#FreeFatherTed

[Glinner]

Some of you may know that the Father Ted Musical is currently being held hostage by Hat Trick and Sonia Friedman Productions. They want me to remove myself from the show because of my legally-protected gender critical beliefs. I see today that our old producer on Father Ted, Lissa Evans, is running into the same problems in the equally-captured publishing industry.

I wonder if the women of Mumsnet might consider writing to Jimmy Mulville at Hat Trick and Sonia Friedman at SF Productions and telling them to stand up for their artists in the face of this bullying and intimidation. The Cass report is about to vindicate us all, the Allison Bailey trial revealed the homophobia at the heart of Stonewall, yet these companies are amplifying the abuse we face by pretending there is substance to it.

Please do write and tell them to #FreeFatherTed. And while you're at it, buy anything by Lissa Evans. She's a cracking writer.

It's awful Glinner. I can't believe they're trying to steal this from you.

I will write for what it's worth. I adore Father Ted and would love to watch this.

Email or snail mail which is best?

Legally, they can't erase you from the show as it's your intellectual property.

What would be your best case solution to this problem Glinner? What is it you want to happen here?

Email is that best

Yes, email is good!

My door is always open to an apology. I'm being treated appallingly by my colleagues, but it's a confusing issue that they just haven't bothered to scrutinise properly. But if don't apologise, I'd like them just to move aside and let me do the show with different producers.

So sorry for everything you've been through @Glinner but thank you for standing up for women.

Whatever happens, I'm sure we'll find many opportunities of reminding the world that you are the co-Creator of Father Ted, The Musical, whether your name is on it or not ....

I'm happy to email. I'd love to see Father Ted on the West End stage.

very happy to write has anyone got the email addresses we need to use and a template might be useful fir people like me to use.
this is all insanity

Solidarity to you @Glinner

I will email my support. I appreciate the support you are giving to women. Debate on such an important issue must not be constantly shut down.

I agree, Lissa Evans is brilliant, I recommend Old Baggage.

It's shocking you're being treated like this, Glinner.

Here is the tweet from Lissa Evans - it's shocking:

twitter.com/LissaKEvans/status/1533756175161884673

The idea that librarians would actually censor children's books because their author had an opinion that they disagree with is absolutely horrifying in a free country.

I haven't read Lissa's children's books but I've read all her adult books and they're absolutely brilliant. I've also seen her do a book reading - she's a great speaker and has some very funny anecdotes about her time as a Father Ted producer. Do buy her books.

One of the subscribers to Glinner's Substack posted a comment with the text of her email to Hat Trick and she agreed to let him re-post it as an article, so there are some ideas here:

"Open letter to Jimmy Mulville and Sonia Friedman"

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-jimmy-mulville-and

In includes a link to Hat Trick Productions:
www.hattrick.co.uk/contact/

Your misgynistic beliefs are also legally protected. Its not the badge of hobour you lot claim it is.

Is that the best you can come up with Desperate Of Manchester? Some out of context tweets from over 10 years ago?

Last time I observed you getting upset on a thread about women thinking freely and standing up for our rights I went and donated some cash naming you as my inspiration.

Today you have inspired me to send an email. Keep up the good fight. Its people like you who make people like me even more determined to continue to support people like Glinner, even if we don't agree with them on everything.

Ooh Lissa Evans looks fab, I really enjoyed Their Finest Half Hour. Just ordered one of her kids' books!

Yes thank you @DisgustedofManchester, like @exwhyzed you have inspired me to write in support of Graham.

@Glinner as others say, this treatment of you is disgusting. Trying to erase you out of Father Ted and its legacy is like trying to erase JK Rowling out of the Harry Potter dynasty - clearly neither would exist without the absolute genius of their creators.

Oh, er, hang on a minute….

Thank you for fighting the good fight, I cannot wait to see your FT musical.

Least I can do for all the wonderful comedy you've written and been involved in over the years.

Bit of a fan here. 😉

Thank you for all you continue doing.

Good luck - hopefully “those ones” will be very far away sometime soon 😉

Yes Graham I’ll email … but here’s a chance to say what a Mensch you are! Standing up for girls and women at huge cost to yourself and never giving in to the bullies and narcissists and abusers. Xxx

@Glinner I'm asking a daft question here I know, where can I find the info on what Hat Trick etc have done to erase your role in FTTM?
I'd like to do some tweeting....

And thank you for sticking up for women and girls at such an enormous personal and professional cost.
We will not forget!

GrimDamnFanjo have a watch here

Also look at the Father Ted posts on Glinners substack. https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/this-friday-freefatherted-update?r=992jq&s=r&utmcampaign=post&utmm_medium=web

I think the story is that HatTrick still want to do the musical but won't do it with Glinners name attached, Glinner has refused to back away as he did write the whole musical. However somehow HatTrick still hold the rights to it or some of it? So it's stalemate.

Another investor and another theatre have contacted Glinner wanting to put the musical on but he can't free it from HatTrick. Hence #FreeFatherTed hashtag. Hat-trick and Sonia Friedman are putting pressure on G's colleagues to cut him off.

Apologies Glinner if that's all wrong.

What are Neil Hannon and Arthur Mathews' views on this, given that they are your colleagues on the musical?

I also saw in the vid that you would insist on everyone working on it to sign a declaration to confirm they align with GC beliefs - this seems potentially legally dubious?

Down with this sort of thing

Obviously not legally enforceable, as acknowledged in the video description:

"Here's the women's declaration. I'm told it's not a good idea to make a condition of employment, but signing it would help show there's a growing resistance to this stuff so please do so!"

womensdeclaration.com/en/declaration-womens-sex-based-rights-summary/

I was thinking about Father Ted the Musical recently, about what a smash it would be & how my husband and I would pay good money up front to make it happen. If you can get them to release the shackles is there a viable fundraising model which enable you to crowdfund in return for tickets to get it off the ground? As awareness about this suffocating cancel culture increases, I think there would be free speech advocates and fair minded members of the public who would get behind it as well as your diehard Ted fans and GC women. 😄 It is beyond annoying that it’s been stymied as I’d love to see it.