Father Ted

Timeless comedy series made with UK money and filmed largely on location in north County Clare in the west of Ireland. Exterior shots of the main characters' house were near Mullaughmore in the Burren; other locations included the northwestern Burren coast towards Black Head and the villages of Ennistymon, Doolin and Corofin. The setting is a remote, very four-square parish house in a field on the remote and fictitious Craggy Island, off the west coast. Main characters were Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan), a relatively normal character with a certain proprietorial interest in parish funds: Father Dougal Maguire (Ardal O'Hanlon), the youngest priest, a complete imbecile: Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly), an old senile priest whose entire head once went septic and with a passion for alcohol, whose catch-phrases were DRINK!!!, GIRLS!!!, FECK!!! and ARSE!!! (occasionally enlivened with something more coherent): and their long suffering, self-effacing housemaid Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn), with her catch-phrase when offering tea or biscuits, "ahh willya go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on!", and her pastime of falling out of the front window. Various guest stars included Tommy Tiernan, Graham Norton and Brendan Grace. The most classic episode was probably "The Plague" (of rabbits), ending in that kind of comic epiphany that a comedian, with boundless talent and more than a sprinkling of luck, might just about manage once in a lifetime. Ran to three seasons, cut short by the tragic loss of Morgan from a heart attack. He left us too early. We shall not see his like again.