...and writer Graham Linehan is furious

Graham Linehan has reacted angrily after Channel 4 removed an episode of the IT Crowd that has been widely condemned as transphobic.

The writer - who also co-created Father Ted and Black Books – has demanded the broadcaster reinstate the 2008 episode from its catch-up service All4.

In the episodes Lucy Montgomery plays a transgender woman, April, who dates the company’s boorish boss,  Douglas Reynholm (Matt Berry).

When he realises the truth, Douglas reacts in disgust and tells her: ‘It’s not you, it’s me. No actually, it’s not me, it is you’ before the pair have a physical fight.

Writing on his blog,  Linehan said the decision to remove the episode was an attack on my right to freedom of speech’.

He claimed the broadcaster was banning the episode for ‘religious reasons’, explaining: ’‘I do *not* agree with the statement that "Transwomen are women" because it has huge implications for women in terms of safeguarding, sports, equal representation in public life and so on

‘Also, it is a biological impossibility and therefore a religious belief that I certainly do not share. Bruce Jenner is not the same sex as my mother. Sex is real, and it is a source of oppression for women, historically and globally.’ 

He added: ‘If you start bowing to the demands of extremists, you will never stop. This is a bigger fight than you realise.’

Channel 4 said it was ‘committed to maintaining the greatest possible freedom of creative expression’ and said its general approach has been to preserve the All 4 archive, ‘adding warnings or making small edits as appropriate’.

But they said of the IT Crowd episodes:  ‘After reviewing this particular episode in light of current audience expectations, we concluded it did not meet our standards for remaining available on All 4 and it was not possible to make adequate changes, and therefore it was removed.’

In June Linehan was permanently suspended from Twitter for ‘repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation’ after a long history of remarks critical of the transgender movement.

Published: 9 Oct 2020