Father Ted Crilly first televised appearance. In 1990, Linehan and Mathews began writing "Irish Lives", a six-part comedy television series. The show would have taken the form of a mockumentary, with each episode focusing on interviewing a different character; one of the six characters was Father Ted Crilly. The script, delivered in 1990, described Ted as "a perpetually jolly and rather sad man who, through some terrible accident of faith, has found himself in the priesthood." The story involved Ted returning to his seminary to catch up with his old friends, including Father Jack, whom he fails to realise has recently died. Producer
Father Dougal McGuire "Only Fools and Horses". In another interview, they mentioned Latka Gravas from "Taxi" as an influence and compared the relationship between Ted and Dougal to that between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: "Alongside the wily priest who would lie at the drop of a hat we wanted a gormless idiot who was the very model of innocence." For his portrayal of Dougal, O'Hanlon turned to Laurel and Hardy and "Fawlty Towers"s bumbling waiter Manuel. O'Hanlon also drew inspiration from his child sister, as well as dogs, explaining: "Dougal had to be more than just stupid. He had to be otherworldly