Cunk on Cinema: Review

After the success of bittersweet comedy Ann Droid, Diane Morgan returns as the daft documentarian Philomena Cunk.

Having taken on art and life, Cunk this time turns her eye on the business of Hollywood and the movies in a gloriously silly series that skirts over the birth of cinema, its development and its impact.

Whether it's asking Michael Bay about the length of films, tackling UK critic Mark Kermode over the Jizz Slinger's impact or mangling Francois Truffaut, which according to her is Frank Truffle, this three-part comedy series benefits from a witty script, some stupidly absurd asides and plenty of very pointedly obvious misunderstandings.

There are satirist Charlie Brooker's fingerprints all over this mockumentary series, whether it's the way the Red menace is examined or how post-war Londoners handed bricks to each other in a line as they cleared up, so they could remember what a house felt like. The script benefits from sharpness when it counts, and given the episodes are only 30-minutes apiece, the show's scattergun approach yields solid results while never really outstaying its welcome. And you're guaranteed a laugh every minute or so, with flat moments unlikely to pull you out of it.

There are some flat moments though. It beggars belief that Benedict Cumberbatch has never seen or heard of Morgan's Cunk, so here it's his acting which should sell the plausibility shortcomings. But he sadly doesn't - and even Kermode, who's across pop culture, would know Cunk's MO.

The series is more effective when Cunk is talking to academics, such as asking why one director was calling everyone fuckers, to which the academic says he's shouting Focus. It's funnier in these moments where it feels like the script's yielding results.

Morgan's an expert at the deadpan and some of the one-liners Cunk comes out with are genuinely funny - but what's also engaging about Cunk on Cinema is how much love it actually has for the genre. Whether it's Chaplin or Keaton footage, or an examining of Jaws' theme tune, there's plenty of affection here for the movies - and not just as cheap gag fodder.