The Passion of Saint Tibulus

"The Passion of Saint Tibulus" is the third episode of Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted for both the entire show in general and the first series. In 2008, the episode was shown on BBC2 in tribute to Geoffrey Perkins.

Synopsis[]

Ted is hosting Cuba's Father Hernandez at the Craggy Island Parochial House. Fr Hernandez, on seeing Mrs Doyle, confesses that he sometimes finds a life of celibacy difficult and Ted mentions Bishop Brennan who is rumoured to have a son who lives in America.

Bishop Brennan, after making a call during the night to the Craggy Island Fathers that he is coming over to discus an affair with them, arrives the next day and orders Ted and Dougal to protest against the playing of The Passion of Saint Tibulus at the Craggy Island cinema - this film, condemned as blasphemous, is banned by His Holiness from playing nearly anywhere else with the Bishop stating that it is being shown on Craggy Island only due to an odd loophole that allows it to ignore the ban. Brennan wants Ted and Dougal to show that the Catholic Church has made a stand on it - he considers this matter of utmost importance as he had to be recalled from his holiday in California to deal with it.

Ted and Dougal go to the cinema to find only a couple of people there. One of these, a woman, swiftly leaves after being informed by the cinema's manager, Michael, that the film is subtitled, which she dislikes, preferring dubs instead. The priests make a gentlemen's agreement with Michael to watch the film once and then peacefully protest at it so that Michael can throw them out, making it look like a fuss. They return to the parochial house for the night and discuss the film, agreeing it was difficult to understand and sexually explicit. The next morning, Bishop Brennan, straight after a statement from Dougal in which the Bishop's name is spoken, returns to the parochial house, forcefully crashing through the door in a show of seriousness and dissatisfaction that is horrifying in the eyes of the Fathers. He then forces them to start early that day on their protest, despite the cinema not being open yet. They half-heartedly stand around the cinema, each waving placards: "Down with this sort of thing" (Ted) and "Careful now" (Dougal). Ted instructs Dougal to buy handcuffs so they can chain themselves to the railings outside the cinema, hoping that will increase attention. However, they find their protests have the opposite effect: people are drawn in to see the film.

Meanwhile, Brennan comes into the parochial house on a search for his travel bag and asks Jack both why he is not with the Fathers for the protest (responded to by Jack shouting "Feck off!" and Brennan instantly coming over angered as a result of Jack's offence) and if he has seen the Bishop’s travel bag, asking Jack to bring it back if he has found it; after Brennan leaves, Jack takes the bag out of hiding in a desire to see what it contains that he can take for himself - among the items Jack finds in the bag are:

• the Bishop’s passport (which he throws away because he is uninterested in it)...
• a VHS camcorder which has a "Holiday '95 California" video cassette that Jack takes from the camcorder and puts away into his jacket...
• and a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey, which satisfies Jack's love of alcohol.

As evening comes at the cinema, Michael tells Ted that The Passion of Saint Tibulus was more successful for him than even Jurassic Park; Ted, now fed up with the fact that the protest is not going well, decides to give up and asks Dougal to hand him the handcuff keys so he can release them. He finds that Dougal unfortunately does not have any keys, forcing the pair to stay handcuffed to the railing and having to carry it home with them.

Back at the house, Bishop Brennan scolds the Fathers for causing the film to become so popular that people are arriving from all over Ireland and "even from Gdańsk" to see it. He shows them a globe and explains his plans to reassign them all to locations even worse than Craggy Island as punishment; he then leaves (while warning the Fathers that their new parish will be worse than the misfortune they are stuck with at the moment), but not before Jack punches him in the face for waking him up (due to Brennan wanting Jack to pay attention to him and ignoring Ted's warning of "I wouldn't do that"). Ted and Dougal lament their fate but Jack shows them the video cassette which has a video of Brennan in California with his secret mistress and his son. Ted realises he can use this tape for blackmail and to force Brennan to change his mind and decides the Fathers should watch the tape a few more times before using it for the blackmail.

Production[]

The episode's central theme is ineffectual protest. The plot of the Church's opposition to a blasphemous film was inspired by the reaction to several real-world films, including The Last Temptation of Christ, Sebastiane, Hail Mary and Monty Python's Life of Brian; the last of these was banned in Ireland upon its release so Linehan joined a film club specifically to get a chance to watch it.^[1]

This episode was the second to be recorded. The writers originally planned to air it first, before they later moved it to second, feeling that "Good Luck, Father Ted" would make a better introduction. They finally moved it to third because of Mathews' particular love for "Entertaining Father Stone", resulting in a continuity error, as the VCR that Father Hernandez gives to the Craggy Island priests is already present in "Entertaining Father Stone".^[1] The cinema used was the Ormonde in Greystones, Co.Wicklow (It continued to operate until July 2007, when it closed due to commercial difficulties).^[2]

One of the writers' early ideas for the series was that every priest in the world knows every other personally; this idea is introduced in the opening scene with Cuba's Father Hernandez. When Hernandez speaks in Spanish, he is clumsily dubbed over by an English translator, which the Craggy Islanders can inexplicably hear and understand – an idea Linehan considered "just this side of being too mad to do". The translator's voice is provided by producer Geoffrey Perkins.^[1]

This episode introduced the recurring character of Bishop Brennan, who was initially based on Eamon Casey and later on Michael Cleary. The writers cast Jim Norton after seeing him as Wentworth in the 1995 Frasier episode "The Club"; Mathews had also heard his reading of James Joyce's Ulysses. The writers always felt that Bishop Brennan was Father Jack's nemesis, as Jack himself had the potential to become a bishop, but failed to do so because he was not a career priest.^[1]

The scenes with Ted and Dougal sharing a bedroom were inspired by similar scenes in the Morecambe and Wise shows. The writers used these scenes for end-of-the-day conversations to wrap up the story, and to provide a sort of "safe zone" for Ted and Dougal to discuss the plot. Linehan and Mathews had to cut laughs in some scenes because the studio audience incorrectly thought they were making sex jokes.^[1]

Legacy[]

Protest signs[]

The vague protest signs carried by Ted and Dougal are among the show's most-recognised jokes - this is acknowledged in the closing montage of the final episode, where the slogans are the only soundbite used.

The signs were referred to by Green Party leader John Gormley on 28 June 2010 to describe his view that the Labour Party had few or no policies. He accused the Labour Party of saying "Down with this sort of thing" without providing their alternative.^[3]

During a number of high-profile UK protests, including throughout the Pope's state visit in September 2010 and student protests against tuition fee rises in November 2010, as well as protests against the Irish EU bailout and austerity measures in November 2010, several protesters displayed banners saying "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now".

The line is referenced in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V, where a protester is seen carrying a "Down with this sort of thing" sign.^[4]

Fan film[]

A black-and-white silent short film, Saint Tibulus & The Bog Water, was shot on 1 March 2014 at the eighth annual Ted Fest event in the Aran Islands - a professional camera crew and actors took part in the production which featured fans as minor characters and extras.

The film is set at a young couple's wedding on Craggy Island in 1740. A ship bringing alcohol for the wedding loses its cargo in a storm - the attendees are devastated. Saint Tibulus appears and miraculously transforms a pot of bog water to a new alcoholic drink (Known as "The Saint's Brew" until 1759 when Arthur, a young man who witnessed the miracle, recreates it to sell the drink as his own) saving the wedding.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• "The Passion of Saint Tibulus" at the IMDB