As Ted, Mathews sometimes read from a book, Notes from Africa, purportedly written by Father Dougal McGuire, a missionary friend who described his experiences of being attacked and chased by natives.

In one sketch, Ted discussed his concern for Dougal, who had been voted Most Unpopular Priest in Africa for two years running and was spending Christmas up a tree in the grounds of The Bob Geldof Centre.

Linehan and Mathews saw O'Hanlon in a modernised Shakespeare play broadcast by RTÉ, and were impressed by the "weird, gormless" face he could pull.

"[5] The writers have said that the only other actor they feel might have worked in the role is Don Wycherley, who plays Dougal's Rugged Island counterpart, Father Cyril McDuff, in the show.

In "Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest", he mentions that his parents are dead, and also refers to an uncle who died after his heart stopped beating for a week.

In "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep", it is revealed that Ted has made him write a list of things that do not exist, which is on a pull-down chart in their bedroom.

[8] In "The Passion of Saint Tibulus", Bishop Brennan says that Dougal cannot be allowed back into "the real world" after "the Blackrock incident", in which hundreds of nuns' lives were "irreparably damaged".

In the 2011 documentary Unintelligent Design, Linehan said that Dougal had been conceived as a cross between wide-eyed bartender Woody in Cheers and roadsweeper Trigger in Only Fools and Horses.

[10][11] In another interview, they mentioned Latka Gravas from Taxi as an influence and compared the relationship between Ted and Dougal to that between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: "Alongside the wily priest who would lie at the drop of a hat we wanted a gormless idiot who was the very model of innocence.

"[5] After the first episode aired, Ben Thompson of The Independent singled out O'Hanlon as "the real star of the show", and said that Dougal's "holy-fool innocence" as "worthy of James Stewart".

Writing for the Irish Examiner, Ed Power said that while the "meme-worthy" Dougal and Jack received the most attention at the time of broadcast, Morgan's straight-man performance was the highlight in retrospect.

"[15] As testament to the character's enduring popularity, Irish bookmakers humorously began collecting bets on whether Dougal would succeed Pope John Paul II upon his death.