Diane Morgan stars in the new five-part Netflix mockumentary series Cunk on Earth, but viewers in the U.S. might not recognize her — unless they saw her as one of the supporting players in the Ricky Gervais comedy series After Life. But in Great Britain, Morgan’s been on TV for years, especially playing one recurring character.
Ten years ago, Black Mirror co-creator Charlie Brooker wrote and hosted a British comedy series, Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe. It was a satirical review of the week’s news — part The Daily Show, and part, if you want to go way, way back, That Was the Week That Was. Morgan was one of the featured players on Weekly Wipe, playing a TV correspondent named Philomena Cunk. Cunk isn’t very well-informed, and she’s prone to mispronunciations and malapropisms, but she says what she thinks — and what she thinks is often very, very funny.
In the U.K., the character was then spun off into several sequels, either limited series or one-shot specials: Cunk on Shakespeare, Cunk on Britain, Cunk and Other Humans. They all have the same winning formula: Philomena is sent to real exotic locations around the world, to offer her observations and interview actual experts — all of whom are polite and befuddled in equal measure.