🚨 UPDATE (Sept 2, 2025): Shortly after recording this episode, Graham Linehan was arrested upon arrival at Heathrow Airport for three tweets—an incident he describes as politically motivated and symptomatic of the UK’s growing free speech crisis. He was detained by five armed officers, held in a police cell, and later hospitalised due to stress-related hypertension. Graham is now under a legal gag order preventing him from posting on Twitter while in the UK, pending a further interview in October.
Read his account:
From creating Father Ted to losing 400,000 Twitter followers, Graham Linehan's eight-year battle against gender ideology cost him his career, marriage, and friendships—but he won't stop. Fresh from Joe Rogan's podcast (20 million listeners heard about WPATH's links to child castration sites), the comedy writer reveals how he went from beloved sitcom creator to "bigot" overnight for sharing one article in 2018. His crime? Saying "they're hurting kids" while high on morphine post-cancer surgery. The Father Ted musical? Cancelled after his co-creator offered him £200,000 of his own future royalties to disappear. His Wikipedia? Rewritten. Friends contacted and told to unfollow. Yet Linehan remains defiant: "How the fuck are you not obsessed with it? How are you not angry? How are you not on the streets?" From Ann Lawrence's DIY amputation advice to pedophiles warning each other about stings online, this is the conversation about the scandal everyone sees but won't discuss.
About Graham Linehan
Graham Linehan is the BAFTA-winning writer and director behind Father Ted, The IT Crowd, and Black Books. After speaking out about gender ideology's impact on women and children in 2018, he became one of the most targeted figures in the culture wars, losing his Twitter account (with 800,000 followers), his career in mainstream media, and ultimately his marriage. He successfully sued after being fired from projects and now lives in Arizona, where he writes for film and runs a successful Substack. His book Tough Crowd details his experiences. He recently appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast to discuss WPATH's connections to child castration fetish sites.
The Morphine Tweet That Started Everything
Post-cancer surgery in 2018, "high out of my mind on morphine," Linehan shared a Heather Brunskell-Evans article with "I agree with this." Within minutes: "I wish the cancer had won." He turned off replies from non-followers, thinking he'd avoided the worst—meanwhile his Wikipedia was being rewritten, friends were being contacted to unfollow, and 400,000 followers would eventually disappear. The response made him realize: "I was right over the target."
"They're Hurting Kids"—The Answer No One Wanted
"A journalist would interview me. 'Why did you do this?' They're hurting kids. They're cutting the breasts off kids. How the fuck are you not obsessed with it?" Jimmy Mulville of Hat Trick Productions told him "I don't care" before cancelling the Father Ted musical. The £200,000 buyout offer? From Linehan's own future royalties. Co-creators wrote him "a very nasty letter blaming me for my own harassment."
WPATH and the Eunuch Archives: The Story No One Will Touch
"I've just said that WPATH is full of child castration enthusiasts and they link to a child pornography website. And it's like, no, we're not gonna do anything." The connection between the medical establishment and fetish sites "just lying around in plain view"—yet media silence. "If this had happened in 1985...that would have been a news story."
The DIY Horror Show
Ann Lawrence (autogynephilic author of Men Trapped in Men's Bodies) gave advice on DIY amputations: "Use ketamine as a safe anesthetic for amateurs and use a tourniquet. But it's kind of hard to make it out to be a chainsaw accident if you've got a tourniquet." There's "a trans activist in Ireland from America" who "used to operate this chopping shed" where "he was chopping people's genitals off" in his backyard—"he's just delighted with himself."
The Nerds Were First to Fall
"The IT Crowd is very much liked by nerdy people...but nerdy people were also the first to be captured." Board gaming shops saw it happen: "Young guys come in, speak to older trans-identified men. A few months later they're coming in...dressed up as women." One man wrote: "He saw a whole forum turned trans, a whole forum of young men."
Why Comedians Won't Touch It
Jimmy Carr once said that the joke capable of destroying his career is already out there. Comedians' entire back catalogs can be "weaponized against them" at any moment. "Most films look like they're already written by AI"—those writers will be replaced. Writers "with a point of view and something to share" will survive.
The Middle-Class Code He Broke
"My biggest crime was I betrayed the middle-class code: we don't talk about these things so we can continue to have dinner parties." Helen Lewis and other journalists sent "identical letters...telling me to stop. They were all in the same WhatsApp group." The taboo wasn't child harm—it was using correct pronouns. "This is just a middle-class taboo that you guys have agreed amongst yourselves."
J.K. Rowling and the Children Who Only Read Harry Potter
"The problem with these people is they learned to read through reading J.K. Rowling, but they only learned to read J.K. Rowling books." The outrage at being told "their little fantasy playpen wasn't real by the woman who created the fantasies" explains the vitriol. The cigar photograph: "How dare she enjoy this. She's supposed to be suffering."
Friends Who Won't Defend Their Own Daughters
"Adam Buxton has a daughter. How can you support this movement if you have a daughter?" The disappointment: "It's one thing not to stand up for me. I'm a big, ugly 57-year-old Irishman...but to not stand up for your own daughter. Who are these men that I knew my whole life?" Ironically: "The reason I'm divorced is because I stood up for my wife."
Fleeing to America: "Liars Don't Do Well Over Here"
After realizing "if someone attacks me on the street...I can't be sure the police will take my side," Linehan left the UK. London is now just "grime and very unfriendly...lots of bad memories." In Arizona: "No one here holds any truck with that crap." When Stuart Lee said he was scared to come to America: "The only people who'd be scared to come to America are people who are lying."
The Future: AI, Storytelling, and Survival
Making "a fairly good living" from Substack but warns: "AI means Substack might not be paying the way in a year's time." His children going to university? "Shouldn't they learn more by staying home and turning on AI?" The key: "People like stories...if I can figure out a good way of continuing to tell stories, I'll be okay."
Still in Litigation After Eight Years
"I don't think I've been out of litigation since I started." Currently fighting cases with "trans activists like David Paisley" who "we can prove everything he's done" but whose lawyers "are true believers." The goodwill from supporters "just goes into lawyers' pockets all the time."
Graham will speak on “What Just Happened?” at Genspect’s The Bigger Picture: Albuquerque, September 27–28.
Tickets selling fast - secure your seat now.
Graham’s talk from Genspect’s Lisbon conference:
If you've ever felt like something bigger is happening but struggled to make sense of it, Beyond Gender is for you. This podcast cuts through the noise with honest, thoughtful discussions about one of the most pressing topics of our time.
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