Dermot Morgan makes wounded pride funny without asking us to despise the man suffering from it. In Father Ted, his patient timing with Ardal O’Hanlon gives a frequently foolish comedy much of its staying power.
Fi1m perspective
In Father Ted (1995), Dermot Morgan plays Father Ted Crilly as a man who still expects a conversation to go his way. Ardal O’Hanlon’s Father Dougal McGuire makes that expectation look increasingly hopeful. Morgan lets us see the effort of keeping control, while O’Hanlon’s composure gives him little to work with and plenty to react to. The pauses between them matter as much as the lines: neither actor rushes to announce the next joke. We laughed at Ted’s mounting frustration because Dougal remained so calmly beyond its reach.
Morgan had spent years making comic characters before Ted, including Father Trendy in The Live Mike (1979). His earlier work was chiefly as a writer-performer in Irish satire, with Scrap Saturday (1989–1991) giving him both writing and performing duties on radio. The move into a scripted sitcom put him in the hands of writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan. It also gave him a character whose wish to appear respectable could survive repeated embarrassment. Morgan gives the priest enough pride for a failure of control to hurt, and enough vulnerability for us to care.
Mathews and Linehan write exchanges that seem to have finished, then allow another complication to prolong the foolishness. Morgan understands how little extra emphasis this needs. He can be the exasperated man in the conversation without becoming the sensible man we are obliged to agree with. Ted’s self-regard makes him funny in his own right, rather than simply the person standing beside Dougal while the jokes happen. We stay interested because Morgan keeps his embarrassment recognisable even when the exchange around him has become ridiculous.
The limitation is partly the programme’s: its broadest jokes recur more often than they need to, and even this partnership cannot make every repetition welcome. Morgan’s reputation rests heavily on Ted, so there is little point pretending that one performance tells us everything he might have done. It does give us ample reason to recommend the series, especially for the way he and O’Hanlon find another laugh in an exchange that already seemed spent. Start there, and give them time to finish the conversation.
Biography
Dermot Morgan (31 March 1952 – 28 February 1998) was an Irish comedian and actor. He is best known for playing the title character Father Ted Crilly in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted (1995–1998). He also appeared in the film Taffin (1988).
Morgan studied English and philosophy at University College Dublin and worked as a teacher before pursuing comedy full time. He first gained national attention in Ireland with appearances on RTÉ’s The Live Mike (1979–1983) as the character Father Trendy, and later with the satirical radio series Scrap Saturday (late 1980s–1991).
Father Ted brought him international recognition. The series ran for three seasons; Morgan died of a heart attack the day after filming on the final series was completed. He received a posthumous BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1999.
