History Series / BlessMeFather

The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest, Father Neil Boyd (played in the TV series by singer-actor Daniel Abineri), sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950 as a curate to parish priest Father Charles Duddleswell (a post-''Series/DadsArmy'' Arthur Lowe). This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners). It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes...

* YouHaveToHaveJews: The local Rabbi (this is North London) is both a professional peer and something of a friend to Duddleswell. He pops up in several shows and stories, first as a member of the local association of religious ministers, where he gives sage advice, and again in an episode where an Irish Catholic boy from Duddleswell's parish wishes to marry a Jewish girl from the Rabbi's congregation. Priest and Rabbi are seen hammering out a pre-nup, largely concerning which religion gets the children, and how many will be Catholic and how many Jewish. Both parties agree that at least they are in full agreement on one thing: Irish father, Jewish mother. There will be ''lots'' of children.

* BurialAtSea: The two Catholic priests are charged with carrying out the Seventh Corporeal Work of Mercy for an old Irish sailor who died alone and without family in a retirement home. Father Duddleswell notes the old sailor left three hundred pounds for his funeral, stipulating that he wanted to be buried at sea. Duddleswell rubs his hands with glee, knowing he can get the job done for seventy and the excess, naturally, will go towards the expenses of the priest who officiates. He gloats at over two hundred pounds - a large sum in TheFifties - going into parish funds. But one thing leads to another and the funeral eventually costs more than three hundred, the excess coming out of Duddleswell's pocket. Then they discover that their assumption, that an old Irish sailor with no family to confirm his religion had to be Catholic, was utterly wrong. He came from the more Orange part of [[StrokeCountry the North]], and had he lived, would have objected strenuously to the idea of being buried by Catholics.

Father Neil becomes embarrasingly aware that he has the sort of dark good looks which spark something of a [[Series/ThornBirds reaction]] among the more impressionable female members of the parish. Women of a certain age tend to go to him for Confession and spiritual guidance and this provokes ''situations''. Father Duddleswell would be outraged at any explicit suggestion that he is cunningly pimping his curate out to lonely rich widows in exchange for large donations to parish funds. Nevertheless, Neil begins to suspect he is being used as a parish asset in this way. Neil has a sort of covert "winking and smiling" relationship with a young pretty nun, which earns rebukes from both Duddleswell and the Mother Superior, then caps this when he goes into hospital and gets infatuated with the very attractive nurse who tends him after his operation. To cure him of this, Duddleswell introduces him to a third priest resident in the parish, one who is suspended from the priesthood for having had an affair with a woman, who he later marries. This elderly priest, now living in poverty in a house made nearly uninhabitable by a Luftwaffe bomb, comes across as a proto-Jack Hackett, perhaps the UrExample.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: The sneak thief who repeatedly raids the offertory boxes at St Judes is ScaredStraight by a mighty voice from the heavens telling him his sins have been seen and that theft is a sin. In reality it's a recorded message prepared by a Creator/{{BBC}} actor who is part of the congregation, relayed via the church PA system.

* UrExample: The root inspiration for ''{{Father Ted}}'', a show that can be viewed as ''Bless Me, Father'' on hard drugs.

** "Did not our Savior turn water into wine?" (Duddleswell) "He did." (Doctor) "Now, if he had done the unpardonable act of turning wine to water, who among us would believe that He was the Son of God?"

* Confessional: Almost a given, considering the books and the series

This series of comic short stories ran into five books and was eventually adapted into a TV comedy series, which in very many ways was the spiritual parent of ''Series/FatherTed''.

The series of books was written by Father Peter de Rosa and the subsequent TV series draws upon these autobiographical novels, written as "[[AuthorAvatar Father Neil Boyd]]".

The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950. This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners). It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes...

Father Neil becomes embarrasingly aware that he has the sort of dark good looks which spark something of a [[Series/ThornBirds reaction]] among the more impressionable female members of the parish. Women of a certain age tend to go to him for Confession and spiritual guidance and this provokes ''situations''. Father Duddleswell would be outraged at any explicit suggestion that he is cunningly pimping his curate out to lonely rich widows in exchange for large donations to parish funds. Nevertheless, Neil begins to suspect he is being used as a parish asset in this way. Neil has a sort of covert "winking and smiling" relationship with a young pretty nun, which earns rebukes from both Duddleswell and the Mother Superior, then caps this when he goes into hospital and gets infatuated with the very attractive nurse who tends him after his operation. To cure him of this, Duddleswell introduces him to a third priest resident in the parish, one who is suspended from the priesthood for having had an affair with a woman, who he later marries. This elderly priest, now living in poverty in a house made nearly uninhabitable by a Luftwaffe bomb, comes across as a proto-Jack Hackett, perhaps the UrExample.

* AuthorAvatar: Father Neil Boyd is a thinly disguised Peter da Rosa.

* DrinkingOnDuty: the amiable and never-quite-sober Irish doctor, Duddleswell's best friend and argument partner, who steadies his hand with a drop of the sweet stuff before performing minor surgeries.
* HotForPreacher: The middle-aged and sometimes not so middle-aged women of the parish who insist Father Neil tends to their spiritual needs, whilst nursing a forlorn hope he might do something to address ''other'' sorts of need too.

* MassiveNumberedSiblings: not only most of the Irish families but Father Neil's own family, too.
* NunsAreSpooky: the Mother Superior. The one woman who can scare Duddleswell.
* SternNun: the Mother Superior, local Head of a stern contemplative order with strict rules.

* UrExample: the root inspiration for ''{{Father Ted}}'', a show that can be viewed as ''Bless Me, Father'' on hard drugs.
* YouHaveToHaveJews: the local Rabbi (this is North London) is both a professional peer and something of a friend to Duddleswell. He pops up in several shows and stories, first as a member of the local association of religious ministers, where he gives sage advice, and again in an episode where an Irish Catholic boy from Duddleswell's parish wishes to marry a Jewish girl from the Rabbi's congregation. Priest and Rabbi are seen hammering out a pre-nup, largely concerning which religion gets the children, and how many will be Catholic and how many Jewish. Both parties agree that at least they are in full agreement on one thing: Irish father, Jewish mother. There will be ''lots'' of children.

* HotForPreacher: The middle-aged and sometimes not so middle-aged women of the parish who insist Father Neil tends to their spiritual needs, whilst nursing a forlorn [[TheThornBirds hope]] he might do something to address ''other'' sorts of need too.

* YouveGotToHaveJews: the local Rabbi (this is North London) is both a professional peer and something of a friend to Duddleswell. He pops up in several shows and stories, first as a member of the local association of religious ministers, where he gives sage advice, and again in an episode where an Irish Catholic boy from Duddleswell's parish wishes to marry a Jewish girl from the Rabbi's congregation. Priest and Rabbi are seen hammering out a pre-nup, largely concerning which religion gets the children, and how many will be Catholic and how many Jewish. Both parties agree that at least they are in full agreement on one thing: Irish father, Jewish mother. There will be ''lots'' of children.

* YouGottaHaveJews: the local Rabbi (this is North London) is both a professional peer and something of a friend to Duddleswell. He pops up in several shows and stories, first as a member of the local association of religious ministers, where he gives sage advice, and again in an episode where an Irish Catholic boy from Duddleswell's parish wishes to marry a Jewish girl from the Rabbi's congregation. Priest and Rabbi are seen hammering out a pre-nup, largely concerning which religion gets the children, and how many will be Catholic and how many Jewish. Both parties agree that at least they are in full agreement on one thing: Irish father, Jewish mother. There will be ''lots'' of children.

The series of books was written by Father Peter de Rosa and the subsequent TV series draws upon these autobiographical novels, written as "[[AuthorAvatar Father Neil Boyd]]". The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950. This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners). It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes... Period detail is understated but convincing, particularly the hideous clothes worn by the pious women. Mrs Pring, the priests' housekeeper, is no Mrs Doyle. Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear through the series that her relationship with Father Duddleswell is, in all but name, a comfortable forty year old marriage in all respects except a shared bed. Father Neil, in this dynamic, is effectively the "son" to both. While at first raw and naive and having some of the open-eyed childlike qualities of a Father Dougal Maguire, Neil Boyd soon shapes up in both book and TV series to be a remarkably effective young priest. Father Duddleswell, similarly, can be viewed as an equally financially crafty but far more honest Father Ted Crilly, who maintains scrupulously honest accounts. There is, in the background, a bishop as fearsome and as vain as Len Brennan, and the local convent is run by one of the most fearsome Mothers Superior in literature. One of the few people who can intimidate Duddleswell, she is quietly fond of Father Neil.
Father Neil becomes embarrasingly aware that he has the sort of dark good looks which spark something of a [[{{Series/ThornBirds}} reaction]] among the more impressionable female members of the parish. Women of a certain age tend to go to him for Confession and spiritual guidance and this provokes ''situations''. Father Duddleswell would be outraged at any explicit suggestion that he is cunningly pimping his curate out to lonely rich widows in exchange for large donations to parish funds. Nevertheless, Neil begins to suspect he is being used as a parish asset in this way. Neil has a sort of covert "winking and smiling" relationship with a young pretty nun, which earns rebukes from both Duddleswell and the Mother Superior, then caps this when he goes into hospital and gets infatuated with the very attractive nurse who tends him after his operation. To cure him of this, Duddleswell introduces him to a third priest resident in the parish, one who is suspended from the priesthood for having had an affair with a woman, who he later marries. This elderly priest, now living in poverty in a house made nearly uninhabitable by a Luftwaffe bomb, comes across as a proto-Jack Hackett, perhaps the [[UrExample]]. Duddleswell hopes his petition to the Bishop and the Cardinal to have the old man forgiven for breaking his vows and restored to the full priesthood will be granted - age and familiarity have made it impossible to do nothing more than live in a chaste state with his wife, thus fulfilling his vow of chastity - so that he can become an active priest again in his last few years and die with dignity. In the meantime, Duddleswell succours the couple with gifts of cash and strong drink. Father Neil sees what life is like for a priest who is excommunicated from the Church, and learns a lesson.

The series of books was written by Father Peter de Rosa and the subsequrnt TV series draws upon these autobiographical novels, written as "[[AuthorAvatar Father Neil Boyd]]". The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950. This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners). It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes... Period detail is understated but convincing, particularly the hideous clothes worn by the pious women. Mrs Pring, the priests' housekeeper, is no Mrs Doyle. Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear through the series that her relationship with Father Duddleswell is, in all but name, a comfortable forty year old marriage in all respects except a shared bed. Father Neil, in this dynamic, is effectively the "son" to both. While at first raw and naive and having some of the open-eyed childlike qualities of a Father Dougal Maguire, Neil Boyd soon shapes up in both book and TV series to be a remarkably effective young priest. Father Duddleswell, similarly, can be viewed as an equally financially crafty but far more honest Father Ted Crilly, who maintains scrupulously honest accounts. There is, in the background, a bishop as fearsome and as vain as Len Brennan, and the local convent is run by one of the most fearsome Mothers Superior in literature. One of the few people who can intimidate Duddleswell, she is quietly fond of Father Neil.

This series of comic short stories ran into five books and was eventually adapted into a TV comedy series, which in very many ways was the spiritual parent of ''{{FatherTed}}''.

* NunsAreSpooky: the Mother Superior. The one woman who can scare duddleswell.
* SternNun: the Nother Superior, local Head of a stern contemplative order with strict rules.

Father Neil becomes embarrasingly aware that he has the sort of dark good looks which spark something of a [[{{Series/ThornBirds}} reaction]] among the more impressionable female members of the parish. Women of a certain age tend to go to him for Confession and spiritual guidance and this provokes ''situations''. Father Duddleswell would be outraged at any explicit suggestion that he is cunningly pimping his curate out to lonely rich widows in exchange for large donations to parish funds. Nevertheless, Neil begins to suspect he is being used as a parish asset in this way. Neil has a sort of covert "winking and smiling" relationship with a young pretty nun, which earns rebukes from both Duddleswell and the Mother Superior, then caps this when he goes into hospital and gets infatuated with the very attractive nurse who tends him after his operation. To cure him of this, Duddleswell introduces him to a third priest resident in the parish, one who is suspended from the priesthood for having had an affair with a woman, who he later marries. This elderly priest, now living in poverty in a house made nearly uninhabitable by a Luftwaffe bomb, comes across as a proto-Jack Hackett, perhaps the [[UrExample]]. Duddleswell hopes his petition to the Bishop and the Cardinal to have the old man forgiven for breaking his vows and restored to the full priesthood will be granted - age and familiarity have made it impossible to do nothing more than live in a chaste state with his wife, thus fulfilling his vow of chastity - so that he can become an active priest again in his last few years and die with dignity. In the meantime, Duddleswell succours the couple with gifts of cash and strong drink. Father Neil sees what life is like for a priest who is excommunicated from the Church, and learns a lesson.

The series of books was written by Father Peter de Rosa and draw upon his autobiographical novels, written as "[[AuthorAvatar Father Neil Boyd]]". The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950. This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners).. It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes... Period detail is understated but convincing, particularly the hideous clothes worn by the pious women. Mrs Pring, the priests' housekeeper, is no Mrs Doyle. Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear through the series that her relationship with Father Duddleswell is, in all but name, a comfortable forty year old marriage in all respects except a shared bed. Father Neil, in this dynamic, is effectively the "son" to both. While at first raw and naive and having some of the open-eyed childlike qualities of a Father Dougal Maguire, Neil Boyd soon shapes up in both book and TV series to be a remarkably effective young priest. Father Duddleswell, similarly, can be viewed as an equally financially crafty but far more honest Father Ted Crilly, who maintains scrupulously honest accounts. There is, in the background, a bishop as fearsome and as vain as Len Brennan, and the local convent is run by one of the most fearsome Mothers Superior in literature. One of the few people who can intimidate Duddleswell, she is quietly fond of Father Neil.
Father Neil becomes embarrasingly aware that he has the sort of dark good looks which spark something of a [[ThornBirds reaction]] among the more impressionable female members of the parish. Women of a certain age tend to go to him for Confession and spiritual guidance and this provokes ''situations''. Father Duddleswell would be outraged at any explicit suggestion that he is cunningly pimping his curate out to lonely rich widows in exchange for large donations to parish funds. Nevertheless, Neil begins to suspect he is being used as a parish asset in this way. Neil has a sort of covert "winking and smiling" relationship with a young pretty nun, which earns rebukes from both Duddleswell and the Mother Superior, then caps this when he goes into hospital and gets infatuated with the very attractive nurse who tends him after his operation. To cure him of this, Duddleswell introduces him to a third priest resident in the parish, one who is suspended from the priesthood for having had an affair with a woman, who he later marries. This elderly priest, now living in poverty in a house made nearly uninhabitable by a Luftwaffe bomb, comes across as a proto-Jack Hackett, perhaps the [[Ur-Example]]. duddleswell hopes his petition to have the old man restored to the full priesthood - age and familiarity have made it impossible to do nothing more than live in a chaste state with his wife, thus fulfilling his vow of chastity - so that he can become an active priest again in his last few years and die with dignity. In the meantime, Duddleswell succours the couple with gifts of cash and strong drink.

The series of books was written by Father Peter de Rosa and draw upon his autobiographical novels, written as "[[AuthorAvatar Father Neil Boyd]]". The series is an engagingly idiosyncratic situation comedy based on the post-war experiences of a young priest sent to the parish of St. Jude's in the London suburb of Fairwater in 1950. This series gains extra bite from the relatively embattled situation of the parishioners as (mainly Irish) Catholics in a firmly Protestant Britain just recovering from the war, and still smarting under Government rationing and other restrictions, such the common prejudice against Irish people, that would later translate itself to a growing black ethnic minority. (Indeed, at some point during the series the first immigrant boats must have arrived from the West Indies, as an Irish priest is seen wrestling with the special concerns of black parishioners).. It should also be noted that St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of lost causes... Period detail is understated but convincing, particularly the hideous clothes worn by the pious women. Mrs Pring, the priests' housekeeper, is no Mrs Doyle. Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear through the series that her relationship with Father Duddleswell is, in all but name, a comfortable forty year old marriage in all respects except a shared bed. Father Neil, in this dynamic, is effectively the "son" to both. While at first raw and naive and having some of the open-eyed childlike qualities of a Father Dougal Maguire, Neil Boyd soon shapes up in both book and TV series to be a remarkably effective young priest. Father Duddleswell, similarly, can be viewed as an equally financially crafty but far more honest Father Ted Crilly, who maintains scrupulously honest accounts. There is, in the background, a bishop as fearsome and as vain as Len Brennan, and the local convent is run by one of the most fearsome Mothers Superior in literature. One of the few people who can intimidate Duddleswell, she is quietly fond of Father Neil.