Chris O’Dowd has said he wishes the press would discuss Graham Linehan’s views with him more rather than sowing “division”.
The actor, who played Roy Trenneman in sitcom The IT Crowd, which Linehan created, wrote and directed, told The Times that he wished Linehan was writing more.
He explained: “I haven’t seen him in a few years, I text him every now and again. I have people come up to me and tell me that I’ve changed their life because of this show that I was really a small part in. And so I always get in touch with him and let him know, ‘I just want you to know how much fucking love I get for your work.’
He continued: “I wish he was writing more, and I wish he was in the industry more. I think he’s the best comedy writer I’ve worked with.”
In recent years, Linehan has made headlines with his anti-transgender views, being a vocal opponent of concepts including gender self-identification and what he has described as “trans ideology,” leading to a Father Ted musical being axed in 2022, and while O’Dowd said he didn’t want to “get into” the writer’s views, he described it as “a shame” that more people don’t speak to him about them.
“Whether I agree with them or not – they’re not peripheral,” he said. “ I know the press is trying to make loads of money out of all of the division, but don’t actually want to go and talk to him about it and I think that’s a shame.”
O’Dowd, meanwhile, has created and directed the series Small Town, Big Story, which is set to premiere on Sky Atlantic on February 27. It’s set in the fictional town of Drumbán in rural Ireland, which sees the visit of a big Hollywood studio, HWAT Pictures, ready to film a TV show, I Am Celt, there – and O’Dowd plays its writer. However, there are lots of secrets and mysteries coming to light in the town.
As well as O’Dowd the likes of Christina Hendricks, Paddy Considine, David Rawle, Eileen Walsh and Clarke Peters all star in the series.
It’s almost a full decade since O’Dowd’s sitcom Moone Boy ended, and like Small Town, Big Story, it was set in Ireland. O’Dowd explained of his motive for creating the latter: “The intentions were varied, but there was definitely an element of missing the whole nature of doing Moone Boy … having a bit more of a solid stance in the creative process, I suppose.
“I think there’s an element when you’re part of a very big machine that you can feel like you’re not stretching the muscles that you’re more familiar with, let’s say. But it was more really, what was going on in the world, than me feeling like this is a big show, I want smaller.”
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