Philomena Cunk is heading back to our screens this November, and this time she’s tackling one of humanity’s greatest mysteries: cinema. The BBC has released the official trailer for ‘Cunk on Cinema‘, the new three-part mockumentary from Charlie Brooker and Diane Morgan, which promises to answer all those important questions about the movies that absolutely nobody was asking.
Following her investigations into British history, the planet Earth and the meaning of life, Cunk is turning her attention to the silver screen, attempting to explain how cinema began, why it exists, and what exactly it wants from us.
The new series will take viewers on a journey through the history of filmmaking, from the invention of the camera and the New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s, right through to CGI and the increasingly complicated question of what artificial intelligence might mean for the future of movies.
Naturally, Cunk will be bringing her trademark interviewing technique to the subject, asking apparently straightforward questions that somehow manage to leave even the most knowledgeable experts questioning everything they thought they knew.
And there are some particularly brave people lining up to face her questions this time around.
Among those appearing are Hollywood blockbuster director Michael Bay (Transformers, Bad Boys), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Doctor Strange), Oscar-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary), and screenwriter Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, Commando).
Also putting their reputations and sanity on the line are cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (Avengers Assemble), film critic Mark Kermode, filmmaker Mark Cousins, Sight and Sound managing editor Isabel Stevens, and Empire editor-at-large Helen O’Hara, alongside a host of other industry experts.
Quite what happens when the woman responsible for some of television’s most spectacularly ill-informed questions meets the director of Transformers is something we’re particularly looking forward to discovering.
The series continues the hugely successful mockumentary franchise, which previously gave us ‘Cunk on Britain’, ‘Cunk on Earth’, ‘Cunk on Shakespeare’ and ‘Cunk on Life’. Morgan’s extraordinary ability to maintain a completely straight face while delivering increasingly ridiculous questions has made Philomena Cunk one of British comedy’s most wonderfully absurd creations.
Behind the scenes, Brooker leads a writing team that includes Morgan, Ben Caudell, Erika Ehler, Eli Goldstone, Jason Hazeley, Dan Maier, Joel Morris, Michael Odewale, Kali Varghese and Sam Ward. Al Campbell returns to direct, with Pacesetter Productions producing the series.
For UK viewers, all three half-hour episodes will arrive together on BBC iPlayer in November, so there’s no need to wait between lessons in Cunk’s unique interpretation of cinematic history. BBC Two will also broadcast the episodes weekly.
International audiences won’t be left out either, with Netflix bringing the series to viewers outside the UK and Ireland just a few days after its BBC debut.
‘Cunk on Cinema‘ Season 1 premieres Thursday, 12th November 2026 on BBC iPlayer, with all three episodes available from 6am. BBC Two begins airing the series weekly at 10pm on the same date.
‘Cunk on Cinema‘ premieres Sunday, 15th November 2026 on Netflix outside the UK and Ireland.
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