Father Ted

Even though I was aware of Morgan and Frank Kelly's brilliant telephone monolugues on daytime Radio Eireann. I didn't get into Fr. Ted at the beginning because I read a preview that included the presser from Hat-Trick which ran along the line  '...it's a classic comedy with three characters who are forced to live together whether they like each other or not'.  The early stuff I saw was
Morgan's Father Trendy meets Live it to Mrs. O'Brien.  The BBC had a comedy running at the same time "Game On".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_%28UK_TV_series%29

I would have been more Ballykissangel at the time, eventually warmed to Father Ted for the same reason "Irish on British TV".  But with it's over-exposure I've gone off it again.

rossieman wrote: Isn't that a myth that RTE rejected it?

Most of what planning posts is a myth.

Is it true that people actually live in the house? Have never gone to see it but someone said it to me that people lived there but I was a bit sceptical.

rossieman wrote: Isn't that a myth that RTE rejected it?

20 years ago today, the first episode was aired. Though I didn't hear about it until it was aired in December that year on Channel 4. It followed a run of Rory Bremner shows. I only started watching it the following year at the start of the second series.

John and Mary's running battles in and out of the shop and facade when Ted turned up, were some of my favourite scenes. My favourite episode was Episode 3 of Series 1, when Bishop Brennan first showed up, sent them to the local cinema, then the Phillippines when the protest over the blasphemous film that people were "coming from Gdansk" to watch, didn't quite go to plan.

My favourite scene of all comes from "A Song for Europe", and Ted rants at Dougal over their original tuneless entry, (which didn't make it past Father Jack) taking the sledgehammer cracking a nut approach.



The legacy it left had a bigger impact on Irish tv, in terms of how it covered comedy. As RTE rejected it initially for the nature of it's content, they were forced to show it unedited when they bought it off HatTrick. In the years since, comedy shows became much more risqué, and there was greater tolerance of language, so much so that Father Ted is now shown before the watershed. Podge and Rodge later set a new standard of coarseness on Irish tv, yet they pulled in huge audiences, but without Father Ted setting the benchmark, it would probably never have got to air.

Seen a massive CAREFUL NOW sign hanging across a footbridge on the N11 just before UCD, I presume it's in recognition of 20 years, I wonder will there be more Ted things around Dublin?

Baldrick wrote: Bit of an over reaction from linihen go be honest. Can he not take criticism . I don't agree with Delaney but he is entitled to his opinion.

+1

How anyone can think Linehan's reply as other than embarrassing, I don't know. He's completely in the wrong there. Maybe because of the anniversary he might have sensitivities at this time but it doesn't justify that reaction.

I also disagree with Delaney as there was no weak season of it.

Bit of an over reaction from linihen go be honest. Can he not take criticism . I don't agree with Delaney but he is entitled to his opinion.