Graham Linehan, the writer who penned huge comedy hits including Father Ted and The IT crowd, has revealed he is battling cancer.

The funnyman has had to cancel his upcoming tour of Australia for "personal reasons" and revealed the true reason this morning on Twitter.

"I got a bit of bad news recently. A little touch of the old cancer," he told fans and followers.

"Luckily, ball cancer is one of the best ones to have (sorry, ladies!) and they got rid of it all pretty quickly, along with a ball. Bye, ball! I'll never forget the good times!"

Graham will now have to undergo a course of chemotherapy to stop the cancer from returning, which he said he wasn't looking forward to "but it's better than dying".

Hiowever, he did cast some doubt on whether he'd be able to oversee the progression of the Father Ted stage musical Pope Ted, which he's writing with Arthur Mathews with music by Neil Hannon.

"'Pope Ted' is coming along nicely. It's really making us laugh. I'm not sure whether I'll have to stop working on it or what, but the script (sorry, 'book') is so close to being done that I can walk away from it for a while and we're still in good shape," said Graham.

"Apologies to everyone who bought tickets to my Australian event. I'm hoping to make it back next year."

(Image: Twitter) (Image: BBC)

He added: "So that's the story. I'm hoping I'll just continue to be the happy-go-lucky, beloved twitter personality you all know, but if there are moments of quiet from me, don't worry, I'm just dealing with it.

"Ugh, God, people are so nice. You forget sometimes. Thanks, everyone."

Just earlier this month, Graham - who also co-created dark comedy Black Books and Big Train - announced plans for the "final episode" of Father Ted to be hosted in a stage show.

"Didn't want to do something until the right idea came along. This was the right idea. Arthur and I have been laughing our arses off while writing it. Just like the old days," he'd tweeted.

(Image: Channel 4)

Because of Donald Trump winning the US presidency and Jeremy Corbyn being elected leader of the Labour party, Graham said it "wouldn't be too much of a stretch" for beloved Ted to land the top job in the Catholic Church.

"Obviously we're pulling some shenanigans to get him into that position, but I think the shenanigans are entertaining enough that people won't mind," he told the BBC.

The original TV series featured the late Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly, with Ardal O’Hanlon as his hapless sidekick Father Dougal McGuire.

(Image: E4)

Frank Kelly starred as the sozzled Father Jack Hackett and Pauline McLynn was their relentlessly tea-driven housekeeper. Graham Norton also rose to fame off the back of his appearances in the show.

It only ran for three series between 1995 and 1998, lasting just 25 episodes - but those were enough to cement Father Ted as one of the best classic British comedies.