Britain's Cunk on Cinema turns its absurd comic lens on film history

BBC Two has begun airing Cunk on Cinema, a new comedy series in which British actor Diane Morgan returns as the fictional documentary presenter Philomena Cunk. Across three episodes it covers the history of film, but as a spoof of documentary formats it favours misunderstandings and silly questions over facts. The Guardian has reviewed the programme and judges it favourably.

Who is Philomena Cunk

Viewers first met the character in 2012 on Charlie Brooker's annual end-of-year show Screenwipe, where she offered commentary on topical events. She later moved on to making her own documentaries, including ones on Britain and on Earth. Brooker and his longtime colleagues, among them Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, still co-write her material.

Interviews and jokes

Technically the series is a prank show, with much of the fun coming from how interviewees react to Cunk's ignorance. The reviewer notes that Morgan is now widely known, so her British interviewees probably know her routine. Benedict Cumberbatch's irritation at questions about whether all actors like chickpeas seems put on, while film critic Mark Kermode looks genuinely exasperated. The Americans, including director Michael Bay and Die Hard writer Steven E de Souza, are simply baffled but tolerate her tangents.

The most frequent recurring theme is artificial intelligence: Cunk shows de Souza AI-generated footage of Buster Keaton on a BMX and tries to win arguments by getting ChatGPT to back her up. The series also offers a loose grounding in cinema history, including German expressionism and the French New Wave. Many jokes rely on garbled celebrity names.

The reviewer singles out a bit about dancing in films and a segment with a representative of the British Board of Film Classification, concluding that the gag rate is so high there is little time to stop smiling.