The Passion of Saint Tibulus
Ted and Dougal protest a blasphemous film.
"The Passion of Saint Tibulus," the third episode of *Father Ted*'s first series, first aired on Channel 4 in 1995. The story follows Ted and Dougal as they mount a half-hearted protest against a blasphemous film playing at the local cinema.
The episode opens with a visit from Cuba’s Father Hernandez, who admits to Ted that he sometimes finds celibacy difficult after seeing Mrs Doyle. Ted mentions Bishop Brennan, rumored to have a son in America. Brennan, having been called back from a California holiday, orders Ted and Dougal to protest *The Passion of Saint Tibulus*, a film banned worldwide by the Pope but showing on Craggy Island due to a loophole. At the cinema, the priests find only a few patrons; one leaves upon learning the film is subtitled. They strike a deal with manager Michael Cocheese: they will watch the film once, then protest peacefully so he can throw them out for show. That night, they agree the film was confusing and sexually explicit.
The next morning, Brennan bursts into the parochial house and forces an early protest. Ted and Dougal stand outside the closed cinema with placards, chanting "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now." Ted sends Dougal for handcuffs to chain themselves to the railings, but the protest backfires, drawing crowds to see the film. Meanwhile, Brennan searches for his travel bag; Father Jack, who has hidden it, tells him to "Feck off." Jack later examines the bag, discarding the bishop’s passport, pocketing a "Holiday '95 California" videotape from a camcorder, and taking a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
As evening falls, Michael reports that *The Passion of Saint Tibulus* is outgrossing *Jurassic Park*. Ted, fed up, tries to unlock his handcuffs only to discover Dougal has no keys. They must carry the railings home. Brennan scolds them for making the film a hit, with viewers arriving from across Ireland and even Gdańsk. He threatens to reassign them to worse locations. Ignoring Ted’s warning not to wake Jack, Brennan is punched in the face. After he leaves, Jack reveals the videotape, which shows the bishop in California with a secret mistress and his son. Ted realizes they can blackmail Brennan, and the priests gleefully watch the tape repeatedly.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Father Ted
- Series No
- 1
- Episode
- 3
- Airdate
- 5 May 1995
- Writer
- Graham Linehan / Arthur Mathews
- Director
- Declan Lowney
- Guests
- Derrick Branche as Father Hernandez / Jim Norton as Bishop Brennan / Jon Kenny as Michael Cocheese
- Episode List
- List of Father Ted episodes
- Prev
- Entertaining Father Stone
- Next
- Competition Time
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
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-life 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. This episode was the second to be recorded, and 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, and finally to third because of Mathews' particular love for "Entertaining Father Stone" - this causes a continuity error, as the VCR that Father Hernandez gives to the Craggy Island Parochial House Fathers is already present in "Entertaining Father Stone". The cinema used was the Ormonde in Greystones, County Wicklow (which continued to operate until July 2007, when it closed due to commercial difficulties).
Reader's Guide
The 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 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 line is referenced in the 2009 27th issue of the Garth Ennis superhero comic series The Boys, in which Irish bartender Proinsias Cassidy wears a black form-fitting t-shirt with "Careful Now" inscribed in red text across the left chest. 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. 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.
Did You Know?
- Jon Kenny, who played Michael Cocheese, later said that the protest scenes were influenced by a priest he had known when he was a boy.
- One of the writers' early ideas for the series was that every priest in the world knows every other priest 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.
More in Father Ted episodes 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced