Cunk on Shakespeare

2016

Comedy

8
IMDb Rating 7.7/10 10 1622 1.6K

mockumentary

Plot summary

Fresh from her triumphs on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe investigating time, Winston Churchill, and Donald Trump, Philomena Cunk has finally been given her own show - about William Shakespeare. Cunk will leave no stone unturned as she gets to the bottom of the Bard, visiting his birthplace, exploring the Globe, studying priceless artefacts and interviewing literally six different experts.

Director

Lorry Powles Photo
Lorry Powles

Top cast

Diane Morgan Photo
Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk
Simon Russell Beale Photo
Simon Russell Beale as Self
Ben Crystal Photo
Ben Crystal as Self
Stanley Wells Photo
Stanley Wells as Self
720p.WEB
266.75 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
50 fps
12 hr 28 min
Seeds 40

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bob the moo

A few missteps but generally very funny writing and delivery

I caught up with this older outing for Philomena Cunk thanks to seeing her Christmas special this year. The most obvious thing about this episode is how good writers Charlie Brooker, Jason Hazeley, and Joel Morris really are; although of course the variety of Brooker's current output will get him the headlines. Cunk on Shakespeare is filled with great phrasing and nonsense sentences which are as funny as they are pleasing. Through these Cunk is a wonderfully real person, in her sweetly innocent ignorance.Morgan's performance makes it come alive; she is fantastically empty in what she does, and is convincing in her wide-eyed delivery. That said, I thought the sections where she took the lead were a little weaker than the scripted material. This stood out more than normal because a large chunk of the episode was interviews. So while the 'what words did he make up' section was hilarious, the bits about needing glasses at the theatre, or about him inventing video games, fall quite flat. This is probably because in these sections it is obvious she is pushing the ignorance to get a rise from the expert, whereas the best moments are much sharper and smarter than that.A few missteps here, but otherwise very funny thanks to the writing, and the delivery from Morgan.
Reviewed by Sleepin_Dragon 8 / 10

A super episode.

Philomena Cunk takes a look at Shakespeare, exploring why his writing is so popular to this day, and looks at the variety of his work.A wonderful combination, the writing skills of Charlie Brooker, the talent of Diane Morgan, and the iconic figure of William Shakespeare.It's the originality that I enjoy so much, I can't think of any other character who's quite like Philomena, Morgan is so good, so natural, so very funny. It's the absurdity that's so good.Some wonderfully funny moments throughout, I really did enjoy that, I'm a huge fan of The Bard, and I'm the first to accept that his work isn't perhaps for everyone, sometimes documentaries and explorations of his work can be a little dry, a little stale. This is a light hearted look, but all it made me want to do was dig out the old Shakespeare's productions.Marvellous, 8/10.
Reviewed by Hitchcoc 8 / 10

Poor Will

Taking a side track from the most recent Cunk documentary, I found this on You Tube. Like so much of the Cunk stuff, we start off with an utterly bored narrator who can't imagine people of another era acting as they did. She goes though several Shakespeare genres and tell bits and pieces about the films, mispronouncing words and not accurately representing the plots. As is her usual method, she brings in experts and quizzes them with the most absurd questions. Like what would happen to the appreciation of Shakespeare if all the words were removed? She also compares Shakespeare's tragedies to a Liam Neeson thriller. And finally, says that Game of Thrones is Shakespeare's greatest play. It is hit and miss, but mostly hilarious.
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