Father Ted Crilly death in February 1998, he was awarded a posthumous BAFTA for his work in the third series. Arthur Mathews had a lifelong fascination with priests, and developed the character of Father Ted while working at "Hot Press" with Graham Linehan and Paul Woodfull in 1987–89. After considering several surnames, Linehan suggested Crilly, which stuck. Mathews has described his version of Ted as a generic priest, but Woodfull saw the character as more camp, and later said that he felt Mathews had preempted the camp/gay priest stereotype in Irish comedy. During production weekends, Mathews and Woodfull had the idea for The
Father Ted Crilly Terror"). In "A Christmassy Ted", Ted prevents a national scandal by helping seven other priests find their way out of Ireland's largest lingerie section. The Church honours him with the Golden Cleric award. Next Ted and Dougal hosted the 1997 Comic Relief telethon (with Morgan and O'Hanlon in character for the duration of the event); when Ted wonders why he has been selected, Dougal suggests that God has planned it to allow Ted a chance to earn forgiveness for his sins by raising money for the charity. In the next episode, "Are You Right There Father Ted?", Ted has been