Article URL: https://kevinpatel.xyz/posts/no-way-to-prevent-this/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48155690

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Having previously defeated the people of Britain, the population of the Earth, and the very concept of life itself, investigative journalist Philomena Cunk has now set both her own sights, and presumably those of her mate Paul, on the movies. This is per Variety, which reports that a new three-part special from the groundbreaking reporter/fake comedy character played by comedian Diane Morgan, Cunk On Cinema, is now in the works.

For the unfamiliar, Morgan, as Cunk, has been deadpanning her way through the world for more than a decade at this point, having originated the character—who tackles interviews and walk-and-talk segments alike with the guileless charm (and also the researching and fact-checking skills) of a small child—on Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker’s BBC Two show Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe.  That grew into a number of popular TV specials (that even some light searching will probably dig up for you on YouTube; Cunk On Shakespeare is a favorite) before going international with Cunk On Earth, which was produced by Brooker’s pals at Netflix as well as the BBC.

That same setup is now underpinning Cunk On Cinema, which will presumably also follow much of the same formula of Morgan’s earlier efforts, combining rapid-fire absurd explanations of cinematic history with interview segments in which Morgan asks lightly-prepped experts some of the most baffling questions that Britain’s best comedy brains can formulate.

True to form, Philomena herself issued a statement in response to news of the new series, stating that,

Cinema has given the world some of the most profound, memorable, and moving visual moments in its unswerving depiction of the human condition: the shower scene in Psycho, Death playing chess in that Swedish thing, and Tom Selleck’s glistening moustache in Three Men And A Little Lady, to name but all three of the only examples I can think of at the moment. There will, unfortunately, be some bits in black and white, but we’ll keep that to the barest minimum.” 

(Brooker also got in on the fun, saying that, “Now that Sora has killed off Hollywood and itself (presumably as part of a murder-suicide pact), it’s the perfect time to look back at two hundred centuries of cinema, in the company of an idiot we’re apparently cursed to employ: Philomena Cunk.”)

Cunk On Cinema is currently in production; no word yet on when the three-part series will arrive on Netflix and BBC Two.