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 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