feck. drink, girls! (Father Ted)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Father Ted
Date:	01/02/04 (264 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great characters, hilarously funny

Disadvantages: there won't be any more episodes

Father Ted is one of my all time favourite comic programmes. There is just something surreal, hilarious and bizarre about it that has me in hysterics. I've got some Father Ted videos and dvds and they never fail to cheer me up and make me laugh when I'm feeling a bit down.

Father Ted is set on Craggy Island, which is somewhere of the coast of rural Ireland. I don't know rural Ireland and I don't know if those from rural Ireland would be offended by Father Ted. Father Ted land seems to be overrun with priests there seems to be more priests than people, most of them seem to be mad or have bizarre personality disorders.

Father Ted shares his house with Father Dougal Mcguie, Father Jack Haggit and the housekeeper Mrs Doyle

FATHER DOUGLAL: Dougal is a simple soul to put it mildly with a special outlook on life. Strangely for a catholic priest he seems to be an atheist and in one episode inadvertently convinces a bishop to renounce his religion. Dougal has a hazy idea about aspects of the catholic religion and Ted often has to train him in things like who the virgin Mary is. Dougal can always be relied on to say things to land Ted in hot water.

FATHER JACK: Jack is hilariously funny. Jack is the anti priest and very often acts like the anti Christ in some of the episodes. Jack is an old alcoholic who has been known to drink toilet duck and window cleaner when his alcohol supplies dry up. He doesn't say much, with his main words being 'drink, feck, girls'. Looking after him is a hard job. He isn't keen on moving from his chair, bathing or not drinking. He seems to gain super human strength when someone makes the mistake of sitting on his chair, takes his bottle away, wakes him up or does anything to annoy him and interfere with him sitting in his chair drinking. He did sober up in one episode and was annoyed to still be ?on that fecking island. He hates nuns.

FATHER TED: Ted is the only one of
the three priests who actually does any work. Because Dougal is to simple, he covered for Ted once to do a funeral which ended with the fire brigade being called. Jack is far too drunk. Ted often seems to be dismayed with his lot, the parish he has ended up in and the bizarre priest duo he shares the house with. He has dreams of a worldlier life either in a more exciting parish or in a non priest life. Sometimes opportunities come his way,
but things will go wrong, or the other two will get in the way.

MRS DOYLE: Mrs Doyle is the slightly mad housekeeper with an insane love of making tea. When visitors come round she will make 500 sandwiches. She'll try and force people to drink tea constantly. In one episode it was revealed that at night she lays in wait in the lounge with a tray of tea in case anyone gets up in the night. Mr Doyle is never mentioned, in one episode when she did mention him even Father Jack woke up, but then she realised that she had said to much. She does everything in the house including fixing tiles on the roof and cleaning windows which often involves her falling of the window sill.

MINOR CHARACTERS: Father Jack has a deadly enemy in Father Dick Burns who is always leading him on in silly bets. Such as who can give things up for lent and entries into the Eurovision song contest. Dick Burns lives on a nearby island very much like Craggy Island. He lives with a simple priest very much like Dougal and an old alcoholic priest like Jack. They have a housekeeper very much like Mrs Doyle and their house looks identical to Father Ted's house.

SOME FUNNY EPISODES

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: Dick Burns bets Ted that he?'l beat him in the heat to be chosen as Ireland?s entry. Ted and Dougal enter but end up with an awful song after a series of mishaps.

KICKING BISHOP BREMMER UP THE ARSE: For a forfeit Dick tells Ted he has to kick scary Bishop Bremmer up the arse, the lead up to this is hilariou
s.

NIGHT OF THE NEARLY DEAD: This is one of my favourites. Mrs Doyle and all the other matronly ladies of a certain age on the island are obsessed with a syrupy tv show presented by the syrupy Eoin who likes jumpers and cakes. Mrs Doyle wins a chance to make him tea and is quite overcome by the honour. He arrives at the priest's house and in reality is spoilt, obnoxious and unable to walk in the house without getting his PR lady's advice. When it's time to go they realise that all the ladies of a certain age on the island have heard about his arrival and are camped out outside the house desperate to catch a glimpse of him. So they are trapped in the house throughout the night.

A lot of the humour in Father Ted is in the interaction between the three priests and their reactions to the bizarre situations they find themselves in which are made invari abley worse by Dougal?s simple mindedness or Jack?s rudeness and alcoholism.

Summary: