Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan
Graham Linehan with Jon Ronson at TAM London 2010
Born	22 May 1968 (1968-05-22) Dublin, Ireland

Graham Linehan ( /ˈlɪnəhæn/; born 22 May 1968) is an Irish television writer, actor, comedian and director who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written or co-written a number of popular television comedies. He is most noted for his involvement in Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd.

Personal life

Linehan attended Plunkett's School in Whitehall, followed by Catholic University School, a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys located on the southside of central Dublin, before joining Hot Press. He also had a column with the magazine In Dublin before moving to London. Linehan's wife Helen is the sister of Peter Serafinowicz.

Career

Linehan hooked up with Mathews, whom he had worked alongside at Irish Rock Music magazine Hot Press. In their early collaborations they were responsible for segments in many high profile sketch shows including Alas Smith and Jones, Harry Enfield and Chums, The All New Alexei Sayle Show and the Ted and Ralph characters in The Fast Show (the characters were created by Linehan and Mathews and played by Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse).

However, it was with Father Ted (three series, 1995–1998) that Linehan and Mathews made their biggest splash on the public imagination. They then wrote the first series of the sketch show Big Train, but Linehan bowed out for the second series.

They also wrote the "Dearth of A Salesman" episode for the series Coogan's Run, which featured the character Gareth Cheeseman. In late 2003, they were named one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television by The Observer.

Linehan has since written for other shows, including Brass Eye. With Dylan Moran, he co-wrote the first series of Black Books, a series to which Mathews also contributed. Linehan has also contributed material to Blue Jam, and its television adaptation Jam.

Linehan wrote and directed the 2006 Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, in which he sought to move away from the recent British trend towards mock-documentary comedies, and to return to an old-fashioned style of sitcom, recorded before a studio audience. In November 2008, he was awarded with an International Emmy for The IT Crowd.

On 12 December 2009 Linehan was presented with the Ronnie Barker Award for writing at the British Comedy Awards, and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

In November 2011 The Ladykillers the stage adaptation of the Ealing Studio classic by Linehan debuted at The Liverpool Playhouse before moving to The Gielgud Theatre, London with Peter Capaldi and Ben Miller.

Books

Linehan and Mathews have had one book published, Father Ted: The Complete Scripts (Paperback – Boxtree – October 20, 2000) ISBN 0-7522-7235-7.

They have also contributed to various magazines and written surreal liner notes for the popular Volume series of alternative music compilations.

Directing

Linehan has directed the following television shows:

• 24 episodes of The IT Crowd, 2006-10 (all episodes of the series are directed by Linehan)
• 1 episode of Little Britain, 2003
• 6 episodes of Black Books, 2000
• 6 episodes of Big Train, 1998
• 8 episodes of Father Ted, 1997

Linehan made his debut in directing films with the comedy horror short Hello Friend, which he also co-wrote. This film appears as an extra on The IT Crowd: Version 1.0 DVD.

He was also an executive producer of the first series of The IT Crowd, and an associate producer of one episode of Father Ted.

Television appearances

Both Linehan and Mathews have made cameo appearances in programmes they have written. They also made an appearance in the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge as two Irish men considering Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) for a contract.

Linehan has also appeared in The Day Today and in two episodes of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and has had cameos in Black Books (Season One Episode 2, as "I love books" Guy, and 5 as Fast Food Customer), and the Father Ted "Flight Into Terror", "Entertaining Father Stone", "Cigarettes, Alcohol and Rollerblading" and "Good Luck Father Ted". He had cameos in four episodes of The IT Crowd as Messy Joe's Restaurant Musician in Season One, Episode 3, the blind sorcerer in Season Two, Episode 6, as an audience member of Jen's speech in Season Three, Episode 4, and as Beth Gaga Shaggy in Season Four, Episode 3. He appeared in the Identity Parade round of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He has also appeared in the pilot of Little Britain, as well as in Series 1 Episode 4, as a bystander who gets in the way of character Kenny Craig when he is attempting to hypnotise a man, from a distance, whose car he has crashed into. Linehan was one of the writers interviewed by Charlie Brooker in an interview special episode of the fifth series of Brooker's Screenwipe program and again on Brooker's Gameswipe in 2010. Linehan also appeared as a guest panellist on Have I Got News for You in 2011

In 2007, a documentary about Graham, his life and his career was produced by Wildfire Films for RTÉ One. Offering unique entry into his fascinating world, this documentary explored the art, craft and deeply competitive business of creating contemporary television comedy. The programme features interviews with several of the UK's most successful television comedy writers and performers including Steve Coogan, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Paul Whitehouse, Griff Rhys Jones and Ardal O'Hanlon, all of whom have worked with Linehan. It was directed by Adrian McCarthy and produced by Martha O'Neill and Adam Rynne.

Radio appearances

On June 6 2011, Linehan appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to discuss his adaption of the Ealing comedy film The Ladykillers for the West End stage. During this appearance, Linehan took issue with Today programme presenter Justin Webb over what he saw as the attempted staging of an artificial argument between himself and the critic Michael Billington. He later expanded on this criticism in an article published in The Guardian newspaper, saying "I'm talking about that very specific, very artificial, very Today programme format of a presenter acting as referee between two people who have been chosen to represent the opposing sides of a manufactured argument. It is a binary view of politics, of life and, as a result, it is also a dishonest one. Replace it with anything – anything – because anything would be better."

Social media

Linehan is an active user of several social media websites, and in 2011 perpetrated a Twitter hoax revolving around Osama Bin Laden being a fan of The IT Crowd.

Awards and nominations

Taken from IMDb

Year	Nominated For	Award	Category	Result
1996	Father Ted	BAFTAs	Best Comedy (Programme or Series)	Won
1996	Father Ted	Writers' Guild of Great Britain	TV – Situation Comedy	Won
1997	Father Ted	BAFTAs	Best Comedy (Programme or Series)	Nominated
1997	Harry Enfield and Chums	Writers' Guild of Great Britain	TV – Light Entertainment	Won
1999	Big Train	BAFTAs	Best Light Entertainment (Programme or Series)	Nominated
1999	Father Ted	BAFTAs	Best Comedy (Programme or Series)	Won
2001	Black Books	BAFTAs	Situation Comedy Award	Won
2007	The IT Crowd	BAFTAs	Best Situation Comedy	Nominated
2008	The IT Crowd	BAFTAs	Best Situation Comedy	Nominated
2009	The IT Crowd	BAFTAs	Best Situation Comedy	Won
2009	The IT Crowd	IFTAs	Best Script for Television	Won

Other work

On Friday 13 February 2009, Graham Linehan hosted the first BadMovieClub on Twitter. At 9pm exactly, over 2,000 Twitter users simultaneously pressed 'Play' on the film The Happening (dir. M. Night Shyamalan 2008) and continued to tweet whilst watching, creating a collective viewing experience which generated 40,000 tweets in under 2 hours. The BadMovieClub was repeated at 12 midnight on Saturday 14 February, hosted by Phill Jupitus.

In August 2009, when the National Health Service was being attacked by the Republican Party of the United States during an attempt by President Barack Obama to reform the healthcare system there, Linehan created the #welovetheNHS campaign on Twitter in an attempt to fight back in defence of the NHS.

External links

• The I.T. Crowd Official Channel 4 minisite.
• Why, That's Delightful Graham Linehan's blog.
• Graham's Twitter profile
• Now That I Have Your Attention Another Graham Linehan blog.
• Graham Linehan at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Graham Linehan at the Internet Movie Database
• Neon Magazine Complete scans of Graham's articles written for Neon Magazine.
• Writing for Performance Graham Linehan interviews and writing advice.