An appeal to my colleagues on The Father Ted musical
Pink News has just published the latest of over 75 hit-pieces they’ve written on me, in which they accuse me of being a climate change denialist and a COVID denialist. This was exactly what I thought they’d do. Anyone who watches the first five minutes of the interview in question will be able to tell it’s a lie. Editor Ben Cohen, whose husband was a trustee at Mermaids, has a lot invested in the concept of gender identity. Despite having been successfully sued by two high-profile lesbians in recent years— Julie Bindel and Joanna Cherry— Ben is not going to give up the sizable grant he receives from Google for pushing this homophobic ideology in the UK and smearing those, like myself and JK Rowling, who oppose it.
I had hoped that the Father Ted musical might be my pension. A project with which I would finally benefit from the enduring affection for the show by creating something worthy to be placed alongside the original. I feel that I, along with my gifted colleagues, managed to achieve that aim. But now I’m told the musical will not be made unless I withdraw from it.
When the time came for courage, instead of supporting me, my colleagues abandoned me to the mercies of the mob. Sonia Friedman of Sonia Friedman Productions and Jimmy Mulville of Hat Trick Productions decided to blame me for the harassment I’ve been receiving from people like Cohen, and offered me £200,000 thousand pounds to step away from my own show.
I have heard no disagreement or anger about this decision from any of my gifted colleagues, some of whom have been friends for over thirty years. If I hadn’t met so many kind and thoughtful and brave people through this fight, I would have had my belief in friendship shattered.
All this has been made all the more galling by the fact that Friedman counts JK Rowling as a friend, who has also been subjected to what I call village gossip on a global scale, and like me, has not backed down.
Unlike me, however, Miss Rowling is a billionaire. I am living off the money from a flat I sold and the work I do trying to bring this medical and safeguarding scandal to light. I can’t afford to give up my pension, so I’m being forced to undertake legal action with the help of the Free Speech Union to get my show into production.
It appears my big mistake was betting everything I had on my friends, Arthur and Neil especially, speaking out for me when they could no longer ignore the truth, when they could no longer ignore what was being done to women, and finally, when they could no longer ignore what was being done to children.
Unfortunately, I’m still waiting.
I can’t seem to move any of them on the matter of women’s rights, their safety, their privacy or their dignity. So finally, I’m going to appeal to their patriotism.
Since 2014, 238 Irish children have been seen by Mermaids, by this shower of disgraced quacks and homophobes. 32 of those children were under ten years old. Two of them were five years old.
I’d ask you to think of your own children at five years old
Neil, you once told me that you never forced your animal rights activism on me. Could I ask you to just pretend that these children are animals?
I would never allow the name of Father Ted to be attached to a cause that hurts children. I am astonished at the silence which suggests you could.
If people can't see how damaging and dangerous this ideology is, particularly to children (with the Cass Review, with the wheels coming off the Mermaids gravy train, with the ever burgeoning number of detransitioners and clinicians speaking out, with predators like 'Sally' Dixon constantly in the news etc etc) by now then I am bewildered. But even if they cannot be guided by their conscience enough to speak out, surely they can be persuaded by their wallet?? The Ted musical will make money. Of course it will. There is SO much love for Ted and people will be queuing around the block to see the show! (Sonia and Jimmy know that too - otherwise why the grim determination to hang on to it??) And, if nothing else, does nobody give a toss about the legion of fans - new and old - who are longing for Ted to see a stage? Perhaps your talented colleagues could at least spare a thought for them?
Graham, have you started writing a book on all of this?