The Passion of Saint Tibulus


"The Passion of Saint Tibulus" is the third episode of Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.

Synopsis

is hosting Father Hernandez from Cuba at the Craggy Island parochial house. Father Hernandez, seeing Mrs Doyle, confesses he sometimes finds a life of celibacy difficult, and Ted mentions Bishop Brennan, who is rumoured to have a son who lives in America.
Bishop Brennan arrives the next day and orders Ted and Dougal to protest against the playing of The Passion of Saint Tibulus at the Craggy Island cinema. The film, condemned as blasphemous and banned from playing nearly anywhere else, is only being shown on Craggy Island due to an odd loophole. Brennan wants Ted and Dougal to show that the Catholic Church has made a stand on it; he considers this matter of utmost importance as he had to be recalled from his holiday in California to deal with it.
Ted and Dougal go to the cinema to find only a couple people there. They make a gentlemen's agreement with Michael, the cinema manager, to watch the film once and then peacefully protest at it so that Michael can throw them out, making it look like a fuss. They return to the parochial house for the night, and discuss the film, agreeing it was difficult to understand and sexually explicit. The next morning, Brennan returns and forces them to start early on their protest, despite the cinema not being open yet. They half-heartedly stand around the cinema, waving placards that say "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now". Ted has Dougal buy them handcuffs to chain themselves to the railings outside the cinema, hoping that will increase attention. However, they find their protests have the opposite effect, as people are drawn in to see the film.
Meanwhile, Jack discovers Brennan's travel bag, which, besides a bottle of alcohol, includes a VHS camcorder containing a video cassette labelled "Holiday '95 California".
As evening comes, Michael tells Ted that The Passion of Saint Tibulus was more successful for him than even Jurassic Park. Ted decides to give up, but finds Dougal does not have the handcuff key. Still handcuffed to the railing, they are forced to carry it home with them. Back at the house, Brennan scolds them for causing the film to become so popular that people are arriving from all over Ireland and "even from Gdańsk" to see it. Brennan shows them a globe and explains his plans to reassign them all to locations worse than Craggy Island as punishment, and then leaves, but not before Jack punches him in the face for waking him up. Ted and Dougal lament their fate, but Jack shows them the video cassette, which has a video of Brennan in California with his secret mistress and his son. Ted realises he can use this tape for blackmail and force Brennan to change his mind, and joins the other two as they watch the tape a few more times.

Production

The episode's central theme is ineffectual protest. The plot of the Church's opposition to a blasphemous film was inspired by the reaction to several real-world films, including The Last Temptation of Christ, Sebastiane, Hail Mary and Monty Python's Life of Brian; the last of these was banned in Ireland upon its release, so Linehan joined a film club specifically to get a chance to watch it.
This episode was the second to be recorded, and the writers originally planned to air it first; they later moved it to second, feeling that "Good Luck, Father Ted" would make a better introduction, and finally moved it to third because of Mathews's particular love for "Entertaining Father Stone". This causes a continuity error, as the VCR that Father Hernandez gifts to the priests is already present in "Entertaining Father Stone". The cinema used was the Ormonde in Greystones, Co.Wicklow. It continued to operate until July 2007, when it closed due to commercial difficulties.
One of the writers' early ideas for the series was that every priest in the world knows every other personally; this idea is introduced in the opening scene with the Cuban priest Father Hernandez. When Hernandez speaks in Spanish, he is clumsily dubbed over by an English translator, which the Craggy Islanders can inexplicably hear and understand – an idea Linehan considered "just this side of being too mad to do". The translator's voice is provided by producer Geoffrey Perkins.
This episode introduced the recurring character of Bishop Brennan, who was initially based on Eamon Casey, and later on Michael Cleary. The writers cast Jim Norton after seeing him as Wentworth in the 1995 Frasier episode "The Club"; Mathews has also heard his reading of James Joyce's Ulysses. The writers always felt that Bishop Brennan was Father Jack's nemesis, as Jack himself had the potential to become a bishop, but never did because he was not a career priest.
The scenes with Ted and Dougal sharing a bedroom were inspired by similar scenes in the Morecambe and Wise shows. The writers used these scenes for end-of-the-day conversations to wrap up the story, and to provide a sort of "safe zone" for Ted and Dougal to discuss the plot. Linehan and Mathews had to cut laughs in some scenes because the studio audience incorrectly thought they were making sex jokes.

Legacy

Protest signs

The vague protest signs carried by Ted and Dougal are among the show's most recognised jokes. This is acknowledged in the closing montage of the final episode, where the slogans are the only soundbite used.
The signs were referred to by Green Party leader John Gormley on 28 June 2010 to describe his view that the Labour Party have little or no policies. He accused the Labour Party of saying "Down with this sort of thing" without providing their alternative.
During a number of high-profile UK protests, including the Pope's state visit in September 2010 and student protests against tuition fee rises in November 2010, as well as protests against the Irish EU bailout and austerity measures in November 2010, several protesters displayed banners saying "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now".
The line is referenced in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V, where a protester is seen carrying a "Down with this sort of thing" sign.

Fan film

A black-and-white silent short film, Saint Tibulus & The Bog Water, was shot on 1 March 2014, at the eighth annual Ted Fest event in the Aran Islands. A professional camera crew and actors took part in the production, which featured fans as minor characters and extras.
The film is set at a young couple's wedding on Craggy Island in 1740. A ship bringing alcohol for the wedding loses its cargo in a storm. The attendees are devastated. Saint Tibulus appears and miraculously transforms a pot of bog water to a new alcoholic drink, saving the wedding. The drink is known as "The Saint's Brew" until 1759, when Arthur, a young man who witnessed the miracle, recreates it to sell the drink as his own.