Life After Ted

The most obvious models for Val Falvey TD are the political satires Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, although Ardal O’Hanlon emphasises that his is a more mainstream show, and that Arthur Mathews’ involvement gives it some of the broad appeal of Father Ted.

“Because it’s Ireland, it’s going to be very different,” he comments. “Our politics is so different to British or American politics. It’s not The West Wing, we can be assured of that. I’d say Yes Minister and The Thick Of It were influences. The New Statesman not so much. But apart from that, what other political sitcoms are there? I’d avoid comparisons with other political sitcoms. It has echoes of Father Ted, given that one of the writers was involved in creating that show, and given my involvement as well. Also, the sense of the double act - they’re sort of two buffoons, there’s a Laurel and Hardy aspect to them.
“From that point of view, it’s reminiscent of Ted. I’m not comparing it for a moment to that, but it has a similar approach to comedy – that sense of the absurd is there.”
One of the elements of Irish politics that Val Falvey does poke fun at is the clientelism that is dominant at grassroots level. In the first episode, one of Falvey’s constituents demands compensation from a local business whom she claims is contaminating the outdoor area in which she swims. There ensues some decidedly tricky negotiations between the woman, the factory boss, and Falvey and his adviser.
“It works on different levels,” reckons Ardal. “With Paul and Arthur, their instincts are to be quite silly. They’re also, like I am, utterly fascinated with the way politics works in this country. Clientelism would be a part of it alright, and the ordinariness of these guys, and the self importance of the institution – they’re getting at all of that. In some ways it’s quite a gentle sitcom, and it sort of has to be in that slot, 7.30pm on a Sunday. The characters have to be likeable as well, otherwise nobody would watch it.
“You can’t just create one dimensional monsters and appeal to people’s prejudices about politicians, cos I don’t think that would work either. So that silliness is really important to the sitcom. But I do think that it is quite satirical, in kind of a sly way – but sometimes in a blatant way. They’re so stupid, some of these guys. The second episode is telling, because it moves up to the Dail for quite a bit of the episode, and it really is like a playground. It’s very schoolboy-ish; they’re smoking in the jacks and taking the piss out of each other. And Val of course is a victim of a lot of the jokes.
“So there is a satirical intention. Possibly in the beginning, before Paul and Arthur knew it was going to be this big RTE One show in a prime-time slot, it would have been more on-the-nose, more hard-hitting, but I think they managed to be slightly subversive as well as being just silly.”
Of course, Val Falvey TD is far from the first collaboration between O’Hanlon and Mathews. As well as Father Ted, they also worked together on a film released earlier this year, Wide Open Spaces. Whilst pleased with the film they ultimately made, Ardal admits to some disappointment with the critical and commercial response.
“We were pleased enough with the outcome, it sort of matched our expectations,” he says. “We were obviously not pleased with the reaction it got. No one went to see and the critics didn’t really like it. I felt the critics were quite they said, it’s just that it’s such a low-budget kind of venture, it just has obscurity as its destiny. It is destined to be one of those things that hangs around on DVD shelves forever. That’s not to say that we’re not proud of it. We like it and it is the kind of offbeat indie movie that we like. You try your best within the constraints of budgets, timescales and everything else. We’re really quite happy it.
“I suppose it’s embarrassing in a way. A film like that gets a bit of fanfare because of who’s involved and everything, and it shouldn’t. People expected something more obviously funny, more Father Ted, and it was never going to be that.”
Away from film and TV, Ardal had a notable encounter recently when he ventured into The International Comedy Club one Sunday night to try out some new material.
“Des Bishop was there at there at the top of the stairs, and he was so excited,” he recalls. “He was going, ’You won’t fucking believe who’s here! Frank Black and The Pixies are in there!’ I didn’t really believe it – I’m a big fan of The Pixies. But I went in and Frank Black was just sitting there. The reason they were there was because Dave, their drummer, likes to do magic. So this is obviously what they do; wherever they go in the world, they have find some little club to keep Dave happy!
“So it was a really good night, and then after the show, I went up to say hello to him, and he declared himself to be a huge Father Ted fan, which just made my night. His exact words were, ’I don’t just laugh – it moves me.’”
It turns out that Mr. Black is not the only renowned musician who’s a fan of the series.
“Back in 2001, myself and Graham Linehan, the other writer of Ted, were in New York for an Irish-American comedy festival,” recalls Ardal. “I was over doing a gig, and myself and Graham did a Q&A session afterwards for anyone who wanted to ask questions about Father Ted. So we were in a little theatre in Greenwich Village, and there were about 40 people there. One little guy kept asking questions and it turned out to be Moby! Then later that year, U2 were playing Slane and Moby asked me to come up onstage and do ‘My Lovely Horse’ with him. It was ridiculous!”