Cunk on Earth
Cunk on Earth is a British mockumentary television series produced by Charlie Brooker for the BBC and Netflix. The series stars Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed investigative reporter, a character who previously starred on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe and Cunk on Britain. The series was acclaimed by critics, with many praising Morgan's deadpan delivery. It premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 20 September 2022, and was released in the United States on Netflix on 31 January 2023.
For her performance in the series, Morgan was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.
Premise
Philomena Cunk travels around the world, interviewing experts such as Paul Bahn, Martin Kemp, Nigel Spivey, and Shirley Thompson about world history. The series introduces subjects such as the development of agriculture and early civilization, the rise of Christianity and Islam, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War and the Space Race. With an eye to the future, Cunk concludes the series with a speculative comment on the possibility of artificial intelligence takeover.Episodes
Experts
Throughout the series, Diane Morgan in character as Philomena Cunk poses absurdist questions to real-life historians, archaeologists, theologians, composers, and other subject-area experts in one-on-one interviews. The experts include:- Jim Al-Khalili
- Laura Ashe
- Paul Bahn
- Kathleen Burk
- Gus Casely-Hayford
- Kate Cooper
- Patricia Fara
- Jonathan Ferguson
- Irving Finkel
- Myrto Hatzimichali
- Ashley Jackson
- Martin Kemp
- Brian Klaas
- Aleksander Kolkowski
- John Man
- Anu Ojha
- Eleanor Robson
- Catriona Seth
- Rupert Sheldrake
- Nigel Spivey
- Shirley J. Thompson
- Joyce Tyldesley
Reception
David Bianculli of NPR gave the series a positive review, stating that it has "cult classic potential". The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg called it a "consistently droll, frequently delightful series that mixes high and low comedy at a breakneck pace." Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian praised Morgan's performance, calling her character "so well-written it's easy to forget she's not real." Michael Idato of The Sydney Morning Herald described the show as "magnificent, brutal, and absurd".