TUESDAY

CUNK ON BRITAIN

BBC2, 10pm

When Charlie Brooker’s Screen/News/Weekly/ Yearly Wipe was at its peak, it was clear that some of his regulars deserved more screen time – Doug Stanhope impressed as the nihilistic, alcoholic American correspondent, while Scottish comic Limmy and Radio 4 oddball poet Tim Key furthered their already successful (if slightly niche) careers through the series’ success.

But it was Diane Morgan’s alter-ego, Philomena Cunk, pictured right, that – along with Brooker himself – garnered most of the plaudits, and as a result earned several of her own spin-off shows.

As the dimwitted but earnest reporter Cunk, Morgan spoke to a generation who are sick of being talked down to; a response, perhaps, to the dumbing-down that the news, and media in general, has been accused of in recent years.

Morgan herself comes with a strong comedic pedigree – a long-standing member of the deadpan sketch duo Two Episodes of Mash along with Joe Wilkinson (he of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown fame), as well as an actor in shows ranging from E4’s The Work Experience (a short-lived but genius format in which real people thought they were going for work placements in a fictional fashion PR company), Sky’s Rovers (which was co-written by Wilkinson) to BBC2’s recent acclaimed sitcom Motherland and the peerless Phoenix Nights.

What Morgan does best is deadpan humour, and as Cunk she gets to display this wonderfully. While the format – a blatantly unqualified host interviews real-life experts – has already been done time and again (from Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G to The Mash Report’s Andrew Hunter Murray interviews), Cunk’s treatment is somehow more appealing.

In a nuanced way she becomes the idiot you’d somehow root for, and because at this point most of her subjects begin to suspect something’s afoot at least midway through the interviews, she has to work harder to keep them – and us – engaged.

This week the series – and Philomena’s journey through the nation’s history – comes to an end, as Cunk finds herself in Brexit Britain.

In a bid to find out what makes us tick in this present era of history-in-the-making, Cunk speaks to a variety of historians and political commentators, ranging from Howard Goodall and Neil Oliver to Mark Lawson and Robert Peston.

Expect some not-so-probing questions, a few rather bemused looks and perhaps (one would hope) moments of realisation as the experts twig that their interviewer is not who she claims. It’s these occasions that are most fun, as the interviewees decide whether to play along – and to what extent – or risk coming across as spoilsports.