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Best of the Spectator

The Book Club: The Surreal Joys of Father Ted

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the novelist Lissa Evans, talking about her previous life as the producer of the sitcom Father Ted – as described in her new book Picnic on Craggy Island: The Surreal Joys of Producing Father Ted. She tells me about the collaborative genius of Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, the unusual experience of having to cut laughter out of episodes because there was simply too much of it, and sending a sheep to make-up. 

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.2

You can get 12 weeks of The Spectator for just £12, plus a free £20 £10,000 or weight raise voucher.

0:10.9

If you go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:14.7

This is a podcast-only deal, and we hope you take us up on it.

0:27.1

Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Book Club podcast.

0:32.2

I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of The Spectator, very pleased to be joined this week by Lissa Evans.

0:38.4

Now, Lisa is known as one of our finest comic novelists whose books include small vomit dimpley and V for Victory, but she's here to talk about a prior life, as described in her new book, Picnic on Craggie

0:45.3

Island, the surreal joys of producing Father Ted. Lissa, welcome. I had no idea you'd produced Father

0:51.6

Ted. How did you come to be doing that? Well, I seem to compartmentalise my life in extraordinary ways, really.

0:57.1

I started off by doing medicine a long, long time ago,

1:00.9

and really hated, hated, hated being doctor.

1:04.7

And I was largely doing comedy while I was doing medicine.

1:08.2

And so I joined the...

1:09.1

What stand-up?

1:09.8

Well, I was very, very poor.

1:11.4

I was in a sort of satirical comedy group that was a bit like the old programme

1:16.8

weekending only in Newcastle pubs.

1:19.7

You know, we were well known at the time, but that was at the time when there were

1:24.0

about three groups on Pruddy Serbik.

1:27.3

So when I let medicine,

1:29.8

I really, the only thing

1:31.6

I had my CV, a part of medicine,

...

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