Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has been charged with harassment and criminal damage.
Linehan, who also wrote The IT Crowd and has become known in recent years for his gender-critical views, took to X over the weekend to share that the allegations relate to an incident at the Battle of Ideas conference in London in October last year.
As reported by ITV, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed 56-year-old Linehan has been charged with harassment without violence, and criminal damage. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 12 May.
In his post on X, formerly Twitter, he claimed the charge related to a complaint from a trans activist.
In 2023, Graham Linehan had a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe cancelled due to his stance on trans rights. After receiving complaints from the public, Leith Arches, in Edinburgh, a community hub available for hire, private events and parties, announced that it had axed Linehan’s appearance as a guest at a comedy show hosted by GB News’ Andrew Doyle.
The post explained the decision, saying: “We do not support this comedy, or his views and he will not be allowed to perform at our venue and is cancelled from Thursday’s [17 August] comedy show with immediate effect.”
The same year, his memoir, titled Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy, failed to reach the top 1,000 Amazon bestsellers list.
After the cancellation of his Fringe appearance, Linehan was backed by former Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry, who describes herself as “gender-critical”, and ex-Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who has been criticised for calling trans women “male-bodied”.
It’s believed that Linehan first became involved in gender-critical activism after a portrayal of a trans woman in repeat of a 2008 episode of The IT Crowd was criticised as “transphobic”.
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