The opening episode of series one sees our introduction to the three priests residing in Craggy Island's Parochial House, namely Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack, all looked after by their housekeeper Mrs Doyle. With the TV show 'Faith of our Fathers' coming to the island to interview Father Ted, and the Funland Fair coming to 'The Field' (it's not really a field but it has less rocks in it than the rest of the island), the show firmly lays its cards on the table for what we can expect from the rest of the series.
Many of the traits that we know (and love) about the three priests and their housekeeper are introduced to us here. The selfish Ted, the asinine Dougal, the lecherous Jack and the obdurate Mrs Doyle. Obviously, 'Good Luck, Father Ted' needs to take time to start to build the relationship between the main characters and the audience and it does this successfully. It doesn't try and give us too much information about the leads but nudges us in the direction of what to expect from these three reprobates and the anachronism that is Mrs Doyle.
However, there are still plenty of laughs to be had and one rather unconventional scene for a comedy, namely the musical interlude by the sea, which always helped to set Father Ted apart from other comedies in my eyes.
We're introduced to some of the other regulars like the argumentative couple Mary and John as well as the psychotic Tom, the latter being another example in my mind which sets Father Ted apart from other comedies. Many writers would have backed down from having such a strange and threatening character like Tom in their show, but not Linehan and Mathews. Tom's inclusion could have damaged the appeal of the show but his character works, possibly because there's already a main character who is quite vigorous and violent in his actions in the form of Father Jack.
Back in 1995, when this was first aired, the egregious behaviour of these three priests probably came as quite a big shock to many who had only ever viewed the Church from afar. However, along with the other Father Ted episodes and many of the unfortunate real life stories that have got out over the years about the acts of turpitude by some members of the clergy, first time viewers probably won't be as shocked as we once were.
Some people might have expected the show to tone down its satirical attacks on the Catholic Church for fear of alienating a large chunk of the potential audience but I don't think that the Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews ever wrote Father Ted in order to appeal to the masses. This was never going to be BBC1 material and it's all the better for it.
'Good Luck, Father Ted' is an auspicious start to a TV show that would only improve with time.
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