"Hell" is the first episode of the second series of the Channel 4sitcomFather Ted, and the seventh episode overall. In this episode, Graham Norton makes his first of three appearances as Father Noel Furlong.
Plot
It is time for Ted, Dougal, and Jack to take their annual holiday. They go to the Kilkelly Caravan Park, where a friend of Ted's Father O'Rourke has offered them use of his caravan. Following the vague directions, Ted mistakes a rather luxurious caravan as O'Rourke's, only to find it occupied by a young couple showering together. After apologising profusely to the couple and the gardaí, Ted recognises that their caravan is a compact, squalid model, with barely enough room for the three of them. Only then does Ted realise that Dougal forgot to hitch the trailer containing all of their games and entertainment back at the parochial house. After putting a box over Jack's head to make him fall asleep, Ted and Dougal quickly exhaust all of the activities within the caravan. Pushing Jack in a wheelchair, they later explore the only two attractions nearby, St. Kevin's Stump and the Magic Road, where the laws of gravity seemingly disappear. While Ted and Dougal are distracted, Jack's wheelchair is dragged up the Magic Road, and he falls over a cliff; the other two think Jack has just gone for his own walk. After it starts to rain heavily, Ted and Dougal return to the caravan to find that Father O'Rourke also promised its use to Father Noel Furlong and his youth group, who are cramped inside and having a sing-song. Noel's boundless energy quickly grates on Ted, and confuses Dougal. Ted decides they will cut their vacation short, but before leaving, uses an outhouse, but too late realises it is occupied by the same young woman from the luxury caravan. Her husband, clad only in a towel, chases after Ted as he and Dougal get in their car. The man hangs onto the bonnet as Ted races away from the caravan park, losing the towel along the way. Ted eventually stops, giving time for the man to get off, find a glass bottle and puncture the car's tyres before walking off. Ted and Dougal, refusing to go back to the park, look to hitchhike home. They are elated when island eccentric Tom, transporting raw sewage in a tanker-truck, offers them a ride. Tom however hits the wrong button to open the door, and instead opens the sewage release valve, drenching the priests. Jack is later shown coming to on a luxury yacht, surrounded by alcohol and beautiful women.
Production
The Caravan site is located at Fanore Beach, County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. The writers based the episode on their own childhood experiences. The caravan park was based on Graham Linehan's memories of being taken on two-week-long holidays to grim caravan parks where it would always rain and there would be a plentiful supply of children to bully him. He would describe it as a "holiday in Hell", hence the episode's title. The unusual attractions such as the Magic Road were based on real-life locations Arthur Mathews had visited. During the filming of the scene in Entertaining Father Stone in which the priests play crazy golf in a rainstorm, which caused the actors to get soaking wet, Dermot Morgan joked that next time the writers will probably get them covered in raw sewage. This is the entire reason why the scene where Ted and Dougal are sprayed with sewage was written. The actors did not realise that the substance made up to look like sewage was extremely cold; this caused them to run away from it very quickly when it was sprayed on them, and the writers to feel guilty about making them do it.
Legacy
This episode includes one of the show's more memorable scenes, where Ted is trying to explain perspective to Dougal while in the caravan. In it, Ted says "These ' are small... but the ones out there ' are far away. Small... far away... ah forget it!" The scene is considered one of the show's most iconic, and was named as the third-best one-liner of any British sitcom in a January 2017 survey by The Telegraph. The line was used to name Small, Far Away, a documentary of the show created by creators Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews on the 15th anniversary of the show's premiere.
