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Father
Ted History Father Ted was a
rollicking success from day one, a marvellous,
surreal, genuinely bizarre mix of whimsy, blarney,
satire and violence packaged in outrageously funny
plots. The action takes place in the priests' home
on remote Craggy Island, where Father Ted Crilly
struggles to control his two fellow priests, the
young Dougal and the old Jack. Ted is a complex
character, well-meaning on the surface but vain and
greedy underneath, with a lust for fame and glory
never far away. Dougal, his young
protégé, is strangely obtuse and
stupendously dense, with a habit of asking
blindingly obvious questions (if Ted is reading a
book, Dougal inevitably asks, 'Are you reading a
book, Ted?') that seriously irritates Ted and leads
to a torrent of un-priest-like language. But Ted is
an amateur in the ways of curse words compared to
the heinous, constantly-smashed Jack, a grizzled,
nasty termagant whose brain has been addled by
booze. Jack, the most extreme of the unholy
trinity, is a scabby, foul-smelling wretch who sits
in his chair either asleep or staring wildly into
the distance, venomously cussing ('Feck!', 'Arse!',
'Knickers!' and so on). A hideous ratbag he may be,
but a hysterically funny one nonetheless, and a
monstrous comic creation blending all the hallmarks
of Alf Garnett and Albert Steptoe. Overseeing these
three is the housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, another
larger-than-life comic caricature. She seems normal
enough at first but can easily slip into the weird
zone, maddeningly repeating the same phrase over
and over again ('go on, go on, go on, go on, go
on') when attempting the simplest task like finding
out if the priests want their tea. Another of Mrs
Doyle's unnerving habits is her ability to hugely
raise the decibel level of her voice from one end
of a sentence to another. Sporting a permanent,
prominent cold-sore on her lip, Mrs Doyle seems
right at home in this bleak priest hole. But in addition
to the fine cast, the other stars of the piece were
writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, who
managed to create a refreshingly novel style that
combined witty, oddball dialogue with
mindbogglingly extreme situations, encompassing
anything from the priests entering the Eurovision
Song Contest, to Father Ted and a gang of his
fellow priests being lost for hours in the women's
lingerie section of a department store. And the
writers weren't above indulging themselves by
introducing silly names: Ted Crilly himself, but
also characters like Father Dick Byrnes, Father
Todd Unctious, randy milkman Pat Mustard and
Sampras, Dougal's pet rabbit. (The character of
Father Ted, incidentally, first appeared in
Mathews' standup routine.) Just as the third
series was about to air, principal star Dermot
Morgan suddenly died, aged just 45, victim to a
carousing lifestyle. As a mark of respect,
transmission of the first episode was postponed for
seven days. Though these eight episodes - which,
because of Morgan's death, had to be the last -
were overshadowed by his demise, they proved to be
a fitting tribute, with the madness as bizarre as
ever and the comedy equally fine. Subsequent
repeats continue to validate the high standing of
Father Ted within the sitcom canon. All the priests
in Father Ted came across as juvenile delinquents,
arrested adults delighting in name-calling,
point-scoring, taunting and flaunting their own
personal successes. Although containing the odd
salient swipe at the Catholic church and religion
in general, such digs were softened by the series'
overtly unreal nature and its surreal
characterisation and plotting. It was, perhaps, an
acquired taste, but one worth persevering with,
for, as Mrs Doyle would say, even if you didn't get
it at first, eventually you will, you will, you
will, you will, you will, you will...
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