Diane Morgan’s “Cunk on Cinema” debuts Nov. 15 with 23 guests

By Daniel Okafor

Six 15-minute episodes of “Cunk on Cinema” will debut on Nov. 15. Diane Morgan reprises Philomena Cunk, the British comic character she created with “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker. The first trailer for Al Campbell’s mockumentary series is available.

“Cunk on Cinema” is a mockumentary, or documentary-style parody. Its episodes will appear on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two. Netflix will carry the series outside the U.K. and Ireland. Cunk is known for hosting several satirical documentaries, with a deadpan style and ill-informed questions.

What will Cunk ask of cinema?

The official description calls the series Cunk’s “most glamorous outing yet.” Its route runs from the invention of the camera and the 1960s New Wave movement to CGI (computer-generated imagery) and AI (artificial intelligence).

“she charts the history of cinema, from the invention of the camera and the New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s right up to the entrance of CGI and what the future of AI holds.”

The description continues:

“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?”

Her method is closer to a cinema usher with the wrong script than a film historian: lumpy seats, stale popcorn, and questions that arrive before the answers. The format keeps its priorities orderly.

Who will face Cunk?

Cunk will come face-to-face with 23 experts. The named lineup includes Michael Bay, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Pemberton, Steven E. de Souza, Seamus McGarvey, Mark Kermode, Mark Cousins, Isabel Stevens, Helen O’Hara, Catherine Bray, Bryony Dixon, David Rubin, Jim Dowdall and Kaleem Aftab, among others.

That is a crowded field for six short episodes. It also gives Cunk more than enough company to question. Morgan and Brooker created Cunk, who is known for hosting several satirical documentaries. Her deadpan style and ill-informed questions are the format’s recurring tools.

Jim Al-Khalili and Ashley Jackson return from “Cunk on Life” and “Cunk on Earth.”

Which cinema moments survive Cunk’s judgment?

Variety exclusively revealed the series, and Philomena Cunk supplied the first verdict. Her choices were characteristically specific and not remotely comprehensive.

“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,”

Her canon moves from murder to mortality and ends with facial hair. The hierarchy, such as it is, suits a character whose confidence exceeds her command of the subject.

“There will, unfortunately, be some bits in black and white, but we’ll keep that to the barest minimum.”

That reluctance toward black and white is pointed, given that the series covers CGI and the future of AI.

Who made the series?

“Cunk On Cinema” is a Pacesetter Production for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two. Brooker, Morgan, Jessica Rhoades and Sam Ward serve as executive producers.

The test arrives Nov. 15: whether 23 guests can make cinema history clearer without letting Cunk’s questions become the explanation. If not, the stale popcorn will retain the show’s most coherent explanatory role.