"Father Ted" (1995) TV series 1995-1998

User Rating:

9.3/10   

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

21 April 1995 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Crazy sitcom about 3 priests and their housekeeper who live on Craggy Island, not the peaceful and quiet part of Ireland it seems!

Plot Keywords:

Island | Ireland | Sitcom | Priest | Housekeeper

Awards:

15 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Dermot Morgan	...	Father Ted Crilly (25 episodes, 1995-1998)
Ardal O'Hanlon	...	Father Dougal McGuire (25 episodes, 1995-1998)
Frank Kelly	...	Father Jack Hackett (25 episodes, 1995-1998)
Pauline McLynn	...	Mrs. Doyle / ... (25 episodes, 1995-1998)

Runtime:

25 min (24 episodes) | 50 min (1 episode)

Country:

UK | Ireland

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | USA:TV-MA (some episodes) | USA:TV-PG (few episodes) | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | UK:15 | Ireland:15

Filming Locations:

Betchworth Quarry, Betchworth, Reigate, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Hat Trick Productions

Trivia:

The "Ferrero Rocher gag" pokes fun at a commercial that became something of an icon in 1990s Britain: we see a glitzy party in a beautiful reception room, beautiful women in expensive dresses, dashing men in evening dress. Through the throng we see a uniformed butler - he looks to his master (we presume) who nods. The butler then carries a silver salve loaded with a pyramid of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which the party guests are invited to share. Widespread approval among the guests, one of whom says to the butler's master: "Ambassador, with these FR you are really spoiling us". Father Ted itself inspired a far less successful advert for the British Government's HM Inland Revenue. In order to promote the Revenue's new self-assessment scheme, Pauline McLynn revisited her role as Mrs. Doyle trying to entice the viewer to go on line to make their tax return - involving her saying "go on, go on, go on, go on....go on line! Go on line, go on line, go on line...." In an opinion poll in the UK it was voted as the most annoying ad of the year.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the episode "Cigarettes, Alcohol & Rollerblading", we see a shot of the living room of Rugged Island Parochial House through the outside window. Father Cyril MacDuff is seen rolling past on a skateboard and a rope attached to the skateboard can be clearly seen.

Quotes:

Tom: Father! I've killed a man.
Father Ted: Er, well, we'll talk about that later, Tom. Right now, I'm going to be on the telly!

Movie Connections:

Featured in 50 Most Shocking Comedy Moments (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Songs of Love

Amazing. One of the greats.

'Father Ted' came out during a period when I seldom watched TV, so it was purely by accident that I happened to catch an episode whilst at my parent's place. At first I thought it was going to be a fairly typical middle-of-the-road British sitcom, but it soon became evident that this veneer of normalcy was a Trojan horse, allowing in the show's pointed satire of The Catholic Church, and its wonderful, off-the-wall surrealism, mostly supplied by the young Father Dougal, some of whose utterances had me almost literally in tears.

Take this dialog, when the islanders are convinced that some kind of monster is prowling 'the moors', taking sheep.

"They say it's as big as four cats, and it's got a retractable leg so as it can leap up at you better and you know what Ted, it lights up at night, and it's got four ears. Two of them are for listening and the other two are kind of back-up ears, and it's claws are as big as cups and for some reason it's got a tremendous fear of stamps and Mrs. Doyle was tellin' me that it's got magnets on it's tail so as if you're made out of metal it can attach itself to you, and instead of a mouth it's got four arses. "

Needless to say, after that, as a fan of the British surrealist tradition, I was hooked, and soon learned to love the other characters and the show as a whole.

Perhaps what makes it so great is that it managed to combine satire and surrealism with other more conventional comic styles which appealed to my parent's generation (my mother is 71 and loved the show).

If there was a finer sitcom to come out of the UK in the 90's, I don't know what it is. But then, I probably wouldn't.