Famed sitcom writer Graham Linehan says he feels like he’s ‘living through one of his own TV shows’ after the Father Ted and The IT Crowd creator had his Edinburgh shows cancelled over his gender critical views
- Graham Linehan, 55, feels like he has become a character in Father Ted
- Comedian has been vocal on his stance on the transgender debate
- READ MORE: Linehan breaks down in tears and vows to beat ‘evil trans activists’
He co-wrote one of TV’s most iconic sitcoms about the misadventures of three disgraced Irish priests living in a parish on the fictional Craggy Island.
But now comedian Graham Linehan says he feels like he has become a character in Father Ted – after coming under relentless fire over his stance on the transgender debate.
Linehan, 55, was due to do a stand-up gig in Edinburgh last week, only for Leith Arches to cancel his show. He finally performed outside the Scottish parliament on Thursday, after a second venue had pulled out.
He said: ‘There’s some steep irony in being a sitcom writer and then experiencing 48 hours where you feel you’re living through an episode yourself.
‘Five years ago, when I could still secure work in television, I took obscene delight in putting my characters through various forms of social torture.
Graham Linehan, 55, says he feels like he has become a character in Father Ted – after coming under relentless fire over his stance on the transgender debate
Much-loved British sitcom Father Ted ran for 25 episodes between 1995 and 1998. Linehan said ‘there’s some steep irony in being a sitcom writer and then experiencing 48 hours where you feel you’re living through an episode yourself’
Linehan won an Emmy Award in 2008 for best comedy for his sitcom The IT Crowd. Now the comedian thinks ‘karma is playing out’ after he ‘took obscene delight in putting my characters through various forms of social torture’
‘Now, I can’t help feeling some sort of karma is playing out. Being a character in one of my own shows is not as fun as it sounds.’
READ MORE: Graham Linehan went from creating Father Ted and IT Crowd and helping to make Alan Partridge a huge success to losing his marriage, fortune and family because of his stance on trans issues
Linehan, who was banned by Twitter in 2020 for saying ‘men aren’t women’, admitted his Holyrood gig wasn’t his best.
He said: ‘As a protest it worked great. But as comedy, meh. I tried to dive into my act but the weight of the past few days, the past five years, hung over me.’
Linehan was welling up in tears near the end of his routine in Edinburgh, telling the audience: ‘I’ve never seen anything as insane as the last two days.
‘And I keep asking people what I’ve said wrong and what I’m saying wrong in this fight about women’s spaces, about children being mutilated in and sterilised in gender clinics and about the women who are being harassed and threatened for standing up.’
The audience then broke out in applause, as the visibly emotional Linehan continued: ‘Comedy is my first love, it’s the thing I love to do, but I have not been allowed to do that for five years.
‘And this is just what I decided I would do… a couple of silly jokes, and they can’t even let me do that.’
A fan shouted from the crowd: ‘We’ve got your back Graham’. Audience cheers and applause followed. Linehan responded: ‘I know you do and it really helps.’
Linehan holds the award in the Comedy category for The IT Crowd at the 36th International Emmy Awards November 24, 2008 in New York
Helen (above), with whom Linehan created the hugely popular comedy series Motherland, was threatened and her address released online. They separated during lockdown
Linehan was responsible for two of Britain’s most popular sitcoms – and even enjoyed a hilarious cameo as an Irish TV executive in one of the best-loved episodes of Alan Partridge.
He won an Emmy Award in 2008 for best comedy for his sitcom The IT Crowd. But 12 years later, his 16-year marriage to the comedy writer Helen Serafinowicz came to end as a direct result of his trans battles, reported The Times.
The pair have one son together.
Speaking to the Mail in 2022 he said: ‘Politicians can’t answer simple questions because these people [trans activists] have persuaded them it’s complicated and difficult. It’s not. All you have to do is stick to the principles we all know: the birds and the bees.
‘People are terrified of getting into the debate, terrified of saying something wrong. If you disagree with them — if you say it denies biology or that it [the right to self-identify] is a gift to sex offenders and conmen who are able to completely erase any mention of who they previously were — they will try to destroy you.
‘I’m not talking about trans people. I’m talking about trans rights activists. They tried to destroy me. They have taken everything from me.
‘They took my family, my ability to earn a living. I haven’t considered suicide but that’s what I believe they want me to do.
‘You know, I’m so cancelled that there were two shows called Cancelled and I wasn’t asked to appear on either of them.’
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