When the sitcom idea to portray the adventures of three priests in Ireland - a drunk, a dimwit and the main character in between - was pitched to TV executives, the reaction was lukewarm at best. Religion, a joking matter? Impossible! But well, "The Vicar of Dibley" with comedy heavyweight Dawn French worked, so the OK was given, all doubts aside. And thus it so happened that Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, writers with an edge, set out to delve into the rural conservative catholic setting and run the gamut, starting from the custom sitcom weirdness to out and out absurdity in the parochial house somewhere on Craggy Island. Not with the intention to ridicule the catholic church, but to follow through with everything it has developed into, to satirize its reality and at the same time humanize its unbalanced shepherds. Interestingly, it works.
"Father Ted" gets off with a slow start, but once the characters and writers have hit their stride comedy-wise, the series delivers like no other. The Fathers Ted (Dermot Morgan), Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon), Hackett (Frank Kelly) and Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn) stumble from one farcical situation into another and the punch lines get sharper and wittier the longer the journey lasts. There's slapstick, well timed cartoonish back and forth, strong language and directness thanks to the naivety of the characters, yes, there's even cursing among priests and still it's entirely inconspicuous thanks to the changing of a vowel. And we get subversive social commentary served the fun way and it's, pardon the pun, a hell of a ride. If you book your trip to Craggy island you'll witness priests struggling through lent, have a crush on a lady visitor, go on a disastrous unholy holiday, turn into racists by trying to demonstrate the exact opposite and help to heal a depressed sheep. You can learn from priests how to get people to watch a raunchy movie thanks to their campaign against it, or how to kick a bishop up the arse - just pretend it never happened. Intrigued? Then off you go to visit undiscovered land in this highly original, creative, addictive and outright hilarious sitcom, a comedy milestone that will last for ages.
"Father Ted" gets off with a slow start, but once the characters and writers have hit their stride comedy-wise, the series delivers like no other. The Fathers Ted (Dermot Morgan), Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon), Hackett (Frank Kelly) and Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn) stumble from one farcical situation into another and the punch lines get sharper and wittier the longer the journey lasts. There's slapstick, well timed cartoonish back and forth, strong language and directness thanks to the naivety of the characters, yes, there's even cursing among priests and still it's entirely inconspicuous thanks to the changing of a vowel. And we get subversive social commentary served the fun way and it's, pardon the pun, a hell of a ride. If you book your trip to Craggy island you'll witness priests struggling through lent, have a crush on a lady visitor, go on a disastrous unholy holiday, turn into racists by trying to demonstrate the exact opposite and help to heal a depressed sheep. You can learn from priests how to get people to watch a raunchy movie thanks to their campaign against it, or how to kick a bishop up the arse - just pretend it never happened. Intrigued? Then off you go to visit undiscovered land in this highly original, creative, addictive and outright hilarious sitcom, a comedy milestone that will last for ages.