Graham Linehan has launched a fresh attack on former colleague Ardal O’Hanlon, accusing him of abandoning him at the height of a bitter row over transgender issues, just days after overturning a criminal conviction.
The Father Ted co-creator, 57, said he was left isolated as controversy surrounding his views intensified, claiming O’Hanlon failed to reach out while he faced mounting public backlash and professional fallout.
‘I never expected all my friends to be so cowardly. Most recently, it was Ardal O’Hanlon, who played Father Dougal in Father Ted,’ Mr Linehan said.
‘When I was being attacked by trans activists and losing work, and my family was under siege by them, he never called me to ask me how I was doing or asked me what my opinions were. He just decided they were bigoted, because that’s what everyone was saying.’
Mr Linehan’s remarks come after a judge at Southwark Crown Court overturned his conviction for criminal damage following an incident involving a transgender activist’s mobile phone last Friday.
The writer had been accused of damaging the phone of Sophia Brooks during a confrontation outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19 2024.
Although he had previously been cleared of harassment, he was initially found guilty of criminal damage. However, following a two-day appeal hearing, Amanda Tipples ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove he caused the damage.
Mr Linehan’s remarks come after a judge at Southwark Crown Court overturned his conviction for criminal damage following an incident involving a transgender activist’s mobile phone last Friday
Ardal O’Hanlon who played Father Dougal in Father Ted allegedly did not reach out to Mr Linehan during the row
She said the court could not be certain the handset was damaged during the incident, noting there was no clear evidence of its condition before or after, and that Brooks’ original complaint made no mention of damage.
Mr Linehan appeared relieved as the ruling was delivered, smiling and turning to supporters in the public gallery.
Speaking afterwards, he said the ‘case should never have got to court’ and criticised police handling of the matter, alleging a ‘troubling pattern’ in how complaints involving gender-critical activists are treated.
‘I have suffered greatly in my fight to protect women and children from what I believe to be a dangerous ideology,’ he added.
Video footage shown in court captured the heated exchange, with Brooks – then aged 17 – asking Mr Linehan: ‘Why do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?’
Mr Linehan responded by calling her a ‘sissy porn-watching scumbag,’ a ‘groomer’ and a ‘disgusting incel,’ to which she replied: ‘You’re the incel, you’re divorced.’ Another clip appeared to show him striking or knocking the phone from her hands.
Reflecting more broadly on the controversy, Mr Linehan said he remained ‘completely stunned’ by the scale of the backlash.
‘These ideas came into fashion around 2015. They were cooked up between American academics and kids on Tumblr who kind of came up with a series of thought-terminating talking points, which they repeat ad nauseam,’ he told GB News.
‘There’s never any depth to the comments. There’s never any thoughtfulness behind them. They’re simply a way of brute forcing the idea that some men are women into the public consciousness.
Mr O’Hanlon as Father Dougal during the TV series which aired from 1995-1998
Graham Linehan poses with a placard reading ‘There’s no such thing as a transgender child’ outside Westminster Magistrates Court on September 4 2025
‘I’m astonished that it worked. I’m astonished at the NHS which is not only defending putting men in women’s spaces, but forcing the women who have to be subjected to it to tribunals and so on.’
He added: ‘I find the whole thing extraordinary, from top to bottom. I never expected people to be so cowardly. I never expected people to be so thick, frankly. But here we are, now in my 10th year of it.’
Mr Linehan also addressed the personal toll of the controversy, saying: ‘I never considered taking my own life. I went through a period of maybe just kind of wondering about it as a solution, let’s say, but I quickly put that out of my mind, because that’s what they want.
‘They want their victims to kill themselves. It is actually the ultimate aim of all these kinds of woke campaigns against people. They want the victims to kill themselves, and in some cases they’ve achieved that. The journalist Mark Fisher, who wrote a brilliant essay about the intolerance of the left, eventually killed himself.’
He went on to single out other former associates, including Neil Hannon, saying: ‘I won’t give them that win, and I intend to be around long enough to get people like Ardal, people like Neil Hannon, on camera and ask them why they don’t believe women deserve single sex spaces, why they believe men should be in women’s prisons and sports.
‘They never allow themselves to be seen answering these questions because they know their positions are indefensible.’
Mr Linehan is best known for creating Father Ted, The IT Crowd and Black Books.
