Irish writer Graham Linehan has revealed he has considered bringing the nation’s favourite, Father Ted, back in the form of a stage musical.
The news will be music to the ears of millions of comedy fans in Ireland and the UK.
Ted and his allies Father Dougal Maguire, Father Jack Hackett and Mrs Doyle entertained us all during the 1990s as they got into various hilarious adventures such as entering the Eurovision Song Contest with My Lovely Horse and competing in The Annual All-Priests 5-a-side Over 75 Indoor Football Challenge.
The residents of Craggy Island are still much loved today, more than 20 years after they first arrived on our screens.
Tragically, the series was brought to an abrupt end in 1998, when actor Dermot Morgan died of a heart attack.
Graham Linehan, who co-wrote the show with writing partner Arthur Mathews, has told the Sunday Business Post he has long considered turning the show into a musical.
He said: “I think if you look at something like the South Park boys and the Book of Mormon, that’s pretty hardcore and I think there is an argument you could make a Ted musical where you really go for the jugular and you get all the things people loved about it, all the innocence and all the sweetness, but introduce a harder edge.
“Because it’s such a special event, it would have to be about something that’s kind of world-shaking. It would have to be about Ted becoming Pope, or some weird succession thing that means Ted’s next in line. It would have to be substantial and big.
“The only thing that’s stuck in my head is a dance sequence in the Vatican with spinning cardinals. I can see that quite clearly.”
Fingers crossed it will happen…