Very, very interesting for Father Ted fans.
This week has been one of the most important ones in Graham Linehan’s life as the Father Ted co-creator revealed that he has received the all-clear after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.
After receiving the good news, he said via Twitter that: “Everything’s clear. No chemo! Can’t believe it! NO CHEMO! Have been organising my life around the idea that the next three months were just *gone*!”
Long may his good health continue.
On that note, Linehan was Jarlath Regan’s guest on his magnificent podcast An Irishman Abroad and it’s an excellent discussion.
Aside from chatting about his recent cancer battle, struggles with anxiety, and the controversy that emerged after he tweeted his thoughts on transgender politics and feminism, Linehan also talked about the upcoming musical, Pope Ted.
During the conversation, he confirmed that Neil Hannon is involved with the music and that all of the main characters – Ted, Jack, Dougal, and Mrs Doyle – will feature in the musical.
Here are his views on the following topics.
The origin of Pope Ted.
“It’s a different form (musicals) and sitcoms do feel like they would translate well to comedy. Studio sitcoms are quite stagey. Also, I thought I’d be good at it because I’m so used to dealing with a real audience in a studio sitcom,” he said.
With regards to the specific origin, it appears that Donald Trump had a part to play in the formation of Pope Ted.
“Arthur (Matthews) was worried that it would be a cash in but then I got the idea. Well, two ideas. When Trump won, I thought that maybe Ted could be Pope and Corbyn was the same. For me, Corbyn doesn’t have much charisma but the idea that he can get up there is interesting to me. Maybe people will be able to suspend their beliefs and accept that Ted could rise through the ranks. It’s a time when unlikely people are rising into positions of power but I’ve already created the steps for Ted to become Pope- first he has to become bishop, then cardinal and then Pope,” said Linehan.
He adds: “The second thing was that there’s an element in the story that I knew would happen – I can’t tell you what it is – but when I realised that, I knew that we had something. So, I immediately wrote it all up, pitched it to Hat-Trick and then I pitched it to Arthur over lunch and he went for it. He realised very quickly how much fun it could be.”
How can they replace Dermot Morgan?
Given how iconic Dermot Morgan was in the role, how can you replace someone that audiences have so much love and admiration for?
Well, Linehan has provided an answer.
“Let me give you a reason why I did it. I often get asked by amateur groups to put on episodes of Father Ted and I find that people tend to think that they can do an Irish accent – and it ends up being an impression of Dermot or Ardal. I hate that and I always say no. Something bugs me about that.
“So I thought, well I’ll write something that all these groups will be able to perform – wherever they are. At the same time, I’ll show them through our casting that you once you get the spirit of the characters – you can do anything with them. You know, Dougal will be this vacant innocent child of God…but he won’t be Ardal. You know, Ardal did that beautifully and no one could ever beat his version of Dougal. The same for Dermot. I don’t want an impression. I want the actor to be allowed to find the Ted that they want to play.”
What about the new cast and will any returning characters from the show feature in the musical?
“We’re going to do what we did with the original – cast it from Irish people. We might have to use English people from time to time and there are a few Italian characters – it is set in the Vatican – but we’re going to be casting from Irish people.”
On that note, it appears that Ardal O’Hanlon probably won’t be returning to play Dougal return because Linehan said that the schedule is incredibly demanding in terms of time and physicality.
Aside from these details, Linehan also said that Pope Ted is “writing itself because it’s so funny”and that there will be some returning characters from the show.
This being said, the Father Ted co-creator went out of his way to say that he’s not a believer in fan service just for the sake of it.
“I’m interested in developing new quotable lines and while there will be some callbacks, it’s not heavily reliant on them. Casting might start really, really quickly.”
When and where will it be on?
“It depends on the location, who wants to take it on and the possibilities of what they can actually stage. One of the things I will say is that we wanted to give them all a happy ending because the ending of the series wasn’t a happy ending and I think this is,” he said.
After reading all of this, we’re more excited than Father Billy ‘The Spinmaster’ O’Dwyer at a disco.
You can listen to the whole interview here.
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