Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest his body works differently from other people". The executives were bemused by an incomplete story where one of the main characters was dead, but commissioned the series soon after receiving the full script. In retrospect, Linehan and Mathews noticed that the plot was very similar to that of the "Fawlty Towers" episode "The Kipper and the Corpse". Despite being fans of the show, they only noticed the parallels afterwards, and would likely have abandoned the episode if they had seen them earlier. Kevin Sharkey, who plays the black Donegal priest, was a friend of the writers', and was brought in
Kipper ethnographer Walter William Skeat derives the word from the Old English "kippian", to spawn. The word has various possible parallels, such as Icelandic "kippa" which means "to pull, snatch" and the Germanic word "kippen" which means "to tilt, to incline". Similarly, the Middle English "kipe" denotes a basket used to catch fish. Another theory traces the word kipper to the "kip", or small beak, that male salmon develop during the breeding season. As a verb, "kippering" ("to kipper") means to preserve by rubbing with salt or other spices before drying in the open air or in smoke. Originally applied to