Why is Father Ted being made by a British TV company?
Father Ted is produced by Hat Trick Productions, which is a very successful British entertainments company specialising in sitcoms and panel games, including Have I Got News For You. When the series was written, the writers felt that England was the best place to film the programme, because the expertise and infrastructure for Father Ted-style sitcoms was already in place, whereas Irish TV companies such as RTE didn’t have such a good track record for this type of show. As yet, it is unclear whether RTE will buy the series from Channel 4. As Graham Linehan (co-writer) said: “They’re in a bad position. They’re damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. If they take it, it will be in a supplicating kind of way where they say, ‘I know we should have done this ourselves’, and if they don’t take it they’ll just look petty. I think they’ll be embarrassed by it whatever happens.” Despite the English slant, the actors, writers, director and commissioning editor are all Irish.
