeg' in Red Dwarf. However, as in the examples given, 'feck' was not invented by the creators and has in fact long been used widely in vernacular speech in Ireland. Its use in Ireland is relatively inoffensive; but while it seems to be just a corruption of the 'f-word', it is not a precise synonym, and none of its common usages in Ireland includes intercourse. The word's strength is debatable. Equally debatable is the usage of the word "gobshite", which seems to be the equivalent of "someone who talks shit".

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Father Ted Crilly

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 him misappropriating church funds which were intended to be used to send a poor child to Lourdes to go on a gambling trip to Las Vegas. Ted has frequently claimed that the money was "just resting in my account", although Dougal points out "it was there for a very long time Ted... A good long rest". Ted was previously in Wexford. His greatest desire is to escape Craggy Island and to find a wealthy parish.


Father Dougal Maguire

Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon) is a simple minded soul, in exile for a mysterious incident in Blackrock involving a group of nuns, presumably caused by his stupidity. His inability to grasp the simplest of everyday concepts provides much of the humour in the show.


Father Jack Hackett

Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly), is a perpetually drunken, lecherous and foul-mouthed elderly priest. He is on Craggy Island for being permanently drunk and violent and a basic inability to function normally as a priest. There is also mention of a 'blue nun' (blue as in sexually promiscuous) and a wedding that Father Hackett performed as to his direct banishment to Craggy Island.


Mrs. Doyle

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. Her first name, Joan, is never actually mentioned in the broadcast series, although it is revealed in the published scripts.


Bishop Len Brennan, Ted's boss. Len has little patience with our friends, whom he refers to as 'the cast of Police Academy'. He also has a terrible phobia about rabbits, due to being stuck in a lift with some once. Secretly, has a mistress and son living in California.


Local shop-owners Mary and John O'Leary who, whilst striving to appear sweetness and light to the clergy, are in reality at each other's throats and making numerous attempts to murder each other.


Tom (Pat Shortt), a bizarre maniac but with a polite tone to friends. He also 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, Father."


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 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 run off to Paraguay. He occasionally turns up on his own, for example on a plane with a lack of fuel.


Father Larry Duff, a priest with a zest for life who Ted claims is 'tremendous fun' around others. 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, and being savaged by a dozen Rottweiler dogs.


Father Dick Byrne, Ted's opposite number and Nemesis on the nearby Rugged Island. The Father Ted equivalent of The Master in 'Doctor Who', Dick Byrne is forever up to no good. In Ted's pithy phrase: "As priests go... he's a really bad priest."


Father Johnson and Father MacDuff, Dick Byrne's colleagues on Rugged Island, who are sort of equivalents to Jack and Dougal.

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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 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 Neil Hannon's aptly-named band The Divine Comedy, and was later reworked into a song "Songs of Love" for the album "Casanova". (The song "Woman of The World" from the same album was also offered as a potential theme tune, but rejected.) The band also contributed the ridiculous "My Lovely Horse" song 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.


Series 1

1. "Good Luck, Father Ted" - 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
2. "Entertaining Father Stone" - An unbearably boring, yet inoffensive, priest - Father Stone, pays his annual visit to Craggy Island. The title is a pun on Entertaining Mr Sloane.
3. "The Passion Of St Tibulus" - Bishop Brennan orders the priests to ensure a blasphemous sexually explicit film being shown on the island is a failure.
4. "Competition Time" - 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.
5. "And God Created Woman" - Ted finds himself falling for a steamy novelist. The title is taken from And God Created Woman.
6. "Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest" - Father Jack dies after consuming a bottle of floor cleaner. However, he comes back to life.


Series 2

1. "Hell" - Ted, Dougal and Jack take their annual holiday and encounter Father Noel (played by Graham Norton).
2. "Think Fast, Father Ted" - When Ted holds a raffle, he destroys the prize - a new car.
3. "Tentacles Of Doom" - Three bishops visit the island. A worried Ted gives Jack elocution lessons beforehand.
4. "The Old Grey Whistle Theft" - 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.
5. "Song For Europe" - Ted is goaded by Father Dick Byrne into attempting to write a song for 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.
6. "The Plague" - The parochial house is infested by rabbits, just as the very rabbit-phobic Bishop Brennan plans a visit.
7. "Rock-a-Hula Ted" - A feminist singer visits the island just when Ted is judging the annual lovely girls competition.
8. "Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading" - 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'.
9. "New Jack City" - 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.
10. "Flight Into Terror" - A flight back from a pilgrimage runs out of fuel and there are only two parachutes. Only one man can save the passengers...


Christmas special

* "A Christmassy Ted" - 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.


Series 3

1. "Are You Right There, Father Ted?" - Ted's "Chinaman" impression goes down badly with Craggy Island's newly-arrived Chinese community and he is branded a racist.
2. "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep" - 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.
3. "Speed 3" - This is a parody of Speed. 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...
4. "The Mainland" - 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.
5. "Escape From Victory" - 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 soccer movie Escape to Victory, originally titled Victory, about a soccer game played between prisoners of war and their guards in World War II.
6. "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse" - 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?
7. "Night Of The Nearly Dead" - 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.
8. "Going To America" - 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.