Subverting the Sitcom from Within: Form, Ideology and Father Ted

Abstract

The first episode of Father Ted, a sitcom dealing with three Catholic priests and their housekeeper living on a fictitious island somewhere off the west coast of Ireland, was initially transmitted by Channel 4 at 9 pm on 21 April 1995. Although the first newspaper reviews were mainly favourable and appreciative of the programme’s originality, there was little sense of the acclaim that was to follow. By the time of the launch of the third (and last) series in March 1998, however, the show’s reputation, and its place in sitcom history, had already become assured. The New Statesman (27 March 1998) acclaimed it as a ‘magnificent contribution to the revival of British comedy’, while the Daily Telegraph (16 March 1998) declared that it had earned ‘a place next to Fawlty Towers in the topography of comedy’. Ten years later, the veneration for the programme had, if anything, increased and, in 2012, Channel 4 ran a trio of programmes canonising it as the channel’s ‘greatest comedy show’ ever (with one contributor — the actor and writer Jessica Hynes — praising it as ‘the perfect, perfect comedy show’). In this respect, Father Ted has not only achieved growing popularity since its initial transmission but has also undergone changes in the way in which it has been perceived. By looking at the circumstances of the programme’s making, the aesthetic devices and representational strategies that the programme employs, and the various critical reactions that it has generated (in both Britain and Ireland), this chapter will explore the place of the series in relation to the history of British sitcom as well as its emergence as a comedy ‘cult’.