Hat Trick Productions may go for a Derry Girls musical, but there’s no chance of the long-mooted Father Ted musical happening.
There’s a sporting chance many of you are well aware of the ecosystem around which the planned musical of Father Ted has fallen apart. The much-loved sitcom, penned by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, had been earmarked for the stage, with a plot that would have followed Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack heading to Rome.
Jimmy Mulville is the co-founder of Hat Trick Productions, and on an episode of Insiders: The TV Podcast, he first of all revealed that a conversation had been had about taking both Derry Girls and Outnumbered to the stage, with the former far more likely to get there than the latter.
But Mulville also talked at length about the abandoned Father Ted musical, and confirmed that there was no chance of it coming back. Among the details he shared were that Hat Trick had offered Linehan £200,000 to have his name removed from the musical, which Linehan refused.
Linehan has dedicated an awful lot of his waking life to posting on X/Twitter about trans people. Just this week he has denied in court charges that he harassed a 17-year old and smashed her phone. There’s more on that story here.
Mulville admits that the show has fallen apart due to the toxicity around Linehan, to the point where it was virtually impossible to find investors and a theatre. Linehan, furthermore, has been candid about his views of his former colleagues, and Mulville admits “along the way, to be honest with you, the relations between him and the rest of us have fallen apart. So even if the trans issue went away now I don’t think we would do the musical.”
The musical can’t move forward without Linehan allowing it to. Given the state of his social media feed, that ain’t going to happen either.
British Comedy Guide has a good summary of the situation here.
