Careful now.

The cast of the long-awaited American adaption of classic Irish sitcom Father Ted has been announced – and you’ll certainly be down with this sort of thing.

Fans of the original Channel 4 show will be hoping America’s take on the Craggy island posse is better than the attempt at The IT Crowd (yes, that happened).

Details about the show have been extremely sparse up until this point, but producers have now revealed it will be set in an Irish-American community on a rural island called New Craggy.

The reimagining will feature Steve Martin (Pink Panther; Cheaper by the Dozen; Planes, Trains and Automobiles) in the title role of Father Hank, a Southern priest sent to the inhospitable New Craggy as punishment for advocating saying Mass during mid-week so that priests get a weekend off too.


Filming of Father Hank, which will air some time next year, is set to get under way later this month in Los Angeles.

Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd; Bridesmaids, Moone Boy), who has made a name for himself in the US recently with a number of Hollywood roles, will take on the difficult task of reimagining the much-loved Fr Dougal McGuire.

The name of O’Dowd’s version of the character however, will instead be spelt 'Dogal', in a move which may anger fans of the original series.


“We got rid of the ‘U’ in ‘color’ and ‘neighbor’ so we thought why not Dougal too?”said producer April F. Day.

Meanwhile, the task of emulating the late Frank Kelly’s foul-mouthed Fr Jack Hackett will fall to Hollywood veteran Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Angel Heart, Iron Man 2).

Father Jack Hackett’s famous “Drink, Feck, Arse, Girls” catchphrase is understood to have been slightly modified and will now go: “Liquor, Damn, Ass, Chicks.”

The task of serving tea will fall to Irish-American actress Melissa McCarthy, who will play an American take on Mrs Doyle.

Previous attempts to remake Father Ted have failed.


In 2003, it was announced it would be remade for the American market and would be scripted by Spike Feresten, who previously wrote for Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

The project never materialised. Four years later, a separate US remake was announced, which was to be set in a fishing village in New England.

American actor John Michael Higgins, whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, was cast as Ted but the project later stalled.

Editor's note: This story, originally published on April 1, 2017, was, of course, an April's Fool's joke