The co-creator of the hit comedy Father Ted has revealed how his outspoken stand on gender identity has cost him work. Graham Linehan, 51, said he had not won any new commissions in two years after he took up the fight against what he sees as damaging gender ideology promoted by trans activists.

Linehan said: “I think there’s just a stink around me, the stink of bigotry, you know, that has deliberately been created, by radical trans-rights activists. It has had a chilling effect.”

Linehan, who also wrote The IT Crowd, says he was impelled to become a campaigner when a feminist was beaten up by trans activists at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park. He has become a prolific user of Twitter, where