Review of Father Ted: Series 2 Part 1

Introduction

Father Ted is a hit TV sitcom that ran from 1995 to 1998. It was all about three priests and their housekeeper who live on Craggy Island, somewhere in Ireland. It won numerous awards at the time and it`s now made it`s way on to DVD.

This disc covers the first half of series 2 and include the episodes `Hell`, `Think Fast, Farther Ted`, `Tentacles of Doom`, `The Old Grey Whistle Theft`, `Song For Europe`. Also included is the excellent Christmas special, `A Christmassy Ted`.

Father Ted has long been a favourite sitcom of mine. It`s got some fantastic moments that always make me chuckle. The humour is very character driven with some excellent performances from the main cast members and some very amusing turns from guest actors (look out for Graham Norton in the first episode).

Video

Being a TV show the picture is a very run of the mill full frame affair. It`s better than VHS still, as you would expect, but it`s largely unremarkable. The picture looks frequently grainy and soft in places. Not the worst transfer I`ve ever seen by a long shot but no effort has been put in to improve the picture either.

Audio

The soundtrack is a similarly unremarkable Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 one but let`s face it this is all about dialogue and not fancy effects. As such it does the job fine.

Features

The only extra is a commentary track by one of the writers, Graham Linehan. Unlike other TV series that have commentaries on one or two episodes this disc puts them all to shame with a commentary on each single episode.

On the whole these commentaries are interesting however getting the same person to voice the commentary on each episode does lead to some moments of silence. You start to get the impression that the guy gets a little fed up at times and runs out of steam towards the end. The commentary also comes across as largely negative however at least we know he`s being extremely frank and honest.

Conclusion

Father Ted is one of those comedy series that will forever be a classic. The gags are excellent but what really makes the show are the characters. They come across as grossly exaggerated but having been to Ireland several times, due to being married to an Irish woman, I can assure you that they are startlingly close to some real life people.

Of the cast the standout star has to Ardal O`Hanlon who plays the dim-witted Father Dougal McGuire, a man with the mind of a simple child. He gets into all sorts of trouble and is usually at the centre of most of the chaos. His facial expressions are amusing on their own but along with some superb lines his character stands out above all the others. He`s the perfect counterpart to Father Ted, played by Dermot Morgan. Ted is the more serious character, kind of Dougals father figure as it were. The two of them have numerous excellent scenes together.

I thoroughly enjoyed every episode with my favourites being Hell, where Ted, Dougal and Jack go on their holidays, and the Christmas special which includes the excellent sequence where a group of priests get stranded in a department store`s lingerie section.

I can`t do anything but recommend this disc. The only real criticism I have is that I wanted the complete 2nd series on the one disc as happened with the release of the 1st series. Instead it`s just the first half but there`s still plenty of value for money so it`s not the end of the world.