Father Dougal McGuire to television, casting O'Hanlon as the on-screen Dougal. Arthur Mathews created the character of Father Ted while working at "Hot Press" in 1987–89. During production weekends, he and Paul Woodfull had the idea for The Joshua Trio, a comedic U2 tribute band. The band performed various warm-up sketches written by Mathews, Woodfull, and Graham Linehan, who joined in a non-musical capacity. These sketches included stand-up performed by Mathews in-character as Father Ted Crilly. As Ted, Mathews sometimes read from a book, "Notes from Africa", purportedly written by Father Dougal McGuire, a missionary friend who described his experiences of being attacked
Father Ted Crilly more conservative, traditional priest. Morgan lobbied hard for the role, eventually persuading Linehan. The writers considered O'Donoghue a back-up to use should Morgan become unavailable, and later created Father Dick Byrne, Ted's recurring rival, specifically for O'Donoghue to play. Aspects such as Ted's obsession with money and fantasy of going to Las Vegas emerged while writing for Morgan, and the writers began to feel for Ted in a way they did not for the other characters. After the second series aired, Linehan said he still believed that Mathews could easily have played Ted in the show. There have been several