Controversial writer hits Comedy Unleashed

Father Ted writer turned anti-transgender rights activist Graham Linehan is to make his stand-up debut.

The creator of the IT Crowd is to appear at Comedy Unleashed, the self-proclaimed ‘free-thinking’ comedy night that welcomes performers that may be deemed pariahs elsewhere.

In their billing, promoters call Linehan a ‘bloody marvellous champion of women's rights’.

Meanwhile, the writer said he had intended to make the appearance under the radar, but was accidentally featured in the publicity.

He told the British Comedy Guide, which first reported the news: ‘I actually just wanted to try out a quick ten minutes without publicity or expectations but I forgot to send out the memo and it was publicised. I've no real plans beyond seeing how it goes.’

He will be appearing at the night – which is hosted by the Backyard Comedy Club in East London – on Valentine’s Day. Other comics on the bill include Mary Bourke – who has also been critical of trans-inclusive language – Tania Edwards, Miriam Elia, with MC Bruce Devlin.

Earlier this month, Linehan said he was thinking of suing Apple TV  for calling him ‘anti-transgender’ in a biography linked to the comedy Motherland, which he co-created. He called the description ‘smears and lies’, telling The Mail On Sunday: ‘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.

In the last 24 hours Linehan has tweeted that ‘there is no such thing as "non-binary"’ that ‘there is no such thing as "cis" people’ and retweeted a post saying that ‘not only does transgenderism force homosexuality on straight people, it also forces heterosexuality on gay people.’

Earlier this week, Chortle reported how another controversial figure banned by Twitter, Katie Hopkins, was also embarking on a comedy tour.

Published: 26 Jan 2023