Father Ted star Dermot Morgan’s childhood was made a misery by priests, he has disclosed. The Irish­born actor, who plays Father Ted in the Channel 4 sitcom, went to a school run by a religious order. “They ruled by terror. I got the strap a lot for things like not being able to recite two pages of Irish Poetry straight off.” He was also made to feel guilty for teenage sexual feelings, he told Eva magazine. “I wasn’t happy there. I was messed up by the whole Catholic thing. It’s not a regime that my own kids will ever be subjected to.”