Time to review what is probably the only Christmas special I’m looking at this year that has anything to do with religion. That’s more from the show itself being about priests than the time of year however.

Father Ted is a channel 4 comedy series about 3 priests that live on Craggy Island somewhere around Ireland. It’s a very back water island (I think that’s the term) so the show remains timeless as its location will always seem odd.

The Christmas special is an extra-long episode and is set around Christmas, starting out around then and continuing further.

The opening act if you will which is the instigating incident, starts with Ted and Dougal getting lost while trying to find a gift for their housekeeper Mrs Doyle, lost with a bunch of other priests in Ireland’s biggest lingerie section I understand (those who have watched it will get why I said that) with some amusing spoofing of Vietnam movies. Ted gets them out without being spotted resulting in him being awarded the Golden Cleric, some big fancy award for priests.

While the special is extra-long and has a larger than normal cast the main recurring characters like Bishop Brennon don’t appear nor does it really feature the cast of nutters that live on the island so its main thrust of attention are on the leads of Ted Dougal, Mrs Doyle and of course Father Jack.

Definitely the main focus of the special is on Ted himself as we see what winning something so apparently prestigious does to his head resulting in amusing highs for him. The rest of the main cast do balance him out and get a lot of great sequences like when Jack is left in the children’s play area or the results of Dougal doing a funeral, but it’s very much Ted’s story, more so than usual.

There’s a lot to enjoy about both the show and the Christmas special that help keep it fondly remembered as one of those great comedies that they like to shove endlessly on repeats. Usually late at night but DVD box sets exist failing that.

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