Comedy writer theatens to sue over Apple TV description

Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan says he may sue Apple TV for branding him ‘anti-transgender’.

The comedy writer has become a TV pariah since becoming an outspoken campaigner against gender self-identification - but claims he’s been unfairly tarred as bigoted.

Now he has been angered by a  short biography provided in the ‘cast and crew’ description of the series, Motherland on the streaming service.

He created the show with his now ex wife Helen Serafinowicz and writers Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh - although he was not involved in the comedy after its first series. 

The sitcom has now landed on  Apple TV, which in its description of the programme describes Linehan as an ‘anti-transgender activist’ who has likened puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics.

Linehan told The Mail on Sunday the potted biography was ‘a bunch of smears and lies’. 

He said: ‘I’m incredibly angry about being painted like this. I’ve been cast as anti-trans and bigoted and it feels like basically there’s nothing I can do about it.’ 

The 54-year-old was banned from Twitter in 2020 for ‘repeated violations’ of the site’s rules on hateful conduct, but was recently reinstated in Elon Musk’s moratorium on controversial accounts, and has renewed his relentless campaign against what he calls ‘transgender ideology’.

Linehan has long complained that he is a victim of ‘cancel culture’, and that his views had lost him work and ended his marriage.

In an interview with YouTuber Stephen Knight in September, Linehan said that he now questioned 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 2018, he was issued a police warning over allegations he mocked a trans woman online, referring to her as a ‘he’ and using the names she used before transitioning.

Published: 8 Jan 2023