Bishop Brennan

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Bishop Leonard "Len" Brennan is a fictional character played by Jim Norton in the Irish sitcom Father Ted, starring the late Dermot Morgan in the title role.

Bishop Brennan is the reason that Ted, Dougal and Jack are imprisoned on the hellish Craggy Island. As their superior he had the responsibility of punishing them for un-priest like crimes they have committed. He is strong-willed and strict, with a notorious phobia of rabbits and a rumoured son in America. He strikes a chord of fear into Father Ted Crilly, who constantly tries to avoid Bishop Brennan whenever possible.

Bishop Brennan visited the island on three notable occasions: firstly; when the Blasphemous film The Passion of Saint Tibulous was being shown on the island. When Ted and Dougal tried (half-heartedly) to protest, more and more people took notice of the film, and came in flocks to the island to see it (they even came from Gdańsk).

Bishop Brennan vowed to punish the three priests by sending them to even smaller, worse places across the world that were even more horrific than Craggy Island. However, the Bishop soon changed his mind when Father Jack found a video tape containing footage of Brennan with what is presumed to be his long-rumoured son and girlfriend (the boy's mother) on holiday in California.

The Bishop's second visit to the island was when Father Jack started a habit of nude sleepwalking, and to Bishop Brennan's fury it had been witnessed by an old and respected friend of his. Brennan once again had to deal with the cast of Police Academy. Unfortunately he was totally unaware that a plague of rabbits had befouled the house.

Bishop Brennan was once stuck in a lift in New York with around a hundred rabbits, and they started to "nibble at my cloak, and everything". Upon questioning Ted when his suspicions were aroused to the priests' strange behavior (and finding some lettuce in a cage), Brennan retired to bed, only to be woken up by Ted and Dougal who were getting rid of about a hundred rabbits and a nude Jack who was sleeping in the Bishop's bed.

As the result of losing a football match to Father Dick Byrne, Ted was forced to accept a dare: "Kick Bishop Brennan up the arse". After Dick Byrne told Brennan that an apparation of him was appearing in the skirting boards of the guest bedroom, he arrived with his escort Father Jessop - the most sarcastic priest in Ireland.

Ted eventually (after much fooling around) managed to carry out to the dare, shocking Bishop Brennan into a catatonic state that lasted well beyond the duration of his visit and halfway through a trip to the Vatican for an audience with the Pope. He snapped out of it just as he was due to greet the pontiff, exclaiming "He DID kick me up the arse!", shoving the Holy Father aside and flying back to Craggy Island in utmost fury. Ted eventually managed to convince a raging Brennan that he didn't kick him in the posterior.

Brennan was on his way into a taxi when he saw the massive photograph of Ted kicking him up the arse that Dougal had had placed outside the house (having misinterpreted Ted's request for the photo to be enlarged to 10x10 inches as 10x10 feet), and got his revenge on Ted by doing the same thing to him, sending him flying ten feet into the air across the field.

Bishop Brennan was, arguably, one of the program's most popular characters.

Bishop Brennan can be seen as being hypocritical and decadent and in many ways just as bad as Ted in his vindictiveness. His lifestyle makes for a scathing criticism of the privilege in the Catholic church as there are numerous scenes where he calls Ted, while obviously in very luxurious surroundings, or even settling into a bath with a naked woman, while Ted and the others live in relative squalor.

Father Ted
Characters
Father Ted Crilly | Father Dougal McGuire | Father Jack Hackett | Mrs. Doyle Bishop Brennan | Minor Characters
Major Cast and Crew
Dermot Morgan Ardal O'Hanlon | Frank Kelly | Pauline McLynn Arthur Mathews | Graham Linehan Pat Shortt | Jim Norton | Graham Norton | Tony Guilfoyle
Other Related Pages
List of Father Ted episodes | Craggy Island | My Lovely Horse | Feck