Cunk’s latest musings on the meaning of life is classic Charlie Brooker – but it’s time to give Diane Morgan’s fool something new to do
Philomena Cunk, the BBC’s favourite fool with an irrepressible disrespect for experts, is back with a “landmark documentary special” that promises to explain the origins, science and meaning of life. A formidable task, but if anyone’s got the confidence to pull it off, it’s Cunk.
The character, created by Charlie Brooker and played by Diane Morgan, started as an anti-intellectual talking head on Brooker’s Screenwipe and Newswipe, cutting through media artifice by repeating back everything it told her in revealingly simple terms.
Cunk’s popularity earned multiple spin-offs and a promotion to presenter. The thoroughly unqualified Cunk has delivered standalone mockumentaries on Shakespeare and Christmas, plus two full series, Cunk on Britain and Cunk on Earth.
Now, her creators explore whether the unlikely reporter can sustain laughs across a feature-length special, which draws on the knowledge of 17 experts and skims over religion, quantum physics and existentialism, asking “deep questions that strike at the very core of our arseholes”. Sorry, that’s “our souls”.
As always, much of the comedy relies on the contrast between high production values (from sweeping landscapes to interviews with esteemed academics) and Cunk’s blasé attitude. It’s cut with smutty one-liners (“Can I call you Brian, or do you prefer Cox?”, she asks the physicist) and insultingly dense questions (“Am I wasting your time?” she eventually asks one expert), delivered by a devastatingly deadpan Morgan. She’s so at home in this character, there’s no piercing the persona – but if out-takes exist, I implore Brooker to release them.
In early iterations, you questioned whether the experts interviewed by Cunk were in on the joke. Now, we know they must be (some have appeared in her previous programmes) – so credit to them too for keeping straight faces.
Cunk on Life draws on Brooker’s extended universe, with running Cunk jokes like the use of Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam” as a historical reference point, but also featuring Streamberry, the Netflix proxy that appears in Black Mirror.
Screenwipe and Newswipe always excelled when they deconstructed media conventions or forced us to confront our role as media consumers. Happily, there are sprinklings of this here, too. As one expert contemplates the meaning of life, videos of cute animals appear to hold our attention. After Cunk interviews a man on death row, she makes him record a TikTok promo from the electric chair.
The segment on Streamberry, sarcastically flagged on screen as “promotional content”, is a highlight. Cunk’s stilted delivery suggests she finally feels out of her depth as she interviews a Streamberry representative about shows for viewers experiencing “existential helplessness”, including Muppets-style children’s programme Binko Says Don’t Jump. Parody adverts are fun too, conjuring a universe in which some kids’ Christmas presents included a Cunk doll that lays eggs and bleeds real blood.
These interludes are crucial. I wonder how much mileage is left in the central joke, watching academics improvise answers to yet another inane or disrespectful question. After so many episodes, the result rarely surprises, the tension is missing.
Depth appears when the inane crosses into the profound – like when questions about the nature of God or the implications of cloning yield something meatier. Sharp writing cuts through, too. On conception: “This is where the miracle of life begins, and the precise moment that a woman’s right to choose ends.” Or on ChatGPT, which is “so good at mimicking humans that we might as well f**king kill ourselves, or at least that’s what it just told me.”
Cunk on Life is classic Brooker, with another flawless performance from Morgan. Its creators have made the most of the feature-length format, rewarding us with something that steps beyond the standard mockumentary. But, with the final scene teasing a potential extraterrestrial follow-up, if Cunk returns, I hope she has the chance to try something new.
‘Cunk on Life’ is streaming on BBC iPlayer