The civil proceedings brought against ‘Father Ted’ comedy writer Graham Linehan by a transgender lawyer in the UK, have been dropped. He had been charged with defamation, libel and harassment, for allegedly ‘deliberately misgendering’ and ‘dead-naming’ the lawyer who was born a man but now identifies as a woman.

The proceedings were launched while Linehan was expressing his scepticism of transgender ideology on social media. The crux of his disagreement with activists concerned the phrase ‘trans women are women’. For Linehan, it is something of a courtesy, but is not literally true, whereas for trans-activists, it is literally true.

He said he began talking about the subject when he saw women being driven off twitter, harassed, and even fired from their jobs for criticising gender ideology. He saw it as a form of bullying and thought he would join the fray.

Given it all to do again, he would, he says, do things a little differently. But only a little. “I did not take into account the effect that the constant harassment and smearing and vilifying and suing would have. And it has been tough.”