The Plague (Father Ted) as a whole army of rabbits appears in the parochial house, apparently from nowhere. Ted and Dougal then resort to desperate measures to hide the army of rabbits, such as hiding them at the local greyhound track, giving them to their accident-prone friend Father Larry Duff (who's now bought some Rottweiler dogs) and giving them to Tom the psychopath, all to no avail. The Bishop soon arrives, when Mrs. Doyle ruins his car engine and Ted talks to him and shows him the security arrangements for Jack (which involve razor wire around his bed and a straitjacket suit). In the
Father Ted Crilly of the writers' key influences was Charles Grodin's character in the 1972 film "The Heartbreak Kid". Actor Maurice O'Donoghue auditioned for the role, and Linehan felt that he was the right appearance, age and "lightness" for the character. Mathews wanted to cast comedian Dermot Morgan from an early stage, but Linehan was reluctant; he worried that audiences would confuse Ted with Father Trendy, a character Morgan had previously created for "The Live Mike". Trendy parodied a class of priests including Brian D'Arcy, perceived in the 1970s as wanting to be considered liberal and "cool", whereas Ted was written as a