No laughing matter: accusations of transphobia wrecked Graham Linehan’s life

Graham Linehan is an unlikely political campaigner, but in 2018 the sit-com writer embarked on a second career in what is possibly the most contentious and vitriolic arena of our time. According to Linehan, he was fighting for women and children, but his advocacy has cost him dear. Accused by his opponents of transphobia, he has found himself out of work and out of his marriage.

In Tough Crowd, he tells the story of how he ‘made and lost a career in comedy’. It’s a tough read – a man who once made so many people laugh saw his career come to a ‘screeching halt’. Love him or loathe him, he is undeniably forthright and unapologetic. On the core tenet of transgender ideology – that to be a man or a woman is a matter of choosing an identity – he is scathing:

If we manage to successfully rewire our brains to such an extent that we see Eddie Izzard as a woman and [Elliot] Page as a man, it will be easier for opportunistic predators like Adam Graham – the double rapist almost admitted to a Scottish women’s prison by Nicola Sturgeon’s government – to access single-sex spaces across society, not just in prison.