It’s not often you find a show with a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, especially a comedy. Humour is so subjective it’s hard for everyone to agree something’s funny but that just proves how amazing Cunk on Earth is, and it's coming to Netflix on the 21st of June.
An antidote to the information age, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch a documentary and know for a fact that pretty much every single fact is wrong. That’s right, Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) is a very serious TV presenter who knows absolutely nothing about anything, and it’s a joy.
The highlight of each episode is undoubtedly when Cunk interviews real-life experts in their fields (normally a period of history) who usually are expecting an intellectual discussion. Their response to Cunk’s brand of anti-fact tends to go one of two ways, either they gamely play along, or best of all, they try to correct her only to be glibly put down by our hostess. If you’ve ever wanted to see an esteemed professor of architecture at one of the UK’s leading universities asked “What’s a building?” then this is the show for you.
It’s silly yes, but for all of the jokes (and there are oodles) Cunk on Earth proves how easy it is to spread disinformation just by having a reasonably professional set-up and that it’s best to do your own research. Otherwise, you’ll end up believing the National Theater was “designed to look so horrible that people are glad to be inside watching boring plays.”
Originally a character created for Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe, Morgan has been inhabiting the character of Cunk for over a decade but is only now getting the audience she deserves. If you’re just discovering Diane Morgan, she also stars in the excellent Motherland (91% on RT) which is also on Netflix.
