British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Popetown is a controversial animated sitcom, billed by its producers as “Father Ted meets South Park”, following the doodles and scribblings of a student at school during a lesson. His drawings depict the life of Father Nicholas, who lives in a Vatican City parody referred to as “Popetown”. He is charged with being the handler for the Pope who is a complete nincompoop with the emotional and mental maturity of a four-year-old. Father Nicholas must keep the Pope out of trouble, and make sure the general public does not find out that the Holy Father is a drooling idiot. Other characters include a priest who is a sexual deviant, and a trio of corrupt cardinals who secretly run Popetown and attempt to get rich behind the Pope’s back. These and other elements caused the show to be extremely controversial.

The original English-language version of the show features the voices of actor and Popetown writer Mackenzie Crook, Little Britain co-creator Matt Lucas, providing the voice for one of the cardinals, and actress Jerry Hall. Ruby Wax is the voice actor for The Pope.

The series was originally commissioned by BBC Three in the United Kingdom, but was dropped from scheduling without a screening in the wake of protests from Roman Catholics. The premiere screened on New Zealand’s C4 television network on 8 June 2005. Despite never being shown on British television, it was eventually released on DVD in the UK by Revolver Entertainment on 5 September 2005, in Australia by Roadshow Entertainment and in Germany, where it was aired on television, by Polyband. It is also currently aired on several MTV channels, including MTV Latin America, MTV Latvia, MTV Estonia and others. The show was also banned in some countries.