“You address me by my proper title…”
There are certain characters that become so ingrained in pop-culture that they seem to take on a life of their own.
This week, I’m focusing on a character that’s as much a man of God as he is frightening, the finest cleric to come out of Limerick, Bishop Len Brennan.
In three words, he’s: Scary, vengeful and hypocritical.
Why he’s a TV great: Father Ted is such a wonderful comedy but for all the lunacy that unfolds on Craggy Island, there has to be one man that calls Ted, Dougal and Jack (or in his own words, the cast of Police Academy) out on all of their shady antics. Enter Bishop Brennan.
He’s such a wonderfully written character because Len, sorry Bishop Brennan, somehow manages to be an even bigger fraud than the three priests put together. He’s shadier than that story about the poor lad that was lured to the Holy Stone of Clonrichert.
On the acting front, Jim Norton is absolutely superb in the biretta because he has an wonderful way of delivering those famous lines. It’s like he has the perfect mix of gravitas, hatred and smugness when playing the character.
When he tells Father Ted that “if you ever try to bullshit me again like that…I’ll rip off your arms”, you genuinely believe that he would do it. The annunciation and elongation of every word is a joy to behold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SHVEMU0Rg
Clip via – mattmcnerlin
There’s a different energy to the scenes that he’s a part of and it’s clear to see that Norton and Dermot Morgan clearly loved acting alongside each other.
To be fair, Bishop Brennan does have a legitimate reason for disliking everyone’s favourite priest. Ted did steal the money from that Lourdes charity, Ted and Dougal (or Forrest Gump as he calls him) made a balls-up when it came to protesting ‘The Passion of St Tibulus’ – they’re still coming from Gdansk to see the film- and Len also missed out on an audience with the Pope because the Craggy Island roads were taken in.
All this without mentioning the fact that a ‘stark bollock naked’ Jack woke up in bed beside him. Nudey Father Jack!
Arse biscuits to these incidents though because it’s still no excuse for his frequent trips to America to visit ‘the son’, those shady escapades in hot-tubs with beautiful women or the fact that he was happy to send Ted off to a “lovely little island, off the coast of Surinam and they have a couple of tribes there- you’re going to love this!- and they have been knocking the shit out of each other since 1907”.
Still though, he got his comeuppance when Ted kicked him up the arse.
His best quote: Every line he says is absolute gold but it can only be this one, “You address me by my proper title, you little bollocks”.
Clip via – Father Ted Clips
If we could put him in any other show: He’s corrupt, immoral and something of a ladies man. He would be perfect in The Sopranos.
His best scene: What else could it be?
Clip via – Channel 4
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
