UNBELIEVABLE: Graham Linehan, the man behind Father Ted, ARR3STED by armed P0LICE over ANTI-TR@NS Tweets

Comedy writer Graham Linehan claims he was arrested by five armed cops at Heathrow Airport over a handful of anti-trans social media posts. The 57-year-old Irishman, best known for creating sitcom Father Ted, said he was hauled off his London flight from Arizona the moment he stepped onto British soil.

According to Linehan, officers marched him to a private room where he was told he was “under arrest for three tweets.” He has since shared the alleged offending posts including one branding trans women in female-only spaces “violent”.

Linehan claimed the ordeal left him in a health scare so severe he was rushed to A&E with sky-high blood pressure “that nearly killed” him. Writing in an email to followers of his substack, Linehan on Monday recounted his latest arrest, which he said happened after he flew into Heathrow. He said: “I just got arrested again. I arrived back in London to discover the UK is still a police state run by trans activists

“The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets. In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I am not making this up.

“When I first saw the cops, I actually laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “Don’t tell me! You’ve been sent by trans activists” The officers gave no reaction and this was the theme throughout most of the day. Among the rank-and-file, there was a sort of polite bafflement. Entirely professional and even kind, but most had absolutely no idea what any of this was about.

“‘Kind’ because the officers saw how upset I was—when they began reading me my rights, the red mist descended and I came close to becoming one of those police body-cam videos where you can’t believe the perp isn’t just doing what he’s told—and they treated me gently after that. They even arranged for a van to meet me on the tarmac so I didn’t have to be perp-walked through the airport like a terrorist. Small mercies.” (sic)

Linehan, who was born in Dublin and survived cancer in 2018, also wrote hit TV shows The IT Crowd and Black Books. He won a lifetime achievement award and penned a memoir, Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy, which was published in October 2023 and reached number ten on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

The alleged arrest comes as the comedy figure is already facing a looming court battle having pleaded not guilty earlier this year to harassment and criminal damage charges linked to an alleged incident at a London festival.

This latest twist is certain to spark debate over his outspoken “gender-critical” views, which have already seen him banned from social media platforms, cancelled by TV bosses and shunned by the comedy circuit.