Father Ted

Father Ted is a situation comedy television programme produced by Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4. The show depicts the lives of three Irish Catholic priests on the remote fictional Craggy Island off the west coast of Ireland. It ran for three series, totalling 25 episodes, between 21 April 1995 and 1 May 1998 on the UK's Channel 4. Father Ted was written by two Irish writers, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, who also co-created Big Train. All of the interior scenes were shot at The London Studios and all of the location footage was shot in Ireland. Graham Linehan, on his DVD commentary on the first episode, says that Father Ted was a character that Arthur Mathews came up with and who was played by third member of the group Paul Woodfull when they did standup gigs in Ireland, playing as a band, The Joshua Trio. Dermot Morgan was picked for the role because he had previously played a priest in standup. As "Father Trendy", Linehan appeared in the first episode of Father Ted wearing a red jacket and a white "bobble" hat.