Father Ted-Series 1 (1995)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Graham Linehan (Co-Writer) Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	145:31
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Declan Lowney
Studio Distributor	Hat Trick Warner Vision	Starring	Dermot Morgan Ardal O'Hanlon Frank Kelly Pauline McLynn
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    Due to the order in which we received the review discs, here is our review of the first series of Father Ted, coming as it were hot on the heels of season two. This will lead to a number of reverse comparisons within the review as I compare the two titles.

    The first series is made up of six episodes of about twenty four minutes each. The second series has ten episodes and the Christmas special spread over two separately released discs.

    While I still found this first season to be hilarious, I did find it a little less funny than the second series and a little less polished. This is only to be expected really and is mostly a consequence of watching them out of order. The only advantage to watching them in this order is that some of the jokes that rely on knowledge of the characters are clearer when you have spent more time with the characters.

Good Luck, Father Ted. (23:35)

    Father Ted has been selected for an interview on TV and he is very excited about the prospect, but does not want any of the others to know about it or to be seen on the TV with him. He tries to organise the interview in secret and agrees to meet the reporter at the Island's yearly fair. The fair itself is a real laugh and what happens when identities get confused is even better.

Entertaining Father Stone. (24:06)

    Father Stone is the original most uninteresting person alive. He simply has nothing to talk about and gives monosyllabic responses to any question that he is asked. Every year he comes and visits Father Ted and drives them all nuts with those really long uncomfortable silences. They even spent three weeks in the attic trying to avoid him one year. They all decide to go and play silly golf out in a storm and Father Stone is struck by lightning, leading to his hospitalisation and a guilt trip by Father Ted as he had been praying that something would happen to Father Stone.

The Passion of Saint Tibulus. (24:23)

    In this episode we learn from the bishop the reason why the three priests are exiled on Craggy Island. There is also a film that the Catholic Church has decided to ban and the bishop orders Father Ted and Father Dougal to protest the showing of the film at the local cinema. A brilliant piece of satire that clearly shows that anyone that produces a controversial film can only pray that the church comes out against the film and thus ensure a very large audience.

Competition Time. (23:49)

    It is time for the yearly Craggy Island look-alike competition. Rather than go as his usual character, Mother Theresa, Father Ted decides to go as Elvis. Unfortunately, he mentions this to the other two and they also decide to be Elvis. The judge of this year's competition is a celebrity game show host that is not at the peak of his career but this does not dent the father's enthusiasm for his visit, nor for an opportunity to butter up the judge before the competition.

And God Created Woman. (25:07)

    Father Ted is feeling the long term effects of celibacy. A favourite female author of his is having a book signing and he makes the trip in to get his copy signed. Coincidence strikes and he meets the lady several more times including back home where she has asked to stay the night due to her house on the island not being ready to move into. Father Ted is very attracted to her and agrees to meet her the next night at seven. Unfortunately, he has forgotten about the visiting nuns and the mass he is supposed to be holding at the same time.

Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest. (24:31)

    Father Jack drinks himself to death on floor polish. Father Ted and Father Dougal are devastated until it turns out that Father Jack has a will, a will that leaves them half a million pounds between them. There is only one catch - they have to spend the night before the funeral in the crypt with Father Jack.

Video

    This transfer is presented at what is most likely its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness varies throughout the episodes ranging from acceptable to poor - light levels seem to be one cause of the variation in sharpness. Shadow detail is just all right. There are a few scenes where the black suits worn by the priests do lack detail. There is a fair amount of low level noise triggered by the video noise in the source.

    Colours are reasonably well saturated but affected by the noise present in the signal.

    Minor MPEG artefacts abound, such as on the face at 12:54 in the first episode. Posterization is also present, an example being at 2:08 in the first episode. Video noise is a problem throughout the transfer and is related to the amount of light that the camera had to work with. The dark scene in the hallway in the third episode at 5:09 is a clear example of this.

    The subtitles are easy to read and keep up most of the time, but there is some paraphrasing.

    This is a dual layered disc. I could not find a layer break during any of the episodes so I assume that there are three episodes per layer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

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

    Other than the theme tune, which works very well, there is little other music.

    The laugh track is all that made it into the surrounds and the subwoofer was quiet for the night.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The 1.33:1 menu is themed around the show. The very top of Father Jack is visible on the lower section of the screen with three pictures hung on the wall behind him. The first picture will play all the episodes, the second takes you to the chapter selection menu and the last turns on or off the commentary. The audio is LPCM 2.0 (note this is the menus only - the episodes are Dolby Digital 2.0) and contain vocal clips from the episodes.

Commentary: Graham Linehan (co-writer)

    The commentary covers all six episodes and contains a wealth of interesting information and many funny comments. Like the commentary on the second series, Graham often says that he would not do things the same if he was making the series now.

Booklet

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

    Our version appears identical to the R2 release and includes the commentary which the R1 version does not, giving us a clear R4 win.

    I admit that I had been wondering why these three particular priests had ended up on this particular God-forsaken island - the episode The Passion of Saint Tibulus sorted this out for me. It is well worth watching Ardal O'Hanlon very closely - his expressions and comedic moments are brilliant and sometimes quite subtle and often delayed just enough to make them even funnier.

    The video is a little disappointing.

    The audio is good.

    The extra is well worth listening to.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall