The creator of comedy series Father Ted broke down in tears as he claimed trans activists had cost him his family and his marriage before declaring that he had been ‘thoroughly cancelled’.
Bafta-winning writer Graham Linehan, whose credits include The IT Crowd, gave a rare interview to a late night BBC talk show in which he said his forthright views have seen his career pulled apart.
‘They took everything from me,’ the 53-year-old wept as he spoke to 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan. ‘They took my family.’
‘Before this, all I was doing was writing comedy and playing board games and being silly on the internet.
‘And then I just said, “No, hang on a sec, stop calling these women TERFs, stop sending them abuse. Let them speak” – and for that they just destroyed me.’
Bafta-winning writer Graham Linehan, whose credits include The IT Crowd, gave a rare interview to a late night BBC talk show in which he said his forthright views have seen his career pulled apart
Mr Linehan, right, said the controversy and the abuse he has received over his views resulted in the collapse of his marriage to Helen Serafinowicz, left
Over a number of years Mr Linehan has found himself embroiled in online debates on social media sites like Twitter which saw him attacked by trans activists for his defence of women’s rights and the importance of biological sex
Mr Linehan claims that some activists used social media to attack his wife and family
Mr Linehan believes he is standing up for the rights of women though his critics claim he is anti-trans
Mr Linehan said that media companies are now snubbing him while all of his showbusiness friends have turned their backs.
He has even seen his stage musical version of Father Ted axed just as it was in rehearsals.
Over a number of years Mr Linehan has found himself embroiled in online debates on social media sites like Twitter which saw him attacked by trans activists for his defence of women’s rights and the importance of biological sex.
In the interview, broadcast yesterday, he admitted he never thought his stance on the issue would sound the death knell for the stage adaptation of Father Ted.
He said: ‘My original bet was that the [Father] Ted musical was too big to fail.
‘I simply thought, if they come after it, then that will be good because then people will see how crazy this is, how absurd and how censorious, how anti-female, how homophobic that this movement is.
‘They took everything from me,’ the 53-year-old wept as he spoke to 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan. ‘They took my family’
‘So I kind of thought it would be OK but the more time passed… I was standing up, I was trying to explain my self as clearly as possible, and when they couldn’t come for me they came for my wife.
‘I’m living in a flat now because eventually the pressure of all this drove my wife and I apart and we divorced because of this.’
Last December, Mr Linehan told Mail on Sunday that producers at Hat Trick Productions informed him that plans for a stage musical of Father Ted could collapse unless he removed his name from the credits over fears that the show could become a target for trans campaigners.
He said at the time: ‘The production company are terrified that as soon as it opens, trans activists will try and shut it down.
‘Hat Trick have simply told me it will be impossible for them to be able to finance the show unless I am no longer associated with it.’
But now Mr Linehan has said the plug has been pulled and he has no one defending his position – not even those he previously considered showbiz friends.
He said: ‘We’ve done full rehearsals of [Father Ted the musical] twice. Neil Hannon [from the Divine Comedy, who wrote the TV show theme tune] has written some of the best music you’ll ever hear.
‘We have songs for every character, we have a great story, it was ready to go.
‘And just because a group of people have decided that anybody who speaks up against this ideology is evil, they’ve just kind of rolled over for those people. No one is standing up for me.
‘After five years not one of my friends spoke up, not one of my friends in showbiz spoke up.
Many people commenting following Mr Linehan’s appearance on the Stephen Nolan Show were not sympathetic to his situation
Last December, Mr Linehan told Mail on Sunday that producers at Hat Trick Productions informed him that plans for a stage musical of Father Ted could collapse unless he removed his name from the credits over fears that the show could become a target for trans campaigners. Pictured: The cast of the TV version of Father Ted
Mr Linehan said all of his celebrity friends have abandoned him because they do not want to become embroiled in the controversy
‘I often joke I used to know no one except people in showbiz, and now I know no one in showbusiness and loads of people outside of it in all walks of life.
‘But my celebrity friends, comedians – you know, intellectuals who have an opinion on everything else under the sun except this subject – this just sit and stay silent.
‘And all it needs is just a few adults to step into the room and say, “Hang on a second. He’s not saying anything particularly controversial. Why is he so toxic?”‘
Mr Linehan believes biological sex is more important than the controversial idea that an individual can choose a ‘self-identified’ gender, which has seen biological men demand the right to use women’s lavatories and changing rooms.
But he accepted his strident views have cost him his career and his marriage, but added: ‘The one thing about this that keeps me going is that I know I’m right.
‘Sometimes something is so wrong that you have to say something and if I didn’t say something I’d go mad.’
He was a guest via Zoom on late-night BBC Northern Ireland programme Nolan Live, hosted by 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan.
The presenter asked him: ‘Can I ask you a personal question? You say that this destroyed your relationship with your wife? How did you not bond together? How did this not keep you close?’
While Mr Linehan didn’t want to talk about his marriage breakdown, he instead turned to his concerns that ‘cancel culture’ has left the comedy business terrified.
Mr Linehan’s high public profile has seen him attacked for his views, which trans activists claim are deeply offensive
He answered: ‘I don’t want to go too much into that. All I’ll say is that it’s very frightening when people start coming after you, when people start digging up stuff about you.
‘I’ll tell you why other comedians won’t stand up for me even if they agree with me. Every comedian at the moment is living under a kind of state of permanent blackmail.
‘Every comedian knows that if they step on the wrong side of any particular line, it could be this or it could be any other number of things, there’s a few hot button issues where you have to follow a certain line and if you don’t, you’ll be destroyed.
‘I mean, you know, I’ve been I’ve been thoroughly cancelled. I’ll tell you how cancelled I am, there were two programmes called Cancelled and I wasn’t on either of them. Do you know what I mean? that’s how cancelled I am.’
Activists have branded Mr Linehan transphobic on social media. Pink News, an LGBTQ+ online magazine, has published scores of articles declaring him a bigot.
He is not the only writer to risk being written out of their own creations after falling foul of the transgender lobby, with Harry Potter author JK Rowling also targeted.
In his new BBC interview, Mr Linehan added: ‘I do believe we will look back at this time and we will go, “How did we get so insane? How did the whole world believe that JK Rowling was a bigot despite no evidence being presented to that end?”
Trans activists attacked Mr Linehan on Twitter following his appearance last night on BBC
One social media claimed Mr Linehan’s predicament is a case of life imitating art
‘And I genuinely think this is the first serious mass delusion spread by the internet. I think it’s spread by the Internet. Kids spread it to each other. You may have heard the phrase rapid onset gender dysphoria.
‘The thing is you can’t ring around people and ask them to be brave.
‘You know, I did do a version of that where I rang up a bunch of people and I said to them, “Look, would you sign…” – we had a letter supporting JK Rowling in the face of death and rape threats.
‘I rang up various people I knew and I thought surely this will rouse them, and I rang all these people and every single one of them said “no”.
‘And all it would take would be a few people with courage to stand up and say, “Hang on a sec, we need to talk about this without people losing their livelihoods. We need to be able to discuss this in an adult way.”
‘It is a failure of intellectuals. I mean, I actually class comedians pretty highly because I think comedians think about stuff in interesting ways.
‘But it’s a failure of comedy. It’s a failure of journalism, because journalists are openly hiding the truth. Every one of us who speaks out is left hanging in the wind by everyone else.
‘I’ve never been asked to to share my opinion [in TV interviews]. Basically, again, because I’ve been cast as an evil influence or whatever people call me, other people are not allowed to speak to me.
‘So I’ve never done podcasts. I’ve never done anything because those people know that they will be targeted and they speak to me.’
Hat Trick Productions were contacted for comment.
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