Actress Maxine Peake has launched a blistering attack on JK Rowling during an appearance on BBC Radio 4.
The 51-year-old actress, who is currently starring as Mary Whitehouse at the Nottingham Playhouse, compared the Harry Potter author to the morality crusader who campaigned against the permissive society throughout the sixties and seventies.
Peake, who fronted a Labour Party General Election campaign broadcast in 2017, said Rowling, 59, had ‘no understanding’ of the issues of trans and women’s rights, as she compared her to Reform leader Nigel Farage.
When asked if there was a parallel between Whitehouse’s campaigning and the culture wars today, she told BBC’s Front Row: ‘Absolutely. You can’t not look at very public figures, peoples, celebrities, speaking out on issues, like Mary, who have no understanding.
‘I feel they have no understanding. I will say it: JK Rowling. You’ve got people speaking out. The trans community, what has been happening and the abuse.’
‘And I think we are looking at people like Nigel Farage, the right, we’ve got these figureheads now who have this charm and this charisma.’
Actress Maxine Peake has launched a blistering attack on JK Rowling during an appearance on BBC Radio 4
Peake, who fronted a Labour Party General Election campaign broadcast in 2017, said Rowling, 59, had ‘no understanding’ of the issues of trans and women’s rights , as she compared her to Reform leader Nigel Farage
The 51-year-old actress, who is currently starring as Mary Whitehouse at the Nottingham Playhouse, compared the Harry Potter author to the morality crusader who campaigned against the permissive society
‘People are a little lost and they are able to draw people in with their really dangerous ideology I believe.’
Front Row presenter Samira Ahmed tried to introduce balance, by adding: ‘I should say on some of these issues, there are strong feelings on both sides about rights and wrongs.’
Th Dinnerladies star will be on the Nottingham Playhouse stage in Caroline Bird’s The Last Stand Of Mrs Mary Whitehouse until September 27.
Whitehouse was a Nuneaton art teacher-turned-campaigner against what she saw as the moral decay of Britain in the sixties. She became a household name and was a television regular for three decades with her Clean Up TV campaign.
Peake’s attack on JK Rowling, comes after her prominent support for this year’s Supreme Court ruling that the term ‘woman’ in the Equality Act refers to a biological woman.
Last week, she also led a growing backlash against the arrest of Father Ted creator Graham Linehan after he was detained by five armed police officers at Heathrow Airport over three ‘anti-trans’ tweets.
The Irish comedy writer, whose successful career was derailed by his ‘anti-trans’ views, says he was treated like a ‘terrorist’ before being quizzed by police over ‘three tweets’ he posted in April.
The Met Police has confirmed the 57-year-old was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence at around 1pm yesterday ‘in relation to posts on X’.
Tesla and X CEO Musk described Britain as a ‘police state’, while Rowling fumed: ‘What the f*** has the UK become? This is totalitarianism. Utterly deplorable.’
The gender-critical campaigner leapt to Linehan’s defence just weeks after he accused her of failing to back him after he was cancelled over his similar views.
Peake is not the first actor to criticise Rowling. David Tennant, who played Barty Crouch Jr in the Harry Potter movies, took a swipe at the novelist earlier this year.
Appearing at ComicCon event, the host of a panel quizzed the Scottish star on whether he’d like to play any characters in the upcoming HBO TV series.
His response, subtly alluded to his feud with writer Rowling, who is producing on the series.
‘I mean, they’re great stories,’ the Broadchurch actor began. ‘I feel like my contribution has probably been made.’
‘I’m told there’s an executive producer who doesn’t love me on that show,’ he added, earning rapturous applause from the audience.
The comments came after Rowling had taken exception to Tennant telling Conservative leader to ‘shut up’ over her views on trans issues.
Rowling tweeted a BBC article that characterised Tennant and Badenoch’s public sparring as a ‘row’, arguing that it’s because Tennant is a part of the ‘Gender Taliban’ that he receives ‘special dispensation’ from the media, ‘for they are a holy caste’.
