"The Speech" is an episode of the British Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd. It was the fourth episode of series 3 of the show, and first aired on 12 December 2008.
Years after its initial broadcast, the depiction of a transgender woman, which included an action movie-style fist fight, controversially led to Channel 4 removing the episode from its streaming platform in 2020.
Plot
"The Speech" is an episode of the British Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd. It was the fourth episode of series 3 of the show, and first aired on 12 December 2008.
Years after its initial broadcast, the depiction of a transgender woman, which included an action movie-style fist fight, controversially led to Channel 4 removing the episode from its streaming platform in 2020.
Reaction
The series creator Graham Linehan described the removal of the episode as "an attack on my right to freedom of speech", and described Channel 4's behaviour as disingenuous and motivated by "religious reasons".[1] Linehan felt the joke was "harmless" and says he did not understand the "ferocity" of the response, arguing that a transphobic character did not make him or the episode transphobic.[2][3]
In an interview with The Spectator about the episode and its ban, he stated that "we are being forced to accept a religious belief that men can become women. It causes harm and leads young people to think that people like JK Rowling hate them".[4]
Linehan has stated that the reaction to the episode caused him to take an active interest in transgender issues, saying in an interview with Andrew Billen in The Times that "When it went out, the pushback was so weirdly aggressive that I just thought there was something a bit strange about it. I thought, this is different from usual. So I started paying attention."[5]
Matt Berry has since described the episode as "ridiculous and dated", stating that he does not condone the portrayal in the episode. "Matt Berry 'does not condone' transphobic The IT Crowd episode". Metro. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2025.</ref>
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