Ted

Father Ted is undoubtedly the funniest sitcom I’ve ever watched. Every sitcom has one or two shitty episodes but it has none, in my opinion.

Despite that, I threw away a DVD box set I owned a few years ago - which took weeks and weeks to be delivered from London. Why? Because by that time most episodes were made available on YouTube and I was absorbed in some sort of minimalist ideology, so I literally hacked it into pieces and chucked them.

But now, I have two copies as you can see in a picture above.

What happened was, I recently watched a Netflix series called How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, another brilliant creation of Derry Girls’ Lisa McGee. In this comedy-thriller, Father Stone (Michael Redmond) is a cop, Tom (Pat Shortt) is the main character’s father and My Lovely Horse is used in the final episode. It’s full of Father Ted easter eggs, and yet again, I went down the Craggy Island rabbit hole.

This is when I realised I made a huge mistake getting rid of the DVD. You can find most episodes on its official YouTube channel, but in fact, some of them such as Christmas special and the final episode are missing. Unofficial uploads cover them all but watching three videos in a subpar resolution to finish one episode is rather frustrating.

So I looked up Amazon to repurchase it. Shockingly, the price has shot up since and it’s more than doubled what I had paid. I seeked for other opitons, then found out that a bookstore in Tokyo had been putting a used copy on a marketplace (I still have no idea why, given its non-existent popularity in this country). The price was only 2,000 yen - what a bargain!

This is what you can see on the left in the picture. The very first Father Ted complete box set which was released 20 years ago. Careful now, 20 years are a very long time for DVD or any human kind, and you might end up getting a damaged copy - like me.

All 4 discs are heavily scratched and worst of all, the disc that contains series 3 episodes keeps freezing and not a single episode can be played. It’s totally fucked up. Maybe the previous owner couldn’t stop watching Bishop Brennan being kicked up the arse again and again until it wore out, I don’t know. It’s a real pity because this early edition has unique title menus, like if you hit “play” button there’s a cutscene of Mrs. Doyle turning the light off.

Eventually, I bought a brand new copy (item on the right). An illustrated edition that I used to own, except the packaging was made of paper and came with postcards back then. Somehow, it went less eco-friendly and now it’s plastic. I’m not particularly keen on this artwork, to be honest, but I’d say it’s the best choice for anyone who considers getting a physical copy at the moment. I’m quite happy with visual quality - it looks like full HD compared to those grainy YouTube uploads. It also has lots of bonus contents including Father Ted documentary “Small, Far Away”. It’s an absolute treat.

I’ve heard that some Gen Z’s are getting tired of streaming and now collecting DVDs and VHS. I don’t see a point in collecting VHS in this day and age but DVDs, I totally understand. We are forgetting the joy of owning music, films and TV shows we love while paying bucks for subscriptions.

I still have “less is more” mindset in a way and buying two copies of the same sitcom is normally the last thing I would do, but here I am. It’s ironic that having lesst things doesn’t nececssarily make you a minimalist - your shelf may be empty but you have millions of films on your computer anyway.

In memory of Ben Keaton (1956 - 2026)