Father Ted Crilly stated, "It's nice to think of them all in the house having adventures, but when you think about it, it's really cruel to Ted. It's just an awful future for him... He's not watching a sitcom, he's living this awful life." "The Independent" characterised Ted as "by turns devious, cunning and disingenuous", noting a running joke about parish funds being traced to Ted's personal account. Ardal O'Hanlon, who played Father Dougal, said that Ted was the show's only rounded, fully formed character, and that the rest of the cast were essentially playing caricatures. Ted is frequently portrayed as a natural
Are You Right There Father Ted? award he won in the previous episode – relaxes in a luxurious Dublin parish mansion, with a respected clergyman after an "exhausting" holiday to Paris, politely bartering over which masses the pair will tend to that day. Ted awaits his favourite dinner of pheasant and optimistically muses over his immediate future, whilst recalling his days on Craggy Island with pure hatred. All of a sudden, a church accountant asks Ted about a discrepancy with church expenses... and Ted is promptly sent back to cold, rainy Craggy Island, to Dougal's delight. As the episode proper begins, Ted – after settling in