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Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan is a 42-year old Irish television writer, actor and director who has written or co-written a number of popular television comedy series. 

Maybe the name Graham Linehan doesn´t sound that familiar to you but I´m sure you know at least one of his TV comedy series.

He grew up in a middle class family in suburban Dublin, attended Catholic University School and a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys in central Dublin.

Before moving to London, he worked for Irish Rock Music magazine Hot Press and also for the magazine IN DUBLIN.

He worked a lot with Arthur Mathews, his colleague from Hot Press, housemate and best friend. In their early collaborations they were responsible for segments in many sketch shows.

However, the first massive success came with Father Ted. It was a phenomenon. The book has been published, called Father Ted: The Complete Scripts.

They then wrote the first series of the sketch show Big Train, but Linehan didn´t want to work on the second series. In late 2003, The Observer named them one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television. Both Linehan and Mathews have made several appearances in programmes they have written as supporting actors.

With Dylan Moran, he co-wrote the first series of Black Books.

Most recently, Linehan wrote and directed the Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, for which he was awarded with an International Emmy in 2008. 

In 2007 Adrian McCarthy directed a documentary about Linehan, his life and his career for RTÉ One. (which is the most important Irish TV station). The documentary offered unique entry into Linehan´s fascinating world and explored the 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 who worked with Linehan.

In 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.

Well, it is good to know something about Graham, but because of the fact that he is a TV writer and director, I think that you would rather hear about his sitcoms, wouldn´t you? I will now introduce you my favourite ones – chronologically: Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd and will also play you my favourite bits.

FATHER TED

This part of interview with Graham says everything:

Q: „Were you surprised at how warmly Father Ted was received in Britain?“

A: „No, because I thought it was great. It was so much fun I didn’t think there was a chance it would fail. In other words I was young and stupid. I was surprised it was commissioned in the first place, though. Big, big risk for a channel.“

Father Ted is a situation comedy produced for the UK's Channel 4. It aired over three series from April 1995 to May 1998, including a Christmas special, for a total of 25 episodes.

Set on the fictional Craggy Island off Ireland's west coast, the show starred Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly….

…….alongside fellow priests Father Dougal McGuire and Father Jack Hackett. Priests, who were exiled on the island for various past incidents, live together in the parochial („proukjl“ - farní) house with their housekeeper Mrs. Doyle.

Interesting, but sad piece of information is that in 1998, Dermot Morgan, who played the main character - Father Ted Crilly, died suddenly- aged just 45, from a heart attack during a celebratory party the day after filming the final episode of series 3. The script writers said that they didn’t intend to produce any further series of Father Ted, even if Dermot had not died, but I guess we’ll never really know. However, both Father Ted the series, and Dermot Morgan for his role, have achieved cult status and there is a special Friends of Ted festival – or Ted Fest – held annually on an island neighbouring Inis Oirr.

BLACK BOOKS

Black Books, created by Linehan and Dylan Moran was first broadcasted on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004.

 It is set in the London bookshop "Black Books" and follows the lives of its hostile and aggressive owner Bernard Black (played by the author Dylan Moran), his enthusiastic assistant Manny Bianco and their neurotic friend Fran.

A central theme is Bernard's odd position as an openly hostile shopkeeper who hates customers and has no enthusiasm or interest in retail. Fran and Bernard share a love of smoking heavily and drinking to excess. Manny is introduced in the first episode as a stressed-out accountant who enters the bookshop. During a drunken night out, Bernard offers him a job as a shop assistant and a room above the shop, but sobering up, he realises that Manny's optimistic nature is not suited to Black Books. Fran, however, forces Bernard to let him stay, seeing that Manny is good for him.

Interesting is that the scenes outside the bookshop were filmed by the real bookshop Collinge and Clark… and also that Fran´s surname Katzenjammer actually means hangover (kocovina).

THE IT CROWD

In The IT Crowd, Linehan wanted to move away from the recent British trends in comedy making, and to return to an old-fashioned style of sitcom. He is the author of all the 24 episodes.

The show is set in the London offices of the fictional corporation Reynholm Industries about which we don´t know anything except that they bought and sold ITV (a TV station), and once made part-year profits of "eighteen hundred billion billion".

The show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department, comprising two geeky technicians, a genius named Maurice Moss and the workshy Roy Trenneman, headed by Jen Barber, the department's 'Relationship Manager' who knows nothing about IT.

Moss and Roy, the two technicians, are portrayed as socially inept geeks. Despite the company's dependence on their services, they are ignored and considered losers by the rest of the staff. Roy's answer to this disregard is ignoring the phone in the hope it will stop ringing, and using tape recordings of IT suggestions "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" and "Is it definitely plugged in?".

IT support team is located in a crappy, untidy and unkempt basement – a great contrast to the shining modern architecture and stunning London views enjoyed by the rest of the organisation.

How did Graham come up with the idea for The IT Crowd show?

„I literally was sitting in front of my computer and thought ‘maybe I should write something about computers'. But that wasn't the spark. The spark was I wanted to write something for Richard, or at least something that had Richard in it. Then, a couple of embarrassing incidents happened to me with I.T. guys, so I started to think maybe I should do something with this, and someone at some point said that Richard looked a bit like an I.T. guy. It suddenly started coming together, and then I was telling the idea to my wife and she said ‘you could call it the IT Crowd'. Then everything just went click. When you have a really good title everything else is fine. It just demanded to be written.“

I can only add: THANK YOU, GRAHAM, FOR WRITING IT!