Movement 99

More documents

Recommendations

Info

t *T 3 \ * # j 4 E GET FOCUSS SCM Publications will keep Vou in focus with all the vital issues fac' ing young people today, with resources in accessible formats that give sharper resolution to what's going on. The Dying Game A Young Person's Guide to Death f5.00 Significant Others Talking About Relationships f4.50 Common People Rethinking Christianity & Community f4.50 The F-Word A Guide to Christian Fundamentalism f3.OO No More Mr Nice Guy A New Look at Jesus f3'00 Just Love The Theology of Sexuality f2.OO God Made Simple An lntroduction to ldeas about God [2.00 Postage and Packing - f 1 per item (EU) / f.2 per item (overseas) Name Address Pu blications Req uested I enclose a cheque Imade payable to 'SCM'I for E RETURN TO: SCM, WESTHILL 14116 WEOLEY PARK OAK, BIRMINGHAM 829 6LL
The recent death of Dermot Morgan also brought an end to an enduring comic creation, Father Ted. Terry Orsett offers a tribute Fathe? Ted YYe , Hardly Knew Ye l^ : : :fl?'; J,T:: iit,.l"" Ini,".," I delav the premiere of the V current series of Father Ted bv one week. lt was a decision that was, for all its good intentions, completely wrong. I suppose it was thought to be in bad taste to show it-in the same way that planners regularly postpone episodes of London's Burning because there happened to be a fire in that week's episode which resembled the one in Woking the previous Thursday. But what none of these people think about is how cathartic laughter is. And Father Zed is especially cathartic, because it's especially funny. lt would have been a fitting testament to Dermot Morgan, who in his portrayal of Father Ted has created one of this generation's most enduring comic creations, not to have postponed airing the current series. It could have been a sort of televisual wake. I was first introduced to Father Ted and his fellow denizens of the Craggy lsland parochial house by friends who were atheists. For them, the scheming but incompetent Father Ted, the clueless but sweet Father Dougal, and the catatonic but lascivious Father Jack took the mickey out of the authoritarian Catholic structure they grew up with. But it's not only those who are secular who erupt into riotous laughter. Some of the ir,ost devoted fans of the series l've encountered are the Clergy themselves. Ithink that is'the brilliance of Father Ted. lt's a comedy about the church where people on the inside and the outside of the institution can have a good laugh at it. Father Ted's creators, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, have gone to extraordinary lengths not to offend people, far more than I think they needed to. Ted and Dougal are never seen conducting Mass or visitationseven conversation about their priestly functions are limited to a few isolated instances here and there. For Linehan and Matthews, the comedy is about a bunch of inept people with lots of time on their hands. Which is somewhat misleading, because these people with time on their hands are priests, and the priesthood in Father Ted is populated by people who are. frankly, not that bright. They are people like Ted, who are in an arrested state of adolescence (or, like Dougal, never even got that far). lt's sad but people like Ted exist and they became priests because, probably like Ted. they couldn't get a date while in school (with either gender) and they found a profession where not much is really required of them. ln this respect, Father led is perhaps more subversive than Jimmy McGovern's Priest: it's one thing to expose an institution for its cruelty; it's another to expose the incompetence which masks itself behind virtue and piety on a regular basis. Even so, there's another level to appreciating Father Ied which isn't discussed as much. For it's not just a comedy about authority figures, it's a comedy about being Christian. I think most of us, if we really searched our hearts, would find that we blunder through our lives and the moral conundrums as Ted does: our lies snowball on us. We are not as devout or as moral as we pretend to be. At the end of the day there's a lot of shrieking and praying and even when we win, it's a pyrrhic victory at best. My favourite episode o't Father Ted embodies some of these aspects. lt's the one where Ted and Dougal make an lrish Eurovision entry. Ted, unable to come up with a melody to gal's lyrics (about tune of an obscure Swedish song from the seventies only to discover the same song being played in the lift on the night of his performance. He ends up because the judges want the lrish entry to fail at Eurovision And that's why Father Ted is going to be missed 'inmy Iife from now on: l'm going to miss the man wearing the collar of moral authority who regularly proves that he's no more or less incompetent than I am at getting out of the moral pits we dig ourselves into. Father Ted wasn't just about laughing at the church; it was about laughing at ourselves. E Terry Orsett is a writer in London movgment 1
Page 1: AIDS AND THE CHURCH . THE CULF CRIS
Page 5 and 6: Say Hello To Carolynl SCM has just
Page 7 and 8: welfare reform, new environmental l
Page 9 and 10: Tne Oxford Dictionarv of Modern Sla
Page 11 and 12: Movemenf publishes its 100th issue
Page 13 and 14: For A Friend A he was my friend and
Page 15 and 16: I il l6 as skin colour, way of life
Page 17 and 18: He was a Western student who went t
Page 19 and 20: Postcard From the Fringes have just
Page 21 and 22: "So unless one clranged the languag
Page 23 and 24: Robert Jones samples the gospel-inf
Page 25 and 26: Graeme Burk puts stephen May's exam
Page 27 and 28: LITURGY SHOCK HORROR: A headline fr

Movement 99

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?