Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.cbr.com
An acclaimed British comedy with a cult following is finally returning to Netflix for a new season after a two-year hiatus. The follow-up to Cunk on Earth and Cunk on Life, Cunk on Cinema, releases Nov. 15.
Netflix released the trailer for the mockumentary series today, and Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) is back. Only this time, she’s talking about movies.
What Are the Cunk Shows About?
Cunk on Cinema is technically a successor to Cunk on Life, and before that, Cunk on Earth and Cunk on Britain. However, it can also be seen as the fourth season of the Cunk series.
Cunk on Britain was the first installment of the popular Cunk series. The five-episode series debuted on the BBC in 2018. In the series, Diane Morgan plays Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed and not-so-intelligent investigative reporter who retells British history through montages and interviews with real-life experts. She asks them odd and often ridiculous questions. Cunk on Britain also featured guest appearances from actor Tom Holland, journalist and author Robert Peston, TV presenter Neil Oliver, composer Howard Goodall, and others.
The follow-up to Cunk on Britain, titled Cunk on Earth, came out in 2022. Expanding beyond the UK, Cunk travels around the world once again, interviewing real-life experts about world history. The show often delves, incorrectly. into topics like the development of agriculture and early civilization, the rise of Christianity and Islam, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the World Wars, and more.
Following Cunk on Earth, Cunk on Life released in 2024 as a one-off feature-length special co-produced by BBC Two and Netflix. In Cunk on Life, Cunk explores existence. She tackles topics like the Big Bang Theory, biology, philosophy, art, and artificial intelligence. Once again, Cunk interviews real-world experts and asks them absurd questions in her classic deadpan style.
What Is Cunk On Cinema About?
Cunk on Cinema is the latest iteration of the Cunk mokumenteries series. This time, she’s tackling movies. In the new trailer released by Netflix, Cunk, standing in the middle of Hollywood, says, “Humankind has been responsible for some incredible achievements. Conquering the landscape, growing the Great Wall of Chinese, discovering the Mona Lisa, and inventing global warming.” She adds, “But none of these superficially impressive feats compares to our finest creation: cinema.”
The trailer features clips from interviews with director Michael Bay, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, and composer Daniel Pemberton, asking questions such as, “Why do they say Marilyn Monroe is the ultimate male fantasy, when, as far as I can see, the ultimate male fantasy is having your own podcast?”
She asks an understandably flustered Cumberbatch, “When you’re trying to get inside a character, which hole do you enter by, north or south?” She even asks Pemberton how a shark wrote the score for Jaws.
Cunk on Cinema premieres on Netflix on Nov. 15 with six new episodes.
