Cunk on Britain
2018 British television series

Cunk on Britain is a British mockumentary television series created by Charlie Brooker starring Diane Morgan as the title character Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed investigative reporter, who originated on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe including the 2016 specials Cunk on Shakespeare and Cunk on Christmas. It premiered on BBC Two on 3 April 2018, and concluded on 1 May 2018, after one season of five episodes. It was followed up in 2022 by a similar series, Cunk on Earth.
Plot
Philomena Cunk, an ill-informed and rather dim investigative reporter, retells British history through a series of montages and interviews with experts which feature odd or ridiculous questions. The show featured guest appearances from real-life experts, including Robert Peston, Neil Oliver, Howard Goodall, Tom Holland and Ronald Hutton.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main
Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk
Filming
Filming took place in September and October 2017 in Britain and the series began airing on 3 April 2018.
Reception
The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson notes, "It’s Cunk’s interviewing style that is the highlight and potentially one of its weaknesses.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cunk on Britain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.