The name Graham Linehan
probably doesn't ring a bell for my German readers, and maybe some of
my English readers (preposterously assuming I have some ) don't know
him either. Being the writer of a comedy seems not to be the most
rewarding job, as people tend to only remember the main actors. They
will remember Ardal O'Hanlon as Dougal in FATHER TED, Dylan Moran as
Bernard in BLACK BOOKS, or Matt Berry as Douglas in IT CROWD. They
won't remember the persons actually writing the jokes – they won't
remember Graham Linehan and his partners.
FATHER TED, jointly
written by Arthur Mathews and Linehan, is their best-known and most
successful show. Both in 1996 and 1999 the show won the British
Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Comedy.
Main actor Dermot Morgan also won a BAFTA award for best actor in
1998, but unfortunately passed away the same year.
The show is about three
unlikely priests, who have, for different reasons, been exiled to a
small Irish island: the eponymous Father Ted, a passionate gambler,
the incredibly naïve Father Dougal, and the violent Father Jack, a
chronic alcoholic. They are taken care of by their housekeeper, the
cranky Miss Doyle.
The first, and best,
episodes both explore the interaction between the characters and the
setting, though Linehan and Mathews only use religion or
Ireland-specific jokes if they are relevant to the plot, seeing that
too many in-jokes would scare off a larger audience. Later episodes,
especially that of the last season, however, tend to be wackier and
more constructed, for example when Dougal, in a parody of SPEED, has
to keep a milk van at over 5 mp/h to prevent the vehicle from
exploding. However, Linehan does know that even a good show can
become bad after too many episodes. And in the case of FATHER TED,
Morgan's death made any sequel impossible anyways.
Together with Irish Comedian Dylan
Moran, Linehan wrote and directed BLACK BOOKS soon after. Their
co-operation lasted only one season, but Moran continued his work and
wrote twelve more episodes. The first season, still involving
Linehan, won a BAFTA award for Best Situation Comedy, as did the
third and last one.
Similar to FATHER TED, BLACK BOOKS has
three main characters: Bernard Black (played by Dylan Moran himself),
grumpy owner of a bookshop, good-natured Manny, his employee, and
their neighbour Fran Katzenjammer, a frustrated single. Together they
experience the madness of running a bookshop, such as teaching an
ex-convict to read, so that he can actually present the book about
his life of crime.
BLACK BOOKS is more tuned in than
FATHER TED, but also less constructed, its craziness being firmly
fixed in the character's everyday life – it appears perfectly
normal that a messy alcoholic such as Bernard would do things such as
trying to assassinate a cat which inherited the flat above his shop.
Though a bit less funny than FATHER TED overall, BLACK BOOKS has
stronger, more sympathetic characters, and thus needn't be afraid of
being compared to its predecessor.
IT CROWD, which lasted four seasons,
was the first series Linehan created on his own. Though arguably the
worst of his work (though still great, judged on its own merits), IT
CROWD also won a BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy, and an Emmy for
Best Comedy.
Again, it has three main characters:
the computer-nerds and IT-advisors Moss and Roy, the latter being the
less geeky one, and their non-nerd superior Jen, who often serves as
a link between the “normal” audience and the nerdy characters.
Their macho-boss Douglas (“I know where to sign a sexual harassment
settlement, thank you”) also appears on a regular basis and is a
welcome addition to the usual trio.
Again, the plot is becoming more
constructed over time, for example when Douglas finds his father's
pistol in a drawer just to accidentally shoot himself in the foot
before an important business meeting. IT CROWD's biggest problem,
however, is that it follows Linehan's usual scheme of the status quo
being restored at the beginning of each episode, even though the
individual plots counteract such proceeding: if characters do develop
relations, these shouldn't be suddenly reset at the beginning of the
next episode. The worst example is Moss and Jen having sex while
drunk at the end of the first season, which is mentioned never again
and doesn't change their relation at all. A writer so experienced as
Linehan should have avoided such mistakes.
Linehan's shows do have much in common:
they have an unusual setting, of which they make great use (at least
in the first episodes), their characters often form a kind of
substitute family, cliché-roles being the starting point of many
great jokes, and they are hilariously funny – even IT CROWD is a
great laugh and far better than most other comedies. But seeing that
IT CROWD, which he wrote and directed on his own, was his “weakest”
show, we can hope that he'll find a strong partner for his next
project,and that Linehan will live up to his former glory.
