Tom Jolliffe on the legacy of Father Ted…
So 20 years ago this week a sitcom debuted on Channel 4. Set in the fictional Craggy Island this focused on a parochial house of three priests and their house keeper. Father Ted ran for three seasons before the untimely death of Dermot Morgan who played the titular Ted. Though Morgan had apparently decided that three seasons was enough.
When the show first aired it caused a little controversy due to the nature of the show. The depiction of the Catholic church, whilst clearly absurd, was also largely a negative one. Ted is lazy and morally questionable (“that money was just resting in my account.”), then there is Dougal (Ardal O’Hanlon) who is a blithering idiot. You have Father Jack, a drunkard priest having completely lost his faculties whilst only retaining a disturbing penchant for nudity and unhealthy obsession with young girls (“More water!”). That’s even before you consider the bit parter, Bishop Brennan. A priest who shares Jacuzzi’s with naked women and has a love child in America. The controversy largely passed eventually as it’s such a ridiculously silly show that no connection to reality could really be formed.
The initial response to the show was of slight confusion. The first episodes were fairly popular but it was a long way from being as giddily accepted by the cult following it has now. It took a while for some people to tune into the absurdity of the comedy. By the end of the first season though, more Ted was demanded by an audience hooked on the brilliantly subversive comedy.
So what makes Father Ted as brilliant now as it was 20 years ago? Why is it so infinitely repeatable? Firstly the principle cast. Morgan and O’Hanlon came from a stand up comedy background. Whilst neither were too experienced in acting, both had the ability to craft characters (and of course to be funny). Morgan was no stranger to playing a priest. An early character of his, Father Trendy was popular in the 80’s on Irish Television.
Morgan plays the downtrodden Ted to perfection. He lives with an idiot and a creature. He’s also deeply flawed himself and ultimately needs these people as much as they need him.
O’Hanlon’s depiction of man-child Dougal is superb. It’s all wide-eyed confusion. Every line seems to be a work of goofy brilliance (“Hello Len”). He’s a constant thorn in Ted’s attempts to get ahead but somehow remains endearing. As the housekeeper, Pauline McLynn is another strength. At 33 when the show first aired, McLynn plays the dowdy old Mrs Doyle brilliantly. Even now, 20 years on, she doesn’t look as old as she did in character as Mrs Doyle. Like many of the characters who come and go in Father Ted she has no filter. She can disappear off into a ranting world of her own (“get your bollocks out of my face!”) and as an exponent of physical comedy McLynn manages to steal scenes.
Perhaps the most oft quoted character in the show is the man with the least dialogue. Father Jack played by the theatrically trained Frank Kelly is a superbly grotesque creation. There’s also something almost disturbingly real about him at times. It’s such a fantastic portrayal from Kelly. The glazed, distant expression. The slight horror behind the eyes when Jack gets worked into a confused frenzy sometimes. If you’ve ever had a town nutter or drunk, Kelly perfectly captures that look. The look of being in their own plane of existence. For someone who largely is consigned to four words of dialogue (“Feck, arse, drink, girls”) it’s an amazing performance. Even if he’s in the background sometimes he just looks totally entrenched in this crazy old character. Then you have those gems whenever he breaks out of his usual four word lexicon (“Hairy Japanese bastards!”).
In addition to the cast, the writing by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan is sharp, witty and creative. There are some great character observations in their guests, while their gift for the utterly absurd is also a major plus point. They have the ability to create memorable lines, memorable characters and memorable situations. There’s not really a weak episode. A major reason for this is the peripheral characters. Any sitcom is only as good as those characters your central cast get to interact with. From Bishop Brennan, to Father Stone, to Todd Unxious, to John and Mary (“Don’t talk to me like that ya big old pile of shite!”) to Eoin McLove (“I have no willy”) and lest we not forget Father Jack’s temporary replacement, Father Stack (“I’ve had my fun. That’s all that matters”). The show managed to have a great guest almost every episode and of course also introduced the world to Graham Norton (good thing, or bad thing?), who appeared a couple of times as Father Noel Furlong.
As someone who was in the last few years of Secondary School when this show was first airing, I was perhaps of the age and era to most appreciate it. From the first episode this was the talk of the playground. Cries of “arse biscuits” would reverberate around the school grounds. As rambunctious teens we felt in “feck” that we had found a swearing loophole. A word that we knew the real meaning of, but that switch of a “u” to an “e” meant we could get away with using it when and where we pleased. It of course didn’t always work, but for a surprising amount of times it did.
When you’re flicking through the channels at night, particularly through 4’s secondary channels, you occasionally stumble on an episode of Father Ted. You click onto the channel. “I’ll just watch a minute.” Then the episode has ended. Then another one is next up on the schedule and you watch that. It never seems to get tiring. Will it last another 20 years? Absolutely. It is timeless and probably the finest sitcom of the last 20 years.
Tom Jolliffe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnc360pUDRI&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 21, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
