Father Dougal McGuire Ted, "an idiot who thinks he knows something but actually knows nothing." As testament to the character's enduring popularity, Irish bookmakers humorously began collecting bets on whether Dougal would succeed Pope John Paul II upon his death. The odds were 1,000-1 (better odds than some genuine candidates), and some small stakes were actually received. In 2001, O'Hanlon reprised the role of Dougal for a series of PBS advertisements to coincide with "Father Ted"s American broadcast; these segments were included on later DVD releases as "Fundraising with Father Dougal". Father Dougal McGuire Father Dougal McGuire is a character in the Channel
Father Ted Crilly Geoffrey Perkins asked Linehan and Mathews to discard the mockumentary format and expand the Father Ted episode to a traditional sitcom. Linehan found the character of Ted easier to write if he imagined Mathews's version delivering the lines. "Every time I wrote Ted in the early days, I'd hear Arthur's voice... Ted was this very bland character who'd never curse except for saying a very quiet 'feck' to himself. That panic and turmoil under the surface defined Ted before we even started writing him. Years later, when we did, it was just like pressing 'play' on a tape recorder." One