''Bless Me, Father'' is a

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-camera ...

starring Arthur Lowe, Daniel Abineri, Gabrielle Daye, Patrick McAlinney, David Ryall, and Sheila Keith. It was aired on ITV from 1978 until 1981 and described the adventures of an Irish

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest, Father Charles Duddleswell (Lowe) and his young curate (Abineri) in the fictional parish of St. Jude's in suburban London. Twenty-one episodes, written by Peter De Rosa (who had previously been a novice

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

), were aired. De Rosa wrote the books on which the series was based using the pseudonym of Neil Boyd which was also the name of the young curate character; Boyd also served as the narrator in the series of novels upon which the series was based. It was made for the ITV network by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

. The series was set in 1950 and 1951 and marked a departure from the middle-class "bank manager" roles associated with Lowe such as that in ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...

''. The other regular characters included Mrs Pring (Daye), the housekeeper, the hard-drinking Dr Daley (McAlinney), the non-religious neighbour Billy Buzzle (Ryall), and abbess Reverend Mother Stephen (Keith).

Cast

* Arthur Lowe as Father Charles Clement Duddleswell (all episodes) * Daniel Abineri as Father Neil Boyd (all episodes) * Gabrielle Daye as Mrs. Pring (all episodes) * Patrick McAlinney as Dr. Daley (12 episodes) * David Ryall as Billy Buzzle (9 episodes) * Sheila Keith as Mother Stephen (8 episodes) * Geoffrey Drew as Mr Pinkerton (4 episodes) * Pamela Ruddock as Mrs Rollings (3 episodes) Guest appearances on the series include

Derek Francis Derek Francis (7 November 1923 – 27 March 1984) was an English comedy and character actor. Biography Francis was a regular in the Carry On film players, appearing in six of the films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in '' The Tomb of Lig ...

Phoebe Nicholls Phoebe Sarah Nicholls (born 7 April 1957) is an English film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in '' Brideshead Revisited'' and as the mother of John Merrick in ''The Elephant Man''. Personal life Ni ...

, Daniel Gerroll,

Peter Bowles Peter John Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an English screen and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as '' Callan: A Magnum for Schneider'' and '' I, Claudius''. He is best remembered for his roles in sit ...

, Clive Swift, Rynagh O'Grady, Michael Troughton,

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, member of parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pal ...

and Peter Copley.

Episodes

The series was repeated from March 2020 on Fox Classics.

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Home media

The complete series of ''Bless Me, Father'' has been released on DVD in region 1, region 2 and region 4. In the United States and Canada, "The Complete Collection" was released on 26 April 2005 from Acorn Media. In the United Kingdom, distribution company Network DVD released the complete series on 6 August 2007. In Australia, the complete series was released on 11 March 2015 via distribution company Reel DVD.

Book series

Peter De Rosa, formerly an ordained Catholic priest and lecturer, left the priesthood in 1970 and later became a full-time author. Under the pen-name Neil Boyd he wrote the ''Bless Me, Father'' novels from which the TV series was adapted.

References

External links

* * *{{Epguides, BlessMeFather 1978 British television series debuts 1981 British television series endings 1970s British sitcoms 1980s British sitcoms Fiction about Catholicism Christian fiction British English-language television shows ITV sitcoms London Weekend Television shows Religious comedy television series Television shows based on British novels Television series by ITV Studios Television series set in the 1950s Television shows set in London Television series set in 1951 Television series set in 1950