Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has blasted an Edinburgh comedy club and accused the venue of ‘discrimination’ after a Fringe show featuring him on the line up was axed due to his stance on gender issues.
Mr Linehan was set to join a comedy night at the Leith Arches venue on Thursday as part of a line up put together by comedian Andrew Doyle.
However after some pressure, the venue announced they had axed the sold out gig – insisting that they would not allow the scriptwriter’s views to ‘violate’ their space.
Mr Linehan blasted the venue and stressed there was ‘no explanation as to what views the Leith Arches find offensive and that as a result the axing sounded ‘like discrimination on the grounds of my legally protected beliefs.’
Mr Linehan’s allegations of discrimination were backed up by SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, Joanna Cherry – herself no stranger to cancellation based on gender views.
Mr Linehan told MailOnline: ‘There’s been an ideological coup within the theatre, TV, publishing – a view of the world based on a complete non-belief in biological fact.
‘These cultists are going to keep pulling the strings [unless people stand up to them].
‘None of this is based on evidence, it’s completely irrational.
‘Unfortunately, they have been allowed to have too much power.
‘When we wrote Father Ted we were making fun of people who believed in people things that were not rational having power over society.’
Mr Lineham says it’s the same with trans activists.
He said: ‘Once again we have a completely irrational belief system.
‘Now we have these people controlling comedians.
‘The Catholic Church never tried to stop us telling jokes about them.’
Mr Linehan was previously been accused of holding transphobic views and received a warning from West Yorkshire police in 2018 after a Twitter row with transgender activist Stephanie Hayden, who claimed the comedy writer had ‘deadnamed’ her and used incorrect pronouns.
In the five years since, he claims he has been cancelled and has lost out of £500,000 of potential income.
