Father Ted

[Shaxberd]

Just yesterday this popped into my head arriving home from work.

What would you say is in the calendar Father Jack?
A big pair o feckin women's knickers.
Yes Father.
Knickers. Women's knickers.
Yes Father message understood.

"What would you say to a nice cup of tea?"
"FECK OFF, CUP"

is just beautiful.


That's another reason I'll always have a soft spot for Father Ted, it was one of my grandpa's favourite shows and he often compared himself to Father Jack. Initially because of his wild white hair, but the resemblance only increased over time. RIP Grandpa you're shouting DRINK at da angles now.

[Jerzy Bondov]

What would you say is in the calendar Father Jack?
A big pair o feckin women's knickers.
Yes Father.
Knickers. Women's knickers.
Yes Father message understood.

Ruud Gullit sitting on a shed

[Utter Shit]

Liam Neeson chasing a load of hens around the inside of a barrel.

[g0m]

Design Today

a new look
for autumn

BRICK
ENLIVENS DULL FLOOR

[Sebastian Cobb]

As others have said it's easier to separate as the distance in time between it coming out and glinner going bananas. Also perceptively that distance is something that has played out over a large portion of my life, unlike other celebrity wrongun's where a lot of it has transpired in the past and I think time sort of gets compressed when it's all before I was born/an adolescent.

I also realise this shouldn't affect my judgement in the grand scheme but my opinion on him had also soured through diminishing returns so when he did go bananas it wasn't like I'd lost an idol as such.

[Icehaven]

I suppose it helps that aside from the plane episode (think that's the only one?) as the writer he was technically invisible. It's much harder to stomach an awful person's involvement in art you love when they're a performer so you actually see and/or hear them when you watch or listen to it, but when they're behind the scenes - and particularly (as mentioned above) when nothing related to their faults features in the work - it's easier to just not think about them and take it for itself.

[Sebastian Cobb]

In my case I doubt I'd have even recognised him as the writer when I first saw that as I wasn't that knowledgeable about comedy, didn't read the music rags etc.

[purlieu]

I take the separation of art and artist on a case-by-case basis. Cannot hack The IT Crowd these days, as it was basically always Glinner: The Sitcom anyway, and it also features the trigger for his insanity, but Ted has so much more to it - the character already existed as Dermot Morgan's, the performances are all part of the magic - and the 20+ years in between do help. There's always a tiny touch of 'ugh' I get now, but not enough to dull the show's brilliance.

It's an all-time top five for me. The third series definitely feels like they're scrabbling around for ideas, I'm glad it didn't go further - one thing I find works less well is the comparative lack of other priests in contrast with the first two series.

New Jack City is my favourite episode. Father Finton Stack is an all-time great antagonist, randomly jumping on a photo of Ted, getting Dougal drunk, playing jungle music at all hours (not even Hitler would do that); plus "I really shouldn't be here", and Ted remembering all the great times with Jack including him being on a golf course and Jack running him over, which is possibly my all-time favourite joke.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Father Finton Stack is an all-time great antagonist, randomly jumping on a photo of Ted, getting Dougal drunk, playing jungle music at all hours (not even Hitler would do that)

Really is one of the best performances in the entire run, just hilariously malevolent. That one little sideways head nod he does after putting the music on - fantastic.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Slight tangent but relevant as Glinner in sitcom focused - it does feel weird watching that clip of him as one of the RTE executives in I'm Alan Partridge. Possibly the only time I've seen a clip with him in where he comes across as sensible.

[Ruben Remus]

Ted has so much more to it - the character already existed as Dermot Morgan's

This is a bit of a popular misconception - Father Ted Crilly actually originated as a character Arthur Mathews played in his stand-up act and those routines were the basis for a pilot Linehan and Mathews wrote for what was meant to be an anthology mockumentary series called Irish Lives before Geoffrey Perkins persuaded them to rework the pilot into a sitcom. Dermot Morgan wasn't originally in mind for the role and his existing "Father Trendy" character was unrelated to the development of the show.

(This doesn't actually contradict the larger point you're making, just me being pedantic).

[prelektric]

Father Finton Stack is an all-time great antagonist

Absolutely. The late, great Brendan Grace. Hugely memorable, and responsible for a scene which made my Dad cry with laughter to a point I'd never seen before or since.

"...you dirty fecker!"

[Utter Shit]

Seems a shame there's no book about the history of Father Ted, given the extent to which it's still loved and the fun hook of one of the writers subsequently going quite, quite mad.

Father Finton Stack is magnificent. One of the all-time great screen villains, despite being on screen for about two or three minutes in a sitcom. The menace in his voice when he says "if you say that to me again, I'll put your head through the wall" is chilling. I love his impact on Dougal as well, "we're all going to heaven lads, waaaaay!"

[Ryonymus]

It's just great. Dermot Morgan is just fantastic, like many others above bits of it randomly pop into my head all the time and make me laugh (and agree with its ubiquity in NI at the time!). One of the times I remember laughing most in my whole life was watching the "perfectly square bit of black dirt" scene the first time it was on TV.

Yesterday I was laughing to myself at this scene, in particular the delivery of "no...no we can't give that away as a prize" in that slow, considered manner.

[Magnum Valentino]

By the way, I got the keys of your car and I drove it into a BIG wall. And if you don't like it, tough. I had my fun, and that's all that matters.

Cleaning his ears with said keys. Incredible.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Seems a shame there's no book about the history of Father Ted, given the extent to which it's still loved and the fun hook of one of the writers subsequently going quite, quite mad.

Would not put it past Linehan to try to write a book like this, since Ted is basically his only remaining asset.

[madhair60]

his excellent Tough Crowd is about Father Ted, before it takes something of a turn in its second half

[extraordinary walnuts]

Volume II: "No, Seriously, Who Here Likes Father Ted?"

[BJBMK2]

Seems a shame there's no book about the history of Father Ted, given the extent to which it's still loved and the fun hook of one of the writers subsequently going quite, quite mad.

Father Finton Stack is magnificent. One of the all-time great screen villains, despite being on screen for about two or three minutes in a sitcom. The menace in his voice when he says "if you say that to me again, I'll put your head through the wall" is chilling. I love his impact on Dougal as well, "we're all going to heaven lads, waaaaay!"

There's the script book, which is excellent from a comedy nerd perspective, including as it does the second to last draft of each episode, so you can see how it all evolved (including Escape From Victory's original ending).

[Utter Shit]

Yeah I have that on my list to get (didn't realise it went into as much depth as you mentioned, cheers!), but I love the background context you get with Stasis Leaked or The Story of Only Fools and Horses. Former CAB poster Jem Roberts wrote a few as well. Love that real nerdy depth.

[Vince the Shirker]

Been rewatching a few choice bits of this via a method that ensures no royalties will go towards you-know-who, and I still laughed, despite my initial reluctance. Father Jack screaming and jumping out of the window at the sight of a nun has always been a favourite, as is Larry Duff's many and varied misfortunes, and "we're all going to heaven, lads, waaayyy!" is something I frequently say whenever I get some even remotely good news. The stupidity of there just being a large stack of cardboard boxes in the middle of the road in Speed 3 got a good laugh out of me as well.

Still a lot to enjoy, even if it has been somewhat tarnished by more recent events.

[Oosp]

Father Ted is still my favourite sitcom.

Here's the documentary from 2010, which features SOMEONE PROBLEMATIC:

There's a large enough section in Tough Crowd about Father Ted, and (as far as I can recall) those pages are unsullied by banana smears.

Many have thrown their boxsets into the ocean, and that's their prerogative. Subjective, innit

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

Sort of feel about it like I do about watching Woody Allen films. Brain says separate art and artist, it's all good. Heart feels ick about it and they generally go unwatched.

[checkoutgirl]

Loads of little boys running around in their shorts. That's what you like isn't it. You're sitting there imagining that with a big smile on your face.

[checkoutgirl]

Larry Duff's many and varied misfortunes,

No I gave up on the rabbits Ted it seemed a bit far fetched so I got myself 11 rottweilers instead.

[ASFTSN]

Turn the telly off Dougal. Chewing gum for the eyes!

No you're alright Ted thanks, I've these crisps here.

[Former Problem]

Seems a shame there's no book about the history of Father Ted, given the extent to which it's still loved and the fun hook of one of the writers subsequently going quite, quite mad.

Father Finton Stack is magnificent. One of the all-time great screen villains, despite being on screen for about two or three minutes in a sitcom. The menace in his voice when he says "if you say that to me again, I'll put your head through the wall" is chilling. I love his impact on Dougal as well, "we're all going to heaven lads, waaaaay!"

I was writing one just before COVID, but I gave up because I didn't want to confront the obvious elephant in the room. This was 2019, and now he's got even worse.

[Bigfella]

Father Ted is still my favourite sitcom.

Here's the documentary from 2010, which features SOMEONE PROBLEMATIC:

There's a large enough section in Tough Crowd about Father Ted, and (as far as I can recall) those pages are unsullied by banana smears.

Many have thrown their boxsets into the ocean, and that's their prerogative. Subjective, innit

.                          Linehan casually mentions at one point that he looked on Twitter to see what was being said about Father Ted.  If only things had remained so innocent.....  Elsewhere, I think they tried to pull the wool over our eyes with Ted's car.  The real one was a Mark V Cortina.  Here they try and make out it's the same one but it looks like a Mark II Granada to me.

[madhair60]

why do your posts start with a full stop and then a long gap before the words?

[Bigfella]

why do your posts start with a full stop and then a long gap before the words?

If I'm quoting somebody I leave a space after the word 'quote' in brackets.  Never seems to work properly.  On this one I didn't leave a space, let's see what happens.  I'm not too good with computer stuff.