A first-look picture has been released for Cunk on Cinema – the latest addition to the critically acclaimed series of faux documentaries from Diane Morgan and Charlie Brooker.
Coming soon to BBC iPlayer and BBC Two from Pacesetter Productions, Cunk on Cinema sees the long-awaited return of the pioneering documentary-maker on her most glamorous series to date, this time examining the world’s love affair with movies.
Philomena (Diane Morgan) will be asking experts all of the hard-hitting questions about the history of cinema, with a starry list of contributors from across the industry including, but not limited to, Michael Bay (director, Bad Boys, The Rock, Transformers), the multi-award winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Sherlock), Oscar-nominated Daniel Pemberton (composer, Project Hail Mary), Steven E. de Souza (screenwriter, Die Hard, Commando), Oscar-nominated Seamus McGarvey (cinematographer, Avengers Assemble, Atonement), Mark Kermode (critic), Mark Cousins (film maker, author of The Story of Film: An Odyssey), Isabel Stevens (managing editor of Sight and Sound magazine), Helen O’Hara (editor at large at Empire Magazine, author of various books about cinema),Catherine Bray (critic at Screen International) and Bryony Dixon (curator of silent film, BFI)*.
The three-part series will uncover the invention of the camera, to the New Wave filmmakers of the 60s, right up to the entrance of CGI and what the future of AI holds. 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?
Cunk on Cinema is the latest in the British mockumentary television franchise by Charlie Brooker for the BBC and Netflix, preceded by global cult classics including Cunk on Life, Cunk on Earth, Cunk on Shakespeare and Cunk on Britain.
Charlie Brooker leads a team of writers including Ben Caudell, Erika Ehler, Eli Goldstone, Jason Hazeley, Dan Maier, Diane Morgan, Joel Morris, Michael Odewale, Kali Varghese and Sam Ward. The director is Al Campbell. The Executive Producers are Charlie Brooker, Jessica Rhoades, Diane Morgan, and Sam Ward. Navi Lamba is the BBC Commissioning Editor, and Mark Kinsella is Co-Executive Producer for Pacesetter Productions. Cunk on Cinema will debut on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two and on Netflix outside of the UK and Ireland.
*Further contributors include: David Rubin (casting director of The English Patient, formerly president of the Academy), Jim Dowdall (stunt performer and coordinator, Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Kaleem Aftab (film critic and international film festival programmer), Sarah Churchwell (author, Behold America: A history of America First and the American Dream), Toni Booth (curator of film, National Science and Media Museum), Mo Moshaty (horror specialist), Shelley Cobb (professor of film and feminist media studies, University of Southampton), Jim Al-Khalili (returning interviewee), Harvey G. Cohen (senior lecturer in cultural and creative industries, Kings College), Geoff Andrew (film critic and writer), Ashley Jackson (returning interviewee, Cunk on Earth), Monica B. Pearl (sr lecturer in 20th Century American Lit, English and American Studies, University of Manchester).
Picture: Diane Morgan (Philomena Cunk) (Image: BBC/Pacesetter Productions/Matt Kennedy)
