Father Ted creator Graham Linehan on losing friends, a wife and career over tweets: 'The guns turned on me'
Father Ted writer Graham Line has suffered an incalculable cost for airing his views on trans activism
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Cancellation is often caricatured as a right-wing talking point.
Go offline, and you'll see that it doesn't exist in the real world, left-wing commentators are fond of saying.
Tell that to respected comedy writer Graham Linehan, who was cast into the wilderness over his views.
On the face of it, Linehan would seem like the last person to be cancelled.
Comedy writer Graham Linehan speaks with GB News
The man behind hit TV sitcoms Father Ted, Black Books, and the IT crowd was a towering figure in the world of comedy and duly respected in luvvie circles.
And yet, the Bafta award-winning writer's world came crashing down after he started questioning the dogmas surrounding transgenderism.
Linehan's public cancellation came into full effect around 2020 when his X (formerly known as Twitter) account was permanently suspended in June of that year after he tweeted "men aren’t women tho" in response to a Women’s Institute post wishing transgender members a happy Pride.
He was later reinstated on the platform but the damage was done. His controversial views had robbed him of a career in comedy, destroyed friendships and even contributed to the collapse of his marriage, the latter of which he attributes to threats from activists and the ensuing financial insecurity.
Linehan had spent years working on a Father Ted musical that was scrapped.
"It was as a surefire success as you could get in the world of theatre, which is very careful about what it puts its money behind. We had everything going for us. It was all ready to go. We had the songs written by Neil Hannon [musician and longtime collaborator]. It needed another draft or two, but it was nearly ready to go. The actors were there and they just destroyed the whole thing," Linehan told GB News.
He says indignantly that the production would have employed dozens if not hundreds of people, adding: "The theatre world is completely captured by privileged theatre kids who think the world has to revolve around their opinions."
The IT Crowd creator hasn't written comedy in five years, all for "the crime of standing up for women's rights and against children being harmed in gender clinics".
Lineham insists his views aren't controversial; it's just that "there is a more severe test for those of us who believe in biological reality".
So, what has he said? He is a long-standing critic of self-identification.
In an interview with The Irish Times back in 2019, he took aim at "privileged white people saying you must accept anyone who says they are a woman", which he believes could lead to misuse of women's spaces.
Linehan has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi experiments on children, and has previously tweeted: "Telling children they have the wrong bodies is child abuse."
He views these interventions as morally reprehensible.
"I thought it was a normal liberal point of view that women deserve fair sports and single-sex spaces. None of this seemed unusual to me, so I was more surprised than anyone when all the guns turned on me."
He blames "trans ideology" for this inversion, believing it misrepresents both trans people and lesbians.
"I'm not talking about trans people, I'm talking about trans rights activists. Two very distinct groups that often have nothing to do with each other."
This distinction appears to be lost on his detractors, who view the comedy writer as beyond the pale.
Last year, commentator and journalist Owen Jones tweeted: "Imagine what you'd have to do to be kicked off Elon Musk's Twitter. Imagine the levels of bigotry, the obsessive commitment to it, the extent to which you'd have to let it take over and essentially destroy your life."
Self-proclaimed "LGBTQ+ Rights Activist and Anti-Racist Feminist" Alexa Ephemera was equally as excoriating way back in 2016.
Writing on the platform Medium, she branded Linehan as "insidious", alleging that he "slips casual ignorance and hateful rhetoric into a stream of tolerant and progressive views, giving his bigotry a veneer of credibility and mainstream appeal that outright reactionaries could never hope to achieve".
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Linehan claims 'there is a more severe test for those of us who believe in biological reality'.
GB News
Linehan accepts that his stance will animate his opponents, but it rankles him that former friends in comedy and journalism have "fallen in line" with ideologues.
He told GB News: "I went through my whole life thinking my friends, who were mostly men in comedy, would object to injustice, would stand up for their wives and their daughters. It turned out to be wishful thinking as they are literally pretending they don't know the difference between men and women."
Linehan added: "I don't know how they can look their daughters in the face and stand by while the world is made incredibly unsafe for them."
He still has some friends left in the entertainment industry, although they are few and far between.
Last year Irish writer John Boyne showed contrition after previously criticising the Father Ted creator, tweeting: "Graham, without equivocation, without excuses, and without evasion: you were right, I was wrong, and I apologize."
Comedians Richard Ayoade and Jonathan Ross received backlash after giving positive reviews for Linehan's 2023 book, "Tough Crowd: How I Made And Lost A Career In Comedy", which discusses his experiences with cancel culture.
IT Crowd star Ayoade described the memoir as an “extraordinary and chilling portrayal of cancel culture”, while chat show host Ross said it was “compelling and unflinchingly honest”.
In April of this year, comedy writer Josh Howie tweeted his support for Linehan, telling his almost 20,000 followers that the "hate and ridicule directed at Graham by colleagues in the comedy industry these last years has disgusted me", adding: "He was right and he was brave and he was utterly vilified for it. Let’s see if even one of those brave ‘truth tellers’ now apologises."
Linehan has managed to survive cancellation, carving out a successful second career in journalism.
His substack, The Glinner Update, has more than 31,000 subscribers, and he is a contributor at Spiked, the Telegraph and other online publications.
"I've also been doing a little bit of rewrite work that's been bringing money in, which I don't have to put my name to," he told GB News.
Despite the financial hit he has taken, Linehan has no regrets.
"I feel like I proved myself with the body of work I created in comedy. I don't need to do it again," he said, adding: "This is by far the most important thing I ever did. Because this is about real people's lives. I'm 56 now and one thing I didn't realise until I started in this fight was that I wanted to make sure that I lived a life worth living."
The IT Crowd creator continued: "If I had just sat on my arse and written comedies for the rest of my life, it would have been great. It would have been fun. But I think this is a hinge moment in history. And if I have any effect in altering it and stopping it, then I'll die a happy man."
He has practical advice for anyone looking to follow suit.
"If you do decide to take on this fight or a fight like it, get a second form of income lined up. I forgot to do that - I really screwed up there."
Linehan recommends writing to your local MP, school or "generally anything you can do that won't get you into trouble".
He has a section on his website called The Whistleblower where you can submit anonymous reports about what's going on in your workplace.
"Send me an email. Write to me and tell me what the story is and I'll put it on the site," he said.
The comedy writer is heartened by what he's seeing on both sides of the Atlantic.
He cites legislation passed in Alabama that criminalises providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth. This includes making it a felony to provide such care, with potential sentences up to 10 years in prison.
Linehan feels vindicated by the findings of the Cass Review, an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people.
The Cass Review concluded that the evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers and other medical interventions for gender dysphoria in children was not as robust as previously believed.
The review's conclusions have started influencing public policy in the UK and beyond.
"All I can do is flood whatever space I can with what's happening to women, what's happening to lesbians, gay people and the young and hope that over time, the accumulation of all these facts will break through," the Father Ted creator told GB News.
The comedy writer says the fight is far from over, with mainstream media doing the bidding of trans activists.
He alleges the BBC has become "captured" by illiberal ideologues who "suppress" negative stories about the trans movement.
Linehan cites the broadcaster's silence over trans activists releasing thousands of insects at the annual LGB Alliance conference in Westminster last month.
"It hasn't even been covered by the BBC because the BBC know it will make trans activists look bad. And the BBC at the moment is 100 per cent behind making trans activists look as good as they can make them look," he claimed.
A spokesperson for the BBC told GB News: “BBC News reports a wide range of views and perspectives on the subject, in line with our editorial guidelines.”
At the end of our interview, we come full circle.
Linehan may have been exiled from the comedy scene, but he suggests his original calling card could still provide a way back from cancellation.
He's encouraged by the comeback of cancelled comedians across the pond, such as Shane Gyllis and Louis CK. Both have self-released stand-up specials and established a huge presence online through various podcasts.
Cancellation has become their new origin story that's propelled them back onto the comedy circuit, Linehan says.
"These comedians are very good at navigating the incredibly complicated tripwires out there."
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