Graham Linehan

Graham George Linehan (; born May 1968) is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms ''Father Ted'' (1995–1998), '' Black Books'' (2000–2004), and ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), and has written for shows including '' Count Arthur Strong'', ''Brass Eye'' and ''The Fast Show''. Early in his career, he partnered with the writer Arthur Mathews. Linehan has won five BAFTA awards, including Best Writer, Comedy, for ''The IT Crowd'' in 2014.

After an episode of ''The IT Crowd'' was criticised as transphobic, Linehan became involved in anti-transgender activism. He argues that transgender activism endangers women and has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics. Linehan says his views have lost him work and ended his marriage.

Life and career

Linehan was born in Dublin in 1968 and attended Catholic University School, a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys. In the 1980s, he joined the staff of the Dublin politics and music magazine ''Hot Press'', where he met his future writing partner, Arthur Mathews. In their early collaborations, they created segments in sketch shows including ''Alas Smith and Jones'', '' Harry Enfield & Chums'', '' The All New Alexei Sayle Show'', '' The Day Today'' and the Ted and Ralph characters in ''The Fast Show''. They continued their collaboration with ''Paris'' (one series, 1994), ''Father Ted'' (three series, 1995–1998), and the first series of the sketch show '' Big Train''. They also wrote the "Dearth of a Salesman" episode for the series '' Coogan's Run'', which featured the character Gareth Cheeseman. In late 2003, Linehan and Mathews were named one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television by ''The Observer''. ''Father Ted'' won BAFTA awards for Best Comedy in 1996 and 1999.

Linehan wrote for the satirical series ''Brass Eye'' (1997), '' Blue Jam'' (1997–1999) and ''Jam'' (2000)''.'' With the actor Dylan Moran, he created the sitcom '' Black Books'' (2000–2004). Linehan wrote and directed the 2006 Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'', in which he sought to move away from the British trend towards mockumentary comedies. Unlike many series of the time, it was recorded before a studio audience. In November 2008, he was awarded an International Emmy for ''The IT Crowd''. In 2013, he wrote and directed the sitcom '' The Walshes''. He co-wrote the first series of the BBC sitcom ''Motherland'' and directed its pilot episode. In 2014, Linehan won his fifth BAFTA, for Best Writer, Comedy, for his work on ''The IT Crowd''. He was also nominated for ''Count Arthur Strong''.

In 2018, Linehan and Mathews announced plans for a ''Father Ted'' musical. Linehan said it would finish the series as they had planned it before the death of the lead actor, Dermot Morgan. The musical was cancelled by producers following the controversy over Linehan's views on transgender rights. In December 2024, Linehan announced plans to move to Arizona to work on a sitcom and create a production company with the comedians Rob Schneider and Andrew Doyle.

Both Linehan and Mathews have made cameos in programmes they have written. They also made an appearance in the sitcom '' I'm Alan Partridge'' as two Irish TV producers considering Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) for a contract.

Memoir

Linehan's memoir, ''Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy'', was published in October 2023. The month before publication, it had the second-highest number of pre-orders for a book on Amazon. It reached number ten on the ''Sunday Times'' bestseller list after it was published. Linehan wrote of his childhood, career, and his five years as an anti-transgender activist.

Reviewing ''Tough Crowd'' in ''The Guardian'', Fiona Sturges wrote that while Linehan's account of his comedy career has "verve and charm", the memoir "reads less like the story of a man heroically cleaving to his principles than a document of a peculiar and self-defeating obsession, a sad coda to a once towering talent". In ''The Critic,'' Ben Sixsmith described ''Tough Crowd'' as "very entertaining" with "some valuable insights into comedy", but that Linehan "admits to losing his rag in a way that might not always be productive". In ''The Irish Times'', Houman Barekat wrote that it had "two distinct narratives" and was "a discomfiting read not because it contains hard-hitting home truths, but because its author clearly hasn't worked through his issues". For ''The Spectator,'' Debbie Hayton wrote that it was "a book of two halves" that "may well appeal to two completely different audiences", concluding that "if they want to understand the man they need to read it all". Louis Chilton of ''The Independent'' described it as "a strange, sad read... that crumbles under the slightest scrutiny".

Other work

Linehan's children voiced characters in the 2012 ''Adventure Time'' episode " Goliad", with Linehan directing the children while taking the producers' instructions over the phone. He planned to write a sequel episode, and sent versions of the story to the production team. The episode was never made as ''Adventure Time'' ended in 2018. In 2023, Linehan performed a stand-up comedy set at the Backyard Comedy Club in London.

Anti-transgender activism

Linehan is involved in anti-transgender activism. He began making anti-trans statements online after the 2008 episode " The Speech" of ''The IT Crowd'', written by Linehan, was widely criticised as transphobic and sexist. Critics said it used gender stereotypes and trivialised violence against transgender women. The episode features a man who learns that his girlfriend is transgender and gets into a fight with her. Channel 4 removed the episode from syndication and streaming in 2020. Linehan felt the joke was "harmless" and says he did not understand the "ferocity" of the response, arguing that a transphobic character did not make him or the episode transphobic.

Linehan said he was sceptical of gender self-identification, objecting to "privileged white people saying you must accept anyone who says they are a woman". He said that "anyone suffering from gender dysphoria needs to be helped and supported", but he voiced concern over early transgender intervention for children. He used the social network Twitter to criticise "trans ideology", which he believes misrepresents transgender people and lesbians.

Before first Twitter ban

In 2018, Linehan praised anti-transgender protesters at that year's London Pride event who had carried banners and flyers saying that "transactivism erases lesbians", calling them "heroes". Later that year, Stephanie Hayden, a transgender woman, sued Linehan for harassment. Hayden alleged that Linehan had shared photos on Twitter of Hayden's family and her life before transition, suggested she was a criminal, and repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed her. Linehan in turn alleged that Hayden publicised several private addresses linked to his family to silence him. Police issued Linehan a verbal warning not to contact Hayden.

In a December 2018 interview with Derrick Jensen, Linehan said: "I'm now in a position where I can answer the question honestly of 'if you were around at the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, or whatever it happened to be, would you be one of the people who said "no, this is wrong", despite being opposed?'" He also said the trans movement provides "cover" for "fetishists, con men, and simply abusive misogynists". In an interview with the BBC television programme ''Newsnight'' in February 2020, Linehan said that the Tavistock Centre's practice of treating children with puberty blockers such as Lupron was comparable to Nazi eugenics and experiments on children. Following this interview, Eric Pickles, the United Kingdom Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, accused Linehan of trivialising the Holocaust.

In January 2019, Linehan expressed concern over the news that Mermaids, a charitable advocacy organisation for transgender children and teenagers, was to receive a £500,000 lottery grant to open clinics around the United Kingdom. He posted to the blogging website Mumsnet encouraging its users to lobby the National Lottery Community Fund to reverse its decision. The grant was reviewed and went ahead. In response to Linehan, YouTuber Hbomberguy held a 57-hour fundraising livestream that raised £270,000 more for Mermaids. The same year, British journalist Dawn Foster accused Linehan and others of targeting a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) employee who had been responsible for hiring model and activist Munroe Bergdorf, a transgender woman. Foster called the online abuse "transphobic" and "flatly homophobic". Journalist Chris Godfrey called the treatment of the employee "insidious homophobia".

In June 2020, Linehan criticised comments about author J. K. Rowling after she made comments that were described as transphobic. He linked to a blog post featuring screenshots of abuse Rowling had received, describing those who wrote them as "ignoring the abuse received by women who speak out against gender ideology" and "literally useless". Hozier, tagged in Linehan's tweets due to his trans-rights advocacy, responded by saying Linehan was conducting an "obsessive little culture war".

Twitter ban and evasions

On 27 June 2020, Linehan's Twitter account was permanently suspended after what Twitter called "repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation". In December, Linehan evaded the suspension with an account posing as a transgender man. He used the account to call Colm O'Gorman "a traitor to women, gay people and yourself" for signing an open letter published by the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland. The account was banned but Linehan said he had created another.

In February 2021, Linehan created a fake account on the lesbian dating app Her and publicly posted screenshots of non-binary people and trans women using it. The developers of Her clarified that transgender women are welcome on the app. In March 2021, Linehan gave oral evidence to the Communications and Digital Committee of the House of Lords on the subject of freedom of expression online, discussing his Twitter ban.

In an interview in the ''Irish Independent'' that month, Linehan ruled out working with Channel 4 again as they would not return the controversial ''IT Crowd'' episode to broadcast, and he said he would not work with the BBC as they had depicted a transgender lesbian couple, which Linehan described as "a heterosexual couple", in a CBeebies video. Ahead of the 2022 Australian federal election in May, Linehan used his online platforms to rally international support for the Liberal Party candidate Katherine Deves, who had attracted controversy for anti-trans comments. In September 2022, Linehan said that his anti-transgender activism had led him to question the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations and the scientific consensus on climate change "because I've been lied to so conclusively by all the people I used to trust".

In interviews in 2022 and 2023, Linehan said the debate over transgender issues had "consumed his life": it had lost him work, made him financially destitute, and ended his marriage. He said the ''Father Ted'' musical, on which he had been depending financially, was cancelled when the production company decided his involvement would make it impossible to stage. He had previously called for all people working on the musical to sign a declaration agreeing with some of his views on trans people while describing clashes he was having with colleagues over their views on trans rights, and read out a letter he had written to collaborators saying: "I don't think you all have my back as collaborators or as business partners or as friends. Far from being on the wrong side of history, JK Rowling and I have been proved right over and over again that this is a poisonous ideology that is destroying lives."

Linehan blamed cancel culture for his situation, and said: "Every comedian at the moment is living under a kind of state of permanent blackmail ... There's a few hot-button issues where you have to follow a certain line, and if you don't, you'll be destroyed." In 2023, he denied disliking transgender people, but said using their preferred pronouns was "immoral". He said he did not have a problem with "men calling themselves women" and that "as we keep pointing out, we are only talking about places where conflict arises".

Post-Twitter reinstatement

Linehan's Twitter account was restored in December 2022, following the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, who relaxed many of Twitter's content policies and announced an amnesty to restore suspended accounts. He also attacked Ian "H" Watkins of Steps, tweeting: "What may connect him to a man serving 22 years for raping and torturing a 10-year-old girl?", on the basis that Watkins had used a tool to block transphobes.

In April 2023, Linehan was again banned from Twitter, following his appearance at an anti-trans event called Let Women Speak in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He had tweeted the words "Durr imm gonna kill em" in response to a Twitter user who referenced counter-protestors at the Belfast event. Linehan's account was reinstated days later.

In July 2023, Linehan tweeted that David Tennant was an "abusive groomer" after Tennant wore a T-shirt saying "Leave Trans Kids Alone You Absolute Freaks". In August, during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Linehan and other comedians performed a stand-up comedy show outside the Scottish Parliament after his original venues cancelled his booking over his views. Some supporters of Linehan attended the show and criticised the Edinburgh Fringe as oversensitive. Linehan also threatened to sue the first venue that cancelled his gig. On 1 October, he attended the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, stating in a speech that he was "the most cancelled person in this room". On 3 October, he said he had been dropped by his television agent, Independent Talent, which also represented Tennant. On 12 November 2023, he appeared on '' This Week'' on Ireland's national radio station, RTÉ, to talk about his claim of being cancelled, defend his anti-trans activism, and to promote his memoir ''Tough Crowd''.

In April 2025, Linehan was charged with harassment and criminal damage. He wrote on Twitter that the charges followed a complaint from a trans activist. On 12 May, he pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was granted bail, with a trial date set for 4 September.

Personal life

Linehan married English writer Helen Serafinowicz, the sister of the actor Peter Serafinowicz, in 2004. They have two children and lived in Norwich. In October 2015, the couple worked with Amnesty International on a campaign film calling on the Irish government to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which "acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right". The couple revealed their decision for Helen to abort a foetus with acrania while living in England in 2004, and their discovery that undergoing the procedure in Ireland would have been an offence carrying a maximum 14-year prison sentence.

Linehan's marriage to Serafinowicz ended in 2020 as a result of his anti-transgender activism, and he moved to London. He said the relationship had suffered because of his legal and financial problems and visits from the police. In 2023, Linehan said he had been on anti-anxiety medication for "five or six years" since having first received legal threats from trans rights activists. He said he had contemplated suicide in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns, as he had lost work and relationships and was "completely alone".

Linehan is an atheist. In January 2009, he helped to publicise the Atheist Bus Campaign. He is also an honorary associate of the National Secular Society. In 2018, Linehan underwent successful surgery for testicular cancer.

Linehan has been an active Twitter user, calling it "part of isnervous system" in a 2015 interview. On 13 February 2009, Linehan hosted the first BadMovieClub on Twitter which repeated the next day at midnight, hosted by Phill Jupitus. In August 2009, in response to criticism of the National Health Service by the US Republican Party, Linehan created the #welovetheNHS campaign on Twitter. In 2011, he perpetrated a Twitter hoax that Osama bin Laden was a fan of ''The IT Crowd''.

Credits

Television writer

* '' The Day Today'' (2 episodes, "additional material by", 1994)
* ''Paris'' (6 episodes, 1994)
* ''The Fast Show'' (9 episodes, 1994–1996)
* ''Father Ted'' (25 episodes, 1995–1998) (also co-creator, associate producer (one episode))
* ''Brass Eye'' (6 episodes, "additional material by", 1997)
* '' Big Train'' (12 episodes, 1998) (also co-creator)
* '' Black Books'' (6 episodes, 2000) (also co-creator, director)
* ''The IT Crowd'' (25 episodes, 2006–2013) (also creator, director, executive producer (series 1 only))
* '' Count Arthur Strong'' (20 episodes, 2013–2017) (also creator, director)
* '' The Walshes'' (3 episodes, 2013) (also director)
* '' Shrink'' (3 episodes, 2017)
* ''Motherland'' (pilot episode, 2016)

Television director

* '' Black Books'' (6 episodes, 2000) (also co-creator, writer)
* '' Little Britain'' (1 episode, 2003)
* ''The IT Crowd'' (25 episodes, 2006–2013) (also creator, writer)
* '' The Walshes'' (3 episodes, 2013) (also writer)
* '' Count Arthur Strong'' (20 episodes, 2013–2017) (also creator, writer)
* ''Motherland'' (pilot episode, 2016)

Film director

* '' Hello Friend'' (short, also co-writer, 2003)

Film writer

* '' Never Mind the Horrocks'' (television film, 1996)
* '' The Matchmaker'' (1997)

Book writer

* '' Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy'' (2023 memoir)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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Why, That's Delightful: Graham Linehan's blog
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Linehan, Graham
1968 births
Living people
20th-century Irish male writers
20th-century Irish screenwriters
21st-century Irish male writers
21st-century Irish screenwriters
Anti-transgender activists
Hot Press people
Irish abortion-rights activists
Irish atheists
Irish comedy writers
Irish expatriates in England
Irish male screenwriters
Irish satirists
Irish screenwriters
Irish television directors
Irish television writers
Irish male bloggers
Male television writers
People educated at Catholic University School
Irish satirical television show creators
Irish television show creators
Writers from Dublin (city)