An Edinburgh venue has cancelled a gig featuring Graham Linehan after receiving complaints from customers.
Linehan, 55, is known to many for being the co-creator and co-writer of Father Ted, as well as of shows including Black Books and The IT Crowd.
He was suspended from Twitter in 2020 after making a series of controversial remarks about transgender people, but has since been reinstated on the platform.
On Tuesday (15 August), Edinburgh’s Leith Arches, which often hosts queer events, cancelled Thursday’s (17 August) Comedy Unleashed event featuring Linehan.
In a social media post, the venue said: “We are an inclusive venue and this does not align with our overall values.”
“We were not made aware of the lineup of this show in advance,” it said.
Three years ago, Linehan took a strong gender-critical stance on social media.
He allegedly tweeted “men aren’t women tho”, in response to a post by the Women’s Institute, who wished a happy Pride to all of its trans members.
Soon after his comment, Linehan was suspended from Twitter.
Earlier this year, the comedian claimed that his career and social status have not recovered since he began making critical remarks about the trans community.
In an interview with The Times, Linehan claimed that despite previously being involved in reforming Father Ted for the theatre, he’d been asked to end his involvement with the show due to the controversy surrounding him.
“I went to London and they said, ‘We want you off the show.’ And they offered me £200,000 to walk away from it,” he said.
He claimed his refusal to step away led to plans for the show being abandoned, suggesting the producers were “waiting for me to die”.
When approached by the publication, Jimmy Mulville, the managing director of Father Ted’s production company Hat Trick, did not confirm or deny Linehan’s claim about being offered to have his name removed.
However, he said that Linehan’s involvement would make the show impossible to stage in the current climate.
Elsewhere in the interview, Linehan is described as being effectively “cancelled”, as he has “virtually no income, no television career and has lost his old media friends”.
