Father Ted-Series 2-Part 2 (1995)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Audio Commentary-Graham Linehan (Writer) and Ardal O'Hanlon (Actor) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	118:53
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Declan Lowney
Studio Distributor	VCI Warner Vision	Starring	Dermot Morgan Ardal O'Hanlon Frank Kelly Pauline McLynn
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    On this disc is the second half of Season 2 of Father Ted. There are five episodes as outlined below. There is some fantastic material on this disc, in particular Rock-a-hula Ted and Flight Into Terror. The visual punch line at the end of Flight Into Terror is pure genius.

The Plague (23:49)

Can you imagine walking through the forest on Craggy Island when you suddenly come across Father Jack, at night? This would be bad enough but imagine that he is naked. Now that is a truly scary thought! The poor people that were subjected to this horrific vision complain to Bishop Brennan. For starters, Bishop Brennan does not like Father Ted, for seconds this is not the first time that Father Jack has gotten loose and terrorised the local population. Bishop Brennan decides that a visit to Craggy Island is in order, to inspect the containment facilities. With the timing that only Father Dougal is capable of, he brings a pet rabbit home just before Bishop Brennan's arrival. Now due to a very unfortunate episode some time ago involving a number of rabbits and a stuck lift, Bishop Brennan has a real phobia about rabbits. For some reason Father Dougal's rabbit attracts a large number of furry companions and both Dougal and Ted are running around trying to hide the rabbits. Things go with their usual smoothness and dispatch.

Rock-a-hula Ted (24:11)

This is a great episode that manages to have a go at so many golden calves that you are left out of breath at the end. Father Ted is asked to judge and compare the local Lovely Girls competition. A string of sexist remarks leaves him in some hot water. Things get worse after arriving home and finding that leaving Father Dougal in charge of the house was a really bad move. A very famous and vehemently feminist and anti-Catholic Church Irish female singer (played by C.P. Grogan, aka Kochanski in Red Dwarf) visited while Ted was out and Dougal gave her the house.

Cigarettes, Alcohol and Rollerblading (24:11)

Talked into a giving up for Lent competition the three fathers have to give up what they like most in life. Father Ted: the smokes, Father Jack: the booze and Father Dougal: rollerblading. After all fail on the first day they decide to call in reinforcements. A nun is sent in to help keep them on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, the nun appears to have been trained personally by Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition. She proceeds to put the Fathers through a good old fashioned Lent. Father Ted needs to find a way to turn the tables and get their lives back to normal.

New Jack City (23:04)

Father Jack is suffering (again) from unusual hair growth, extreme hair growth somewhere around Stage 5. Stage 5 seems to be hair on the hands (the later stages are worse). They ship Father Jack off to the old priest's home; they are told it might be permanent. In exchange they receive a priest that is very rude, inconsiderate and who plays loud music in the middle of the night. The only way that they are going to get rid of this new priest is to get Father Jack back. They head off to the old priests' home to kidnap him back and encounter a whole room of Father Jacks.

Flight Into Terror (23:38)

This is the second best episode on this disc following Rock-a-hula Ted. After a visit to the Shrine of Kinlettle, Father Ted, Dougal and Jack are all on a plane heading back home. All the passengers on the plane are priests. Father Ted does not like flying and is very nervous when Dougal is invited up to the cockpit, so specifically tells him to touch nothing. There is a very large button in the cockpit marked 'do not press'. Can there be any greater temptation for poor old Dougal. With the place now running out of fuel and about to crash, Father Ted takes control and starts a competition for the very limited number of parachutes, two in fact. After the parachutes disappear it is left to Father Ted to play the hero and to try and save everyone on the plane.

Video

    The aspect ratio of this transfer is 1.33:1, and it is of course not 16x9 enhanced. During the commentary, Graham Linehan refers to a "chap behind a pole, that you might not be able to see on a non-widescreen TV". This makes me wonder just what the original aspect ratio is for this show. I have not been able to track down any information on this, although both the R1 and R2 releases are also 1.33:1. The comment occurs at 13:24 in the second episode commentary.

    Sharpness really does not come up to scratch with some scenes being very blurred. Shadow detail seems to have taken a slight step down in quality with some inside scenes having quite a problem with the all black clothing. There is constant low level noise, particularly in the background.

    The colours have reasonable saturation but again are affected by noise.

    There are pretty constant problems with the MPEG encoding with pixelization present in just about any moving object. Father Ted's face at 1:52 in the first episodes is an example of what is seen throughout. It also an example of the posterization that is present. Another example of pixelization is at 2:06 also in the first episode. Aliasing is present, such as the outdoors shot of the rectory at 18:41 in the second episode. There is slightly less edge enhancement that the first disc but it is still present such as at 15:41 in the second episode. The source appears to be video and brings with it a host of video noise problems.

    The subtitles are easy to read. There is, however, a certain amount of paraphrasing that happens so that the subtitles can keep up.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 12:34 in the third episode. It is during a fade to black and quite distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc. The first is the main feature audio and the second is the commentary track. They are both Dolby Digital 2.0.

    There are no problems with the dialogue quality nor with the audio sync.

    Music is really only used at the start and end of each episode along with the occasional bridge piece.

    Other than the laugh track and some minimal ambience, there is little material routed to the surrounds.

    The subwoofer had the night off.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Commentary: Graham Linehan (writer) & Ardal O'Hanlon (Father Dougal)

    Again covering all the episodes, this is a marathon run. This time ably assisted by Ardal, there is some interesting information as well as a few extra laughs on this track. It is interesting to hear Graham's comments as he has a go at his own show about such things as a storyline that is nothing more than a setup for the punch lines. He again mentions that he had in mind trying to create something as funny and lasting as Fawlty Towers. I think that they came pretty close.

Booklet

    A small folded sheet the size of the DVD case. Inside are the chapters for the episodes and on the back a description of Craggy Island as well as a sentence on Father Jack Hackett.

    The R2 release appears identical to our release. The R1 release is a box set of two discs with the entire Season 2 present. The Christmas Special is not included in the R1 release but appears to be included in the Series 3 release.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Photo gallery
• Actors Biographies.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Audio commentary.

    This would give us an R4 winner.

    When you sit down to review a comedy series it is often a problem when you run one episode after the other - your sense of humour soon kicks out. This did not happen with this series - all five episodes had me in stitches until the very last.

    The video is disappointing.

    The audio is functional.

    The extra is good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall