Cunk on Cinema; The Good Daughter

“Interviews with actors on TV have become so vapid that you’d be forgiven for never wanting to hear another hilarious anecdote about the time they worked with Judi or Elton. So kudos to Philomena Cunk’s sit-down with Benedict Cumberbatch, where she began by struggling to recall what she’d seen him in, before remembering that it was in a Tesco Express where he was looking at chickpeas. After a couple of questions on this, which went nowhere, she admitted glumly: “I’ve sort of run out of things to say now. This is a disaster.” Come back, Claudia, all is forgiven?! Of course not, because who doesn’t want Diane Morgan’s uber-moronic alter-ego around (dis)gracing our screens? The Cumberbatch face-to-face kicked off Cunk on Cinema (BBC2), which then settled into the usual dim observations and stubbornly idiotic declarations directed at poker-faced interviewees. Compared with her previous two series, investigating the entire arc of human civilisation in Cunk on Earth and her existential treatise on the universe itself in Cunk on Life, a mere history of 130 years of film felt oddly modest in scope.”
James Jackson, The Times

“Instead of a proper education in Hollywood history, viewers are given the opportunity to expand their horizons with hitherto unimaginably idiotic takes. Sometimes the writing gets proper belly laughs: there’s a very good bit about the idea that dancing in films once represented sex, applied tastelessly to Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, plus a hysterical segment in which Cunk puts various grotesque scenarios to “David Clamworth” from the British Board of Film Classification that I wish had gone on for longer. Even when the script is merely snigger-inducing, the gag rate is so relentless there’s simply no time to stop smiling. If, like me, you consider writing stupid jokes to be another of humanity’s greatest achievements, you’ll have no choice but to consider Cunk on Cinema a true work of art.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“Who’d have thought it? Philomena Cunk, TV’s most clueless presenter, who once claimed Game Of Thrones was Shakespeare’s greatest play and thought Russia was part of the Soviet Onion, actually knows something about film history. Between the malapropisms and mispronunciations, obscene puns and plain silliness, Cunk On Cinema displayed flashes of genuine knowledge of how film evolved – and was all the funnier for it. So far, her three-part celebration of the movies has taken us from the almost accidental discovery of moving pictures to the heyday of the Hollywood musicals… not to mention Nazi propaganda films. ‘Who played Adolf Hitler?’ she wondered.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Cunk has come a long way from her days on Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe in terms of production values, with a clever recreation here of Buster Keaton’s collapsing house stunt. The style of “landmark” documentary she’s been sending up since the beginning is still being made today, so she isn’t out-of-date in that sense. This series just doesn’t live up to her other ones. Watch all three episodes and you can pull out a few good one-liners, but for a show with no less than 11 writers listed in the credits, it should have a stronger hit rate.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“Adapted by Karin Slaughter from her standalone 2017 bestseller, the six-part, Georgia-set thriller begins with an astonishing pile-up of traumatic incidents. So much Big Stuff happens in the first 15 minutes that it feels as if the series has been turned upside down and shaken by the ankles until the contents of its pockets clattered on to the lino. Clank, jangle; plot everywhere. Thus we get: a horrifying family tragedy; a school shooting; police brutality; a vulnerable teenage suspect; Charlie cheating on her estranged husband with a man with a ponytail; a comically evil DA in an oversized white Stetson; a racoon called Henry. The rest of the first couple of episodes seem wispy in comparison, drifting woozily in and out of flashbacks that appear to have been filmed through a thin layer of Utterly Butterly. Said flashbacks find us in the 90s, when a pair of leering locals burst into the family home and blast beloved, poetry-quotin’ mom (Olivia Williams) to marmalade before turning their attentions to the teenaged Sam and Charlie.”
Sarah Dempster, The Guardian

“Any decent murder mystery lives or dies by its final twist, and you have to credit The Good Daughter for packing several punches during the big denouement. No, none of it makes sense – especially the explanation for the school shooting. Yet Slaughter’s ripe romp deploys its bombshells with such glee that it feels mean-spirited to gaze too deeply into the plot holes. This dizzying thriller coasts on vibes alone, and, assisted by its powerhouse stars, that is just about enough.”
Ed Power, Telegraph