Whoever coined the phrase “There are no stupid questions” certainly didn’t account for Philomena Cunk. The British comic character, created by comedian Diane Morgan — who also plays Cunk in a series of mockumentaries — and Black Mirror‘s Charlie Brooker, has become a cultural icon for her deadpan expressions and ill-informed questions, and she’s far from done.
The interviewer is set to return in Cunk on Cinema, a new three-part series that sees Philomena asking experts about the history of cinema, from its early silent and black-and-white days and the New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s, to its uncertain AI future.
“Cunk will attempt to demystify it all while sitting in lumpy seats with stale popcorn, asking herself where did cinema come from? And why? What does it want? And why can’t it tell us?” reads its official description.
Added Cunk, “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.”
Billed as her “most glamourous series to date,” the upcoming outing follows Cunk on Britain and Cunk on Earth. Production is currently underway with AI Campbell directing from a script written by Brooker, who also serves as executive producer alongside Morgan and Sam Ward. A release date has yet to be announced, but Cunk on Cinema will air on the BBC and Netflix globally outside the U.K. and Ireland.
Philomena Cunk was first introduced in 2013 on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, a review programme hosted by Brooker, as a dim-witted investigative reporter. Throughout the satirical Philomena Cunk series, she poses absurdist questions to real-life historians, archaeologists, theologians, composers, and other subject-area experts in one-on-one interviews, while maintaining a serious composure.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
