50 Fun Facts About Father Ted

Which Father Ted star died on 28 February 1998, one day after filming of the final series wrapped?

Dermot Morgan was 45, and the third series was held back a week as a mark of respect. Frank Kelly, his Father Jack, died on the same date exactly 18 years later.

At Father Ted's cinema protest, Ted's placard reads 'Down with this sort of thing'; what does Dougal's say?

Careful now has since been waved at real protests, from the Pope's 2010 UK visit to student marches, and a protester carries Ted's sign in Grand Theft Auto V.

What does Ted hold up in Father Ted's caravan episode to explain 'small' versus 'far away' to Dougal?

Toy cows do the teaching while real ones graze in a distant field, and a 2017 Daily Telegraph survey rated the line the third-best one-liner of any British sitcom.

Which musician, approached after the band Pulp turned the job down, composed the Father Ted theme tune?

Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy had his first, jauntier attempt rejected as too plinky-plonky; the accepted theme later gained lyrics on the band's 1996 album Casanova.

Which one-note song do Ted and Dougal enter for Ireland in Father Ted's spoof of the Eurovision Song Contest?

My Lovely Horse is picked by producer Charles Hedges, whom Dick Byrne suspects of wanting a loser so Ireland need not host yet again; the tune is a 1976 Norwegian B-side.

Which One Foot in the Grave star, playing himself in Father Ted, attacks Ted for shouting 'I don't believe it!'?

Richard Wilson genuinely hates strangers quoting the catchphrase at him and only performs it for charity; the writers dreamt up the scene sitting behind him at Cirque du Soleil.

Which Father Ted episode has Dougal driving a milk float rigged to explode if it drops below four miles per hour?

Speed 3 was born when Linehan and Mathews asked how to make a worse sequel than Speed 2: Cruise Control, and fans voted it their favourite episode on Channel 4's Father Ted Night.

Which future chat-show host played youth-group priest Father Noel Furlong in three Father Ted episodes?

Graham Norton first turned up in the caravan episode Hell and bowed out in The Mainland, buried under rocks after a screeching contest in the Very Dark Caves.

Which Father Ted actor went on to play superhero Thermoman in My Hero and DI Jack Mooney in Death in Paradise?

Ardal O'Hanlon called Dougal his first proper job in television, and he and his on-screen Ted did their own stunts, once being dragged through a field behind a tractor.

Which American comedian reportedly signed on in 2004 to play Ted in a never-made US remake of Father Ted?

Steve Martin was reportedly to be paid £500,000 an episode, and a separate 2007 attempt cast John Michael Higgins as Ted before fizzling too.

What forfeit does Ted owe Dick Byrne in Father Ted after cheating at the over-75s football match?

Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse is the only episode that follows on directly from the one before, and Linehan and Mathews named it their own favourite.

Father Jack Hackett's vocabulary in Father Ted runs to 'feck', 'arse', 'girls' and which other one-word roar?

Drink is the staple, and Frank Kelly wore contact lenses to give Jack a cataract plus flaky false skin that fell into the food, so nobody would eat lunch with him in make-up.

Money meant for a child's Lourdes trip ended up 'resting' in Father Ted's account; where did Ted go on it instead?

Las Vegas stayed Ted's fantasy destination: the writers say his obsession with money emerged only once they began tailoring the part to its eventual star.

Which singer do Ted, Dougal and Jack all dress as for the priests' lookalike contest in Father Ted's Competition Time?

Elvis Presley gets a three-ages tribute, young Dougal, comeback Ted and a half-asleep late-period Jack, a storyline Linehan later regretted as a sign of running out of ideas in series one.

Across three series and one Christmas special on Channel 4, how many episodes of Father Ted were made in total?

25 episodes was always the plan: the show was scheduled to end with series three before its star's death, and the writers turned down every offer to recast or spin off.

Location filming for Father Ted took place mostly in which Irish county, around Corofin, Kilfenora and Ennistymon?

County Clare was chosen in 1993 after location manager Joe Mardis, sitting in a Kilfenora pub, realised the bare karst of the north of the county could pass for an island.

The Lovely Girls competition that Ted judges in Father Ted's Rock a Hula Ted parodies which real Irish festival?

The Rose of Tralee gets spoofed with rounds of sandwich-making, walking and laughing, and Ted crowns Imelda the winner.

Father Ted's Niamh Connolly, a feminist singer who takes over the parochial house, parodies which Irish musician?

Sinéad O'Connor is the target, and the character's anti-clerical number 'Big Men in Frocks' was written for the show by The Divine Comedy.

In Father Ted's Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest, Father Jack appears to die after drinking what?

Floor polish only mimics death, and it wears off just after Ted and Dougal learn Jack has left them £500,000, so they head out to buy more.

Which household object on Ted's head leads Craggy Island's Chinese community to brand him a racist in Father Ted?

A lampshade, worn as a conical hat, is seen by the Yin family through the window, and Ted's attempt at a presentation on multiculturalism only digs him deeper.

In Father Ted's Tentacles of Doom, Ted drills Jack to answer the visiting bishops with 'yes' and which stock phrase?

That would be an ecumenical matter covers everything, until Bishop Facks gets so excited by Jack's 'views' that Jack rams the newly upgraded relic up his rear end.

Which award does Ted win in Father Ted's Christmas special for guiding fellow priests out of a vast lingerie section?

The Golden Cleric comes with no cash prize, and Ted's obsession with it is mirrored by a visiting priest who tries to steal it in the night.

Mrs Doyle spends nearly an hour guessing the name of a priest who arrives for Christmas in Father Ted; who is he?

Todd Unctious is an awards-obsessed thief who tries to steal Ted's trophy overnight; Mrs Doyle's wrong guesses later filled a booklet of An Post commemorative stamps.

In Father Ted's The Plague, Dougal names his new pet rabbit after which tennis player?

Pete Sampras lends his surname to the rabbit, which multiplies into dozens just as rabbit-phobic Bishop Brennan arrives to inspect the house.

What happens to Father Stone, the unbearably dull annual visitor in Father Ted, right after Ted prays for him to leave?

He is struck by lightning while raising a golf club, and a guilt-ridden Ted promises at his hospital bedside to look after him for the rest of his days.

Which Irish comedian plays the despairing Father Kevin whom Ted talks down from a ledge in Father Ted's final episode?

Tommy Tiernan's Father Kevin was to reappear in the original ending, with Ted joining him on the ledge, but the writers swapped that for a reverse-order montage of every episode.

Which Father Ted episode, the last ever made, closes with one clip from every earlier episode in reverse order?

Going to America has Ted offered a Los Angeles parish he cannot bring himself to tell the others he is leaving for, and the title nods to the film Coming to America.

Which Tony-winning stage actor, a regular in Conor McPherson's plays, plays Bishop Len Brennan in Father Ted?

Jim Norton, who frequently plays clergymen, also turned up twice as Albert Einstein in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Which Father Ted actress, only in her early thirties when cast as elderly Mrs Doyle, won a 1996 British Comedy Award?

Pauline McLynn received the award from Tony Blair, and later played Yvonne Cotton in EastEnders and Libby Croker in Shameless.

Father Ted won its second Best Comedy BAFTA, plus a posthumous Best Comedy Performance award, in which year?

1999's double came a year after the star's death, and followed the first Best Comedy BAFTA won in 1996.

Which karst landscape, spotted by location manager Joe Mardis from a pub, stands in for Father Ted's Craggy Island?

The Burren's bare rock convinced Mardis the area could pass for an island, and the parochial house exterior is a real farmhouse, Glenquin House, on the road from Kilnaboy.

Ted Fest, the annual Father Ted fan festival first staged in 2007, is held on which of the Aran Islands?

Inishmore won the right to call itself Craggy Island by beating Inisheer 2–0 at football in 2007, and the loser was handed the title of Rugged Island.

Eoin McLove, the boyish crooner mobbed by older women in Father Ted's Night of the Nearly Dead, parodies which singer?

Daniel O'Donnell is the model for McLove, who visits after Mrs Doyle wins a poetry competition and then snubs the jumper she baked into a banana cake.

Which priest, Jack's stand-in in Father Ted's New Jack City, drills holes in the walls and blasts jungle music at 3am?

Fintan Stack also drives Ted's car into a wall, and ends up catching the hairy hands syndrome that got Jack sent away, by sitting in Jack's undisinfected chair.

Which nun wakes Father Ted's priests at 5am with an air horn after they struggle to give up their vices for Lent?

Sister Assumpta follows the maniacal Matty Hislop's methods, with ice-cold baths, a tow behind a tractor and mattresses swapped for bricks, until a basket of chocolate eggs exposes her own addiction.

Which rebellious priest, played by Joe Rooney, frames Dougal for stealing the groundskeeper's whistle in Father Ted?

Damo Lennon behaves like an insolent teenager, and Joe Rooney revived him in 2016 for a wrestling event where Father Stone guest-refereed with a painfully slow three-count.

Which episode, the first ever broadcast, sends a TV crew to interview Ted on Craggy Island while a funfair is in town?

Good Luck, Father Ted ends with Dougal, mistaken for Ted by the reporter, airing his doubts about organised religion on television under the caption 'Father Ted Crilly'.

Father Ted's Dougal was banished to Craggy Island over a never-explained calamity involving nuns, known only as what?

The Blackrock Incident is never explained beyond leaving 'many nuns' lives irreparably damaged', while Jack's exile traces to an unspecified incident at a wedding in Athlone.

When writing Father Ted's Dougal, Linehan and Mathews drew on which silent-era comedy star?

Stan Laurel was blended with Linehan's own behaviour when confused, and a 2001 Channel 4 poll placed Dougal fifth among the 100 greatest TV characters.

Ted dreams himself into the plot of which rival priest drama at the start of Father Ted's Christmas special?

Ballykissangel's leading lady is told Ted will leave the priesthood for her, until Dougal wakes him to offer a peanut, and the next dream features giant snarling peanuts.

Which ambient-music pioneer cameos under his own name at the 'It's Great Being a Priest!' convention in Father Ted?

Brian Eno appears as 'Father Brian Eno' in the final episode, at a gathering where Ted also talks a despairing colleague down from a window ledge.

Father Ted's theme tune was reworked, with new lyrics, into which track on The Divine Comedy's 1996 album Casanova?

Songs of Love came from the accepted theme, while the composer's rejected first attempt became Casanova's 'A Woman of the World'.

Which Irish broadcaster, home of its star's earlier Father Trendy, was rumoured to have turned down Father Ted first?

RTÉ never turned the show down: the writers pitched straight to Hat Trick and Channel 4 in the UK, though RTÉ's The Live Mike had launched its star's Father Trendy.

Which producer talked Father Ted's writers out of a mockumentary format and into a conventional sitcom?

Geoffrey Perkins, a Hat Trick director, also vetoed the first theme tune as too jaunty, and the format change is what made Dougal a main character.

Father Ted's star refused a fourth series for fear of becoming 'the next' which actor, typecast for years in Dad's Army?

Clive Dunn spent nine series as Dad's Army's elderly Lance Corporal Jones; Father Ted was already set to end with series three, and every offer to recast or spin off was refused.

Which actor, once the back-up choice to play Ted, had Father Ted's rival priest Dick Byrne written specifically for him?

Maurice O'Donoghue had the right age, look and 'lightness' at audition, and Linehan later said Arthur Mathews himself could easily have played Ted.

Which British comic was meant to play Eurosong compère Fred Rickwood in Father Ted, before Jon Kenny stepped in?

Steve Coogan was unavailable, so Jon Kenny took the part; Kenny also ran the cinema as Michael Cocheese in The Passion of Saint Tibulus.

Father Ted's Bishop Brennan, rumoured on screen to have a love child, was first based on which real Irish bishop?

Eamon Casey was the first model and Michael Cleary the later one, and the writers saw Brennan as Jack's true nemesis, a career bishop where Jack never was.

Linehan and Mathews first met on the staff of which Dublin music and politics magazine, where Father Ted was born?

Hot Press is where Mathews created Father Ted in 1987–89 as a character for stand-up warm-ups with his spoof U2 band, The Joshua Trio.

Father Ted's aerial opening titles, shot over Inisheer, include the wreck of which ship?

The Plassy wreck sits on Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, while most of the location work happened on the mainland around Kilfenora and Corofin.