Customer Reviews

Father Ted - Complete Series 1

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ready to go to "Funland" where you can do some "freak pointing" and see the "spider-baby"? Want to hear Father Stone, once again say - "No, I'm fine thanks"? How about help the Fathers protest a french film and say "Down with this sort of thing" Well, I say "Up with this sort of thing" to the release of Father Ted on DVD! Within the first few moments of the first Father Ted episode I saw on BBC, I knew I would probably be adding it to my collection. It belongs next to other essential BBC comedies like Monty Python, Black Adder, Fawlty Towers, and The Young Ones!

This is what you get on Father Ted - Complete Series 1 DVD:
Episodes:
1. Good Luck Father Ted
2. Entertaining Father Stone
3. The Passion of St. Tibulus
4. Competition Time
5. And God Created Woman
6. Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest

Menu options: Play in order, Select an episode, Scene selection, and Cast and Crew Bios. There are really no special features besides the informative bios, but having Father Ted at the push of a button on DVD is special enough for me. God Bless Father Ted! Look out for Season 2 available in March 2002!

Father Ted is one of the funniest series ever seen on British TV. What an original and hillarious concept! The characters and casting are perfect. Episode 1 sets the scene perfectly - you will laugh your head off in every single of the 6 episodes on this DVD.

And now for the negative side - The DVD contains nothing more than the 6 episodes that make up series 1. There is no commentary, no "behind the scenes", no interviews... As if that wasn't enough, there are no subtitles! I live in Greece, and most of my friends have limited knowledge of English and usually have to rely on subtitles to understand everything; as a result, I have a hard time sharing this excellent comedy with them. In addition, the menus are crude and I can only wonder why they did such a poor job on the authoring aspect of this DVD.

Despite the poor authoring, anybody who loves Father Ted (i.e. everyone who has seen it) will definitely want a copy for their DVD collection. A must-have!

Positively one of the greatest TV series that I have ever seen. It has a lot of funny moments based around a Catholic priest (Father Ted)in a town on a small island of the coast of Ireland. There are many unexpected twists and turns that are always there for comic relief. Father Ted, Father Doogle, and Father Jack all unknowingly make a mockery of the Church in their attempt to do good. Doogle is undoubtedly the funniest of the bunch, as he is not too bright and you are never quite sure what he is going to say. This is a definite must, especially since the man playing the part of Father Ted died not too long ago, and you might not get another chance to see this great TV series.

Anyone who has seen this will recognise the words of Mrs Doyle! This is really very funny. If you like your comedy a bit strange, you'll love this. The series is set on Craggt Island, somewhere of the coast of Ireland. In a house on the island live 3 priests the catholic church wishes to forget. Father Ted would like to think he is hip and trendy, but fails miserably to impress anyone. With Father Dougal, it is a mystery how he ever became a priest because he is so gormless. Finally, Father Jack is a foul-mouthed drunk, who spends most of his life in a drunken stupor in his armchair. This unlikely three some get into all sorts of scrapes, and are aided whenever they need a cup of tea by their insane housekeeper, Mrs Doyle. The laughs are non stop, and the off the wall humour makes you want to watch it again and again.

Having already seen most of the Father Ted's recently it was a pleasant surprise to find that the first series had been released on DVD. On exploring the DVD, there are no special features, the menus are a little unusual, but the content is exceptional.

One of the funniest shows to come out of Channel 4 in years, Father Ted never ceases to make me laugh. Everybody who watches this will end up with a favourite scene - mine just happens to be the scene where Father Jack rises from the dead in "Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest". But this is not an exception. Check out the Crane Of Death, the Three Ages Of Elvis, Father Jack's walk on "automatic", the amazingly laid-back protest outside the cinema in "The Passion Of St. Tibulus" - all of this combines to make Father Ted the best of British comedy.

In an era when American networks talk about their "ensemble" casts, it may come as a surprise to learn that the Brits have been doing this for years (Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf), and to the long list can be added Father Ted. Dermott Morgan is terrific as the long-suffering Ted, Frank Kelly, while he doesn't get too many lines, uses what he gets to perfection, Ardal O'Hanlon is the perfect dumb young priest and Pauline McLynn shines as the lads' housekeeper Mrs Doyle (remember her in Angela's Ashes - boy, is this different!!)

The sadness is that Dermott Morgan passed away effectively killing off the show. But, as these shows prove, he left Father Ted at the top of its game.

Father Ted is perhaps the funniest thing to appear on British T.V. in the last decade. The plot revolves around the titular Ted, an Irish priest sent to a remote island parish for "financial irregularities" (he took a holiday to Las Vegas, using money from a charity appeal to send a dying child to the Lourdes shrine, that happened to be "resting in his account"). His companions are the clueless Father Dougal and the alcoholic Father Jack, neither of whom are deemed sane enough to unleash on a real parish.
The humour is sharp and surreal, derived from a mixture of Seinfeld-esque vacuity and Red Dwarf-esque situationalism. The characters are particularly well created and the incongruity of their behavior with their priestly calling adds to the fun factor.
The plots in these early episodes are perhaps not as well developed as the later series, but still very very funny, irreverent, and much more subtle than someone chasing a cow, or a vicar being overweight and female in the manner of more traditional British comedies.
Discerning viewers who care to sit through more than one episode of this Series will be themselves richly rewarded. Anyone who doesn't grasp the irony of the statement on the box that this is "possibly the best comedy about three priests on an island...ever!", should perhaps go write a 351 word letter to their conressman about the declining morals of today's society and then go for a nice lie down and then rent something a little more safe and quiet, like "Last of the Summer Wine".
Anyone who likes alternative British comedy like "The Office", "Monty Python" or "Blackadder" should snap this up right away. Go on go on go on !!!!

P.S. Father Ted was actually made for the U.K's more "hip", Channel 4, but is licensed to BBC America for sale in the States.

I say "damn, this is a good show!" This show is just a riot. Father Ted is a very serious priest in charge of a tiny parish on one of the most miniscule Irish islands. One of his subordinates is dangerously daft and naive; the other is an insane and senile older priest who reacts catastrophically to just about any kind of stimulant. It's a sitcom, nothing groundbreaking, but it's sidesplittingly funny. All the actors involved are talented people, and they work together with a wonderful, natural style - no one is straining for laughs here. Every episode is rewatchable at least a hundred times. If you've ever hurled an Andrew Greeley book across the room in anger at its depiction of superhuman, wonderfully understanding Catholic priests, you'll appreciate this show.

I suspect this comedic BBC series is not well known in the U.S. but it should be. Three disfunctional priests, Ted, Dougal, and Jack, banished to remote Craggy Island off the coast of Ireland, create endless laughs in concert with their tea-loving housekeeper. Gentle, deliciously irreverent, endlessly clever. The writers and players skirt the edge of absudity and pull it off masterfully. There are three series out now. Don't stop with number 1.

Okay I admit I am a sucker for UK comedies and have seen a great many of them. Father Ted is easily amongst the top.

Like many English series Father Ted spends no time setting up the characters or setting and just gets the ball rolling. It is a very farsical and surreal comedy at times which might take some getting used to if you are expecting something more straight forward like a US sitcom.

The cast is brilliant and it is too bad Dermot Morgan died at such a young age. There was at least one more season of Father Ted, before it seem slikely he would have left the series.

The DVD is very barebones and sports no extras like the series 2 and 3 DVD's. No matter this is a must have and a great way to start enjoying this sharply funny UK comedy.

What do you do with a priest who's bank account seems to accidentally 'store' charity money on a regular basis?

What do you do with a priest who's senile, drunk and violent?

What do you do with a priest who's too stupid to tell the difference between 'small' and 'far away'?

You hide them away on a small island with a demented housekeeper and hope they don't get out....

Father Ted is surreal, silly, intelligent and dry. Highlights include any time Father Jack (Drink! Girls! Feck!) wakes up and almost any conversation with the amazingly dim Father Dougle.

Glorious!