Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“Work is something we all learn to barely tolerate and life itself can sometimes feel like a horrible burden from which there’s no escape.” These words of world-weary wisdom may have conceivably been spouted by Karl Marx or Jean-Paul Sartre. But they belong, in fact, to another provocative thinker: Philomena Cunk. Having already given us definitive histories of Shakespeare, Britain and Earth, the intrepid and insatiable documentarian returns with a new special in which she attempts to unpick the thorny riddles of human existence and answer “the deep questions that strike at the very core of our souls”.To clarify for the uninitiated: Cunk is not an eminent intellectual but a stupidly funny character created by comedy writer Charlie Brooker and performed by Diane Morgan. Having first appeared as a woefully misguided interviewer in Brooker’s satirical series Weekly Wipe in 2013, Cunk has gone on to front several spin-offs that have amusingly sent up the tropes, grandiloquence and occasional inanity of TV documentaries. Excerpts from Cunk on Earth became a surprise viral hit in 2022, bringing Philomena’s idiocy — and Morgan’s deadpan genius — to the attention of millions more. Fortunately, there are no signs that fame has changed the soft-headed yet sharp-tongued presenter in the new feature-length mockumentary Cunk on Life. Tackling everything from biology and consciousness to “morality and stuff”, it delivers the usual relentless stream of inspired one-liners, malapropisms and misunderstandings. There are faux-dramatisations and excruciating conversations with actual academics — and, of course, non sequitur references to 1989 Belgian house anthem “Pump up the Jam”. Ingeniously, Cunk’s guileless, blasé approach to sacrosanct and controversial subjects often sheds light on injustice, absurdity and hypocrisy. So while there are throwaway jokes about, “ET the existentialist”, there are also disarmingly pointed barbs about, say, Hollywood abuse scandals, capital punishment and reproductive rights: “This is where, incredibly, the miracle of life begins and the precise moment a woman’s right to choose ends”.And while the hit rate slackens a bit towards the end — especially with a cheap Sesame Street-spoof — it’s testament to Brooker and Morgan that so many of the punchlines not only land but surprise, and that the character herself never feels stale. After all these years, Cunk remains as funny as ever — which is more than you can say for Marx or Sartre. ★★★★☆BBC2, December 30, 9pm and iPlayer in the UK. On Netflix outside the UK from January 2
