Bless Me, Father

1970s British tv sitcom

Young curate Father Neil arrives to St Jude’s parish, where veteran Father Duddleswell will show him the ropes of his new life, but soon realizes that his mentor has rather... practical approach to faith and church.

Series created by Peter de Rosa (a former Catholic priest), who wrote a series of novel under pen name Neil Boyd, telling the story of young catholic priest, who arrives to his first assignment, the St Jude’s parish, where veteran Father Duddleswell will show him what it means to be a priest in small community. But what will Father Neil learn will be far from what he has expected. First of all Father Duddleswell has a nasty side of his nature, that usually is activated when the housekeeper Mrs Pring is around - he always finds a way to say something nasty to her. Not that she does not fire back at him, but still at first it is unusual for catholic priest. Also Father Duddleswell has rather... let’s say progressive look on the parish - he is the shepherd of his flock and a moral compass, but from time to time he prefers to bend the rules a bit than be very strict. Still he is rather charming character and shares his life experience with young Father Neil.

Sitcom set during 1950s that mixes the nostalgia, the atmosphere of rural parish and anecdotes surrounding the first steps of catholic priest in new surroundings. Signing Arthur Lowe, a star of Dad’s Army, to play main character of Father Duddleswell, was rather bold move since Bless Me, Father has started just year after the end of Dad’s Army, but Lowe did very well and from pompous Captain Mainwaring he easily transformed into loveable Irish priest, who not always follows the rules. While few episodes were quite good, most of them had average scripts and not very impressive pace, they also lacked interesting supporting characters. Yes, the episodes were nice, they had nice anecdotes in them, but overall the series lacked solid basis. Arthur Lowe was great actor, but his little quarrels with housekeeper and unusual approach to some situations were not enough to make Bless Me, Father a great sitcom.

Rating	4.8
Funny	5 / 10
Entertaining	2 / 5
Characters	3 / 5
Nonrepetitive	2 / 5