Hilarie:‘That would be an ecumenical matter’

Feb 6 2010 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MY TEENAGERS have been raised on the sayings of Father Ted Crilly from which, I hope, they have gleaned a healthy scepticism about organised religion and its manmade trappings.

The quirky combination of slapstick and irreverent silliness in the brilliant 90s television show has been a rich seam of entertainment for us to mine on cold, dark evenings when we have an hour or so to spare.

We have the boxed set of all three series and make full use of them. What we don’t know about the parish priests of southern Ireland with their Mrs Doyles and Lovely Girls competitions could be written on the back of a very small communion wafer. We even know all the words to My Little Horse and you have to be a real fan to know about that one.

Like most great humour, Father Ted’s success lies in the way it mercilessly pecks away at human peccadilloes. It is observational humour at its best. The writers, Graham Lineham and Arthur Matthews, have said they based their characters on real people and simply turned things up a few notches.

They could, they say, have been far more satirical, given that paedophiles in priests’ clothing have long been known to lurk in church precincts and alcoholic Father Jacks really are to be found on craggy islands. But they decided to poke fun rather than go for the jugular. And they didn’t have to look too far for material which is what makes it all so funny.

If you’ve never seen the show then here’s a sample.

Father Dougal: “God Ted, I’ve heard about those cults. Everyone dressing in black and saying ‘our Lord’s going to come back and judge us all.’’’

Father Ted: “No ... no Dougal, that’s us. That’s Catholicism you’re talking about there.