Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon has admitted he ‘feels sorry’ for the show’s creator Graham Linehan after he was arrested over a string of anti-trans tweets.
Graham was met by armed police when he touched down at Heathrow Airport in September and was detained on suspicion of inciting violence, but has since said on social media he’ll face ‘no further police action.’
Ardal, who starred as Father Dougal McGuire in the Channel 4 comedy, admitted he hasn’t seen Graham much since he starred on the show, and is ‘baffled’ why he’s become so involved in ‘culture wars.’
The gender critical campaigner, who also co-wrote sitcoms such as Black Books, The IT Crowd and Count Arthur Strong, was originally detained in relation to tweets which police deemed to warrant an arrest on suspicion of inciting violence.Â
Graham has also separately appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, having been accused of harassing transgender activist Sophia Brooks.
Ardal, who said he still ‘gets on great’ with the rest of the Father Ted cast, added that feels Graham has made his opinions about the transgender community ‘confrontational.’Â
Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon has admitted he ‘feels sorry’ for the show’s creator Graham Linehan after he was arrested over a string of anti-trans tweets
Graham was met by armed police when he touched down at Heathrow and was detained on suspicion of inciting violence, but has since said he’ll face ‘no further police action’
He told The Sunday Times: ‘I still get on great with everyone, though I haven’t seen much of the show’s creator Graham Linehan and am baffled as to why he got involved in the culture wars.Â
‘I feel sorry for him; he’s entitled to his opinions but the way he presented them made it confrontational.’
Last month, Graham said he faces no further police action over anti-trans tweets that saw him arrested at an airport.
The Irish comedy writer was met by armed police when he touched down at Heathrow Airport last month from Arizona in the US and detained on suspicion of inciting violence.
He has now posted on X, formerly Twitter: ‘The police have informed my lawyers that I face no further action in respect of the arrest at Heathrow in September.
‘After a successful hearing to get my bail conditions lifted (one which the police officer in charge of the case didn’t even bother to attend) the Crown Prosecution Service has dropped the case.
‘With the aid of the Free Speech Union, I still aim to hold the police accountable for what is only the latest attempt to silence and suppress gender critical voices on behalf of dangerous and disturbed men.’
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: ‘Following careful review of a file submitted by the Metropolitan Police, we have decided that no further action should be taken in relation to a man in his 50s who was arrested on 1 September 2025.’
Ardal, who played Father Dougal McGuire in the Channel 4 comedy, admitted he hasn’t seen Graham much since being on the show, and is ‘baffled’ why he’s so involved in ‘culture wars’
Linehan, currently living across the Atlantic, later declared he would no longer want to return to Britain after his arrest that was met with fury from high-profile figures such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling who came to his support by branding the detention ‘utterly deplorable’.
He was detained in relation to three tweets which police deemed to warrant an arrest.
The first, from April 20, read: ‘If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.’
A second tweet, on April 19, was a picture of a trans rally with the caption: ‘A photo you can smell.’ The third was a follow-up to this tweet which said: ‘I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.’
The writer was heard audibly fuming in disbelief when he was stopped by armed officers at the west London airport.
He told them: ‘I’m a f****** comedy writer, I wrote Father Ted. Are you a f****** idiot?… It’s just disgraceful.’
When told he was under arrest, Linehan shouted: ‘Holy s***, I don’t f****** believe it, do you know what this country looks like to America?,’ before telling them ‘I’m going to sue you into the ground’.
He called the officers ‘f****** bastards’ and shouted ‘how dare you’ before they urged him to calm down.
Shortly afterwards, Linehan can be heard saying: ‘I’m f****** infuriated. You scumbags are working for f****** arseholes who go into women’s toilets.’
After his arrest, the writer claimed he was escorted to A&E ‘because the stress nearly killed me’ – adding that his blood pressure was recorded at over 200mm Hg by a nurse.
He subsquently told the Times that the Metropolitan Police’s move to arrest him at Heathrow was the ‘greatest mistake they could have made’.
Linehan said he was stopped by five armed police officers, although it is understood this is because they were from the Met’s Aviation unit and routinely carry firearms.
The writer has separately appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last month, having been accused of harassing transgender activist Sophia Brooks.
Linehan has denied one count of harassing Brooks on social media between October 11 and October 27 last year, and a further charge of criminal damage of their mobile phone on October 19 last year. The trial is ongoing.
Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk described Britain as a ‘police state’ in response to Linehan’s arrest at Heathrow, while Rowling fumed: ‘What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.’
The Conservatives’Â Shadow Justice Secretary Mr Jenrick was also among those responding, posting about the arrest: ‘This is ridiculous and a complete waste of police time.
‘The police only respond to 1 in 5 reported shoplifting offences, but deployed 5 armed officers to arrest a comedian over three tweets. We desperately need to end this nonsense and go after actual criminals.’
Linehan was arrested in relation to three tweets (above) which police deemed to warrant an arrest on suspicion of inciting violence – but he says he is now in the clear over them
The writer (above) has separately appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last month having been accused of harassing transgender activist Sophia BrooksÂ
Gender critical activist Rowling leapt to Linehan’s defence weeks after he accused her of failing to back him when saying he was ‘cancelled’ for similar views.
He had told the Spiked podcast she failed to defend his right to free speech when he received backlash over his comments regarding trans people, saying Rowling’s ‘silence’ made him feel ‘toxic’ and isolated.Â
Prolific tweeter Linehan recalled how, when Rowling became embroiled in the row over SNP’s self identification reforms, he said he felt as though he could ‘finally relax’ and ‘fight back’ as someone was on his side.
He added in the September 2025 interview: ‘And now her silence about me is just added to the feeling that, that I’ve done something wrong – that I’m toxic and I know I am toxic, but it’s not because I’ve done anything wrong.
‘It’s because people, people like JK Rowling won’t stand up in defence of me. So it wasn’t just the [trans rights activist] side pushing me out.
‘It was a feeling of lack of solidarity and the kind of an embarrassment at my presence in the fight.’
