Father Ted - Series 1 - Region 2 DVD

The first series opens with "Good Luck, Father Ted" as we learn just how dreary life on Craggy Island really is when Funland arrives (which boasts such attractions as Freak Pointing and the Spinning Cat!). Everyone's patience is tested further when "Entertaining Father Stone"--quite possibly the most boring man on Earth--in the second episode. Proving bad publicity can be good publicity, Ted and Dougal then accidentally manage to attract audiences to the blasphemous film "The Passion of St Tibulus". Their ingenuity is tested to the limit in "Competition Time" as they become "The Three Ages of Elvis". Dermot Morgan's Ted is at his most sympathetic in "And God Created Women" when he gets the wrong end of the stick about the intentions of romantic novelist Polly Clarke. Then, lastly, in " Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest", everyone rallies round at Father Jack's "funeral" to reminisce about what a fine priest and good-natured fellow he was!

These six episodes made for a wonderful series debut; catchphrases were born ("Drink!"), as were regular characters (Jim Norton's sinister Bishop Brennan); and like Mrs Doyle's ever-wandering facial mole, audiences wanted it to "go on go on go on".

On the DVD: the only extra is an exceedingly self-deprecatory commentary from co-writer Graham Linehan, who explains the origins of the characters and how he wrote in collaboration with Arthur Matthews. He frequently and hilariously compares himself with others (chiefly Mel Brooks on Young Frankensteinand The Producers). Fans will be delighted to hear many jokes that nearly made it into the show, but will undoubtedly end up somewhere else! --Paul Tonks