Father Ted Crilly is one of three priests who have been exiled to the remote Craggy Island, by the corrupt and megalomaniac Bishop Len Brennan. Father Ted's exile was for appropriating a substantial quantity of church funds which he claimed were "merely resting" in his account.
He is a somewhat sympathetic character and hard put upon by the other two priests, Father Jack Hackett, a senile drunk, and Father Dougal McGuire, who gives interesting new tones to the concept of imbecility. However, Ted has a dark side - he can be very self-centred and dreams of leaving the island and living it up in a casino somewhere.