Father Ted Crilly - Definition and Overview

Dermot Morgan as Father Ted

Father Ted Crilly is the central character in the Channel 4 situation comedy series Father Ted, played by the late Dermot Morgan.

Father Ted Crilly is one of three priests who have been exiled to the remote Craggy Island, by the corrupt and megalomaniac Bishop Len Brennan. Father Ted's exile was for appropriating a substantial quantity of church funds which he claimed were "merely resting" in his account.

Ted is vain, arrogant and can be very self-centred. Ted dreams of being on television or of leaving the island and becoming priest in a parish on Las Vegas, living it up in a casino somewhere. However, Ted's failings just make him more human, and, indeed, he is a somewhat sympathetic character and hard put upon by the other two priests, Father Jack Hackett, a senile drunk, and Father Dougal McGuire, who gives interesting new tones to the concept of imbecility. He also had moments of selfless heroism, on a plane about to crash, in solving the mystery of the Craggy Island beast, leading a troop of lost priests in Irelands largest lingerie department and stopping a fellow priest from comitting suicide.

Ted is successful at the Craggy Island version of "Stars in their Eyes", where he has appeared as Elvis and, more regularly, Mother Theresa

See also

• Father Dougal McGuire
• Mrs Doyle
• Father Jack Hackett