If he can be President, anything is possible

The Father Ted musical owes its existence to Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, writer Graham Linehan has revealed.

He said that he used the political figures’ rise to convince co-creator Arthur Mathews that the project – in which the Craggy Island priest becomes Pope – was not just a cynical ‘cash-in’.

‘If Trump can win, then maybe Ted can be Pope,’ he told his colleague.

Linehan told stand-up Jarlath Regan on his Irishman Abroad podcast that ‘Corbyn's also interesting because it's not quite the same story as for me, he doesn't seem to have much charisma.

'This seems to be a time when unlikely people can get to those positions. So maybe [audiences] will be able to suspend their disbelief about Ted advancing through the ranks.'

The family of the sitcom's late star Dermot Morgan have also been reassured that the musical's core cast won't be impersonating Morgan and his co-stars Ardal O'Hanlon, Pauline McLynn and Frank Kelly, beyond, perhaps, casting a lead with Morgan's 'shock of white hair'. The production is seeking to cast mostly Irish actors, but with some Italians for Vatican scenes.

During the frank and wide-ranging conversation, Linehan also said that he'd dismissed the idea of O’Hanlon’s Father Dougal getting his own spin-off sitcom, in the style of Lewis after the end of Inspector Morse.

And he spoke about accusations of transphobia that have dogged him since The IT Crowd, having recently been at the centre of another Twitter storm.

Linehan has previously defended the 2009 episode, Fight, in which Douglas Reynholm, played by Matt Berry, unknowingly dates a woman who is trans.

Now he said the episode 'was written at a time when I didn't realise [trans identity] was going to be such a big thing and as a result I would've gone a different way and … I dunno, there was a better way of handling that.'

When Regan asked if he regretted the storyline, Linehan replied: 'Only in the execution. It's a shame because it's a really good episode apart from that aspect and it annoys me.'

Later, he added that 'there are more episodes I feel even worse about. I had one episode where there was a disease people had called "cross-eyedness" and there were a few other jokes throughout the series, whole sections, whole subplots … one I really hate is one where this supposedly big, ugly woman fancies Chris [O'Dowd]. Terrible, just terrible.'

He added that 'some of that, not all of it, comes from the strain of trying to produce all this stuff on your own. I just want to collaborate more. I want to get people in who say "I think you might be in danger of being a bit shit there"'.

Earlier, he spoke about the difficult year he'd experienced going onto anti-depressants, losing his sex drive, complications following his operation to have a cancerous testicle removed, receiving a death threat on Twitter and working on a project he wasn't enjoying, prompting speculation that he was referring to Motherland's second series.

After writing the first series with his wife Helen Linehan, Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh, he was not credited as part of the scripting team for the sitcom's return when it was officially announced by the BBC.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 4 Jul 2018