The writer of TV’s Father Ted has been arrested at Heathrow over three social media posts on transgender issues.

Graham Linehan, who also created the IT Crowd and, with Dylan Moran, Black Books, said he was intercepted by five armed officers after flying in from Arizona and told he was under arrest over the messages.

Writing on Substack, the 57-year-old Irishman said he was taken to a cell and then questioned over the posts, published on X in April.

He said the posts related to him challenging a “trans-identified male” in a “female-only space”.