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Dermot Morgan

Dermot John Morgan (3 March 1952 – 28 February 1998) was an Irish schoolteacher-turned-comedian and actor, who achieved international renown as Father Ted Crilly in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.

Father Trendy and The Live Mike

Born in Dublin and educated at Oatlands College, Stillorgan and University College Dublin, Morgan first came to prominence as part of the team of the highly successful RTÉ television show The Live Mike, presented by Mike Murphy. Between 1979 and 1984 Morgan, previously a full-time teacher at St. Michael's College, Ailesbury Road, played a range of comic characters, who would appear between segments, including Father Trendy, an unctuous trying-to-be-cool Roman Catholic priest given to drawing ludicrous parallels with non-religious life in two minute 'chats' to camera. He also played (among other characters) an intolerant GAA bigot, who would wave his hurley around aggressively while verbally attacking his pet hates. Morgan's success, which made him an instant hit with viewers, led him to quit teaching and become a full-time comedian.

Kenny Live

His relationship with RTÉ, however, became difficult, as the station tried without success to find some way of making use of what it saw as Morgan's considerable but undisciplined talent; a number of attempts in the form of 'pilot' shows never aired. Morgan returned to the screen in the late 1980s playing his past roles and new ones - initially on Kenny Live, a new Saturday chat show presented by Pat Kenny which launched to fill the gap in the schedules left by the moving of the famed Late Late Show to a new Friday slot. However, the show axed its comedy slot when it changed its format in response to negative public responses to the show's structure.

Mr. Eastwood

Morgan moved into a new area when he released a comedy single in December 1985, called Thank you very very much, Mr. Eastwood, a take on the fawning praise of his manager given after bouts by internationally successful Irish boxer Barry McGuigan, which 'featured' lines by McGuigan, Ronald Reagan, Bob Geldof, and Pope John Paul II, all performed by Morgan, in which they too thanked "Mr. Eastwood" repeatedly.

Scrap Saturday Breaks The Mould

Morgan's biggest Irish broadcasting success occurred in the late 1980s in the Saturday morning radio comedy show, Scrap Saturday, in which Morgan, co-scriptwriter Gerard Stembridge, Owen Roe and Pauline McLynn mocked Ireland's political, business and media establishment. In particular the relationship between then Taoiseach , the ever-controversial Charles Haughey and his press secretary, P. J. Mara became legendary, with Haughey's dismissive attitude towards the latter and Mara's adoring and grovelling attitude towards the "Boss . . . the greatest Leader, Man of Destiny, Statesman, Titan, a Colossus", becoming a broadcasting legend and winning critical praise.

Morgan pilloried Haughey's propensity for claiming a family connection to almost every part of Ireland he visited through the mocking use of a famous drinks advertisement for an Irish beer called Harp, which had played on the image of someone returning home and seeking friends, especially "Sally O'Brien, and the way she might look at you". In the Morgan skit version, Haughey's visits to somewhere in the world, from Dublin to Dubai and elsewhere, would invariably cue after a few seconds the traditional music of the real advertisement, at which Haughey would begin "did I tell you, PJ, about my cousins in . . . " And he would begin discussing "my cousin François Haughey" (France), "Helmut Haughey" (Germany), "Yassar Haughey" (Palestine), "Yitzak Haughey" (Israel) or wherever, to the increasingly despairing Mara, who would groan "Ah now Jaysus, Boss. Come on now, Ah Jaysus (sigh)!"

The Haughey/Mara "double act" became the star turn in a series that mocked all sides, from Haughey and his advisors to opposition Fine Gael TD Michael Noonan as a Limerick disk jockey called "Morning Noon'an Night" and a host of other characters. When RTÉ axed the show in the early 1990s a national outcry ensued. Morgan lashed the decision, calling it "a shameless act of broadcasting cowardice and political subservience". An RTÉ spokesman famously said "The show is not being axed, it's just not being continued!"

In 1991, Morgan received a Jacob's Award for his contribution to Scrap Saturday from the Irish national newspaper radio critics.

Father Ted

Although a celebrity in Ireland, Morgan's "big break" came in the shape of the title-role in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, which ran for three series from 1995. Writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan developed the series from a character featured in the former's stand-up comedy act. The writers saw many actors for the role of 'Father Ted', but Morgan's enthusiasm eventually won him the role.

Father Ted centred on three disparate characters. Father Ted Crilly was a financially dubious character living a frustrated life trapped on the island and played by Morgan. Famed Irish TV comedy actor Frank Kelly played the retired Father Jack Hackett, a foul-mouthed alcoholic, while child-minded Father Dougal McGuire was played by new Irish comedian Ardal O'Hanlon. In addition to the three priests was their housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, played by Pauline McLynn, with whom Morgan had worked on Scrap Saturday.

BAFTA award

Father Ted's comic depiction of Irish Catholicism earned it wide popularity and critical acclaim. In 1998 the show won a BAFTA award for Best Comedy, while Morgan won a BAFTA for Best Actor, and McLynn the Best Actress award. Apart from the main characters, many other successful side characters featured, most famously the camp hyperactive Father Noel Furlong, played by Irish comedian and British talk show host Graham Norton.

Sudden death and legacy

After the recording of the third series had been completed, Morgan intended to work on a new comedy series, based around two retired football players living in a small flat together. However, 24 hours after finishing the recording of the last episode of Father Ted, while hosting a dinner party at his South West London home, Morgan had a heart attack and died soon after in the London Borough of Hounslow. He was 45.

Frank Kelly said of his acting colleague "Dermot's mind was mercurial. I think he was a kind of comedic meteor. He burned himself out." The irony of Morgan's death, at a time when after twenty years of struggle, he had finally achieved financial and artistic freedom, was not lost on his family and friends and commented on by his colleagues in the media. Ironically, for a station that has such a tempestuous relationship with him, repeats of Morgan's Father Ted are now almost continually shown on RTÉ.

Morgan was survived by his girlfriend, his first wife, and his three sons. His Requiem Mass in St. Therese's Church in his native Mount Merrion, South Dublin, was attended by, among others, the President of Ireland Mary McAleese and her predecessor, Mary Robinson and by the leaders of Ireland's church and state, many of whom had been the victims (often to their own amusement, sometimes to their anger) of Morgan's humour in Scrap Saturday.