Charlie Brooker Black Mirror

[Bob The Skutter]

Channel 4 have picked up a new show from Charlie Brooker called Black Mirror.

From Channel 4
Charlie Brooker (E4's Bafta-nominated Dead Set author) returns with Black Mirror, a new 3 x 60 minute scripted mini-series, commissioned by Head of Comedy Shane Allen and produced by comedy and drama producer Zeppotron.
Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm - a plasma screen; a monitor; a smartphone - a black mirror of our 21st Century existence. Our grip on reality is shifting. We worship at the altars of Google and Apple. Facebook algorithims know us more intimately than our own parents. We have access to all the information in the world, but no brainspace left to absorb anything longer than a 140-character tweet.
Black Mirror is a hybrid of The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected which taps into our contemporary unease about our modern world. The three stand-alone dramas will be sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales with a techno-paranoia bent - all audacious ‘what if' stories: some comic, some shocking.
Charlie Brooker says: ‘Growing up, I always loved The Twilight Zone and shows of that ilk. Black Mirror won't be anything like those, but on the other hand, it's closer to them than, say, Downton Abbey. It combines satire, technology, absurdity, and a pinch of surprise, and it all takes place in a world you almost - almost - totally recognise. It changes each week - like the weather, but hopefully about 2000 times more entertaining. If you don't like it, you will be beaten about the face and neck by Channel 4 executives.'

Sounds like Classic Charlie fare here. Can't wait to see it.

 

[ITL]

Hooray! More Brooker is always a good thing.

 

[captcalhoun]

i don't care about the shows, i just LOL'd at the quote from him at the end of BTS's quote.

 

[Jax]

Hooray! More Brooker is always a good thing.

Indeed, any idea if there will be another season of "You Have Been Watching" and "TV Ruined my Life" ?

 

[ITL]

I have no idea, but if anyone knows, it's Bob.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I've not heard about either, hope both, and 10 o'clock live come back for more.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

God I hope its on soon......No new IT crowd, No new screenwipes, No new You have been watching, new Who spread over the year, Hustle's gone, and the rest of 2011 looks similarly sparse on the ground for stuff to watch.(For me anyway).

Thank god i have a good supply of DVD box sets on tap.(just going through Stargate).

 

[Servo]

Sounds cool.

I agree with Haggis. Autumn can't come soon enough. At least we'll have new episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock, and I imagine this show will likely air between Autumn and Christmas.

Didn't the beautiful Lauren Laverne say they'd be back "later in the year" at the end of the last 10 O'Clock Live?

 

[ITL]

Sounds cool.

I agree with Haggis. Autumn can't come soon enough. At least we'll have new episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock, and I imagine this show will likely air between Autumn and Christmas.

Didn't the beautiful Lauren Laverne say they'd be back "later in the year" at the end of the last 10 O'Clock Live?

Probably. And beautiful? She certainly is.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^I don't think she did. At least not that I remember.

 

[TheGodBen]

She didn't, and there are rumours that Channel 4 dropped it due to poor ratings. It's possible that it will return again next year but they'll drop the live aspect, which means they'd have to change the name and everything. They should just call it "The Brooker and Mitchell Expertly Edited Half-Hour", because that name alone would attract back most of the audience that dropped away after the first few episodes.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Jimmy Carr ran out of funny hats.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Well I liked it all. so to you all.

 

[TheGodBen]

I liked it too. It was schizophrenic, but the good parts could be very good while the bad parts were rarely ever that bad, and it improved over the course of its run. But I don't see a need for it to be live, they could film it earlier in the day and edit out some of the less-than-slick bits, like The Daily Show does, and it would be pretty much the same show. It did well on 4OD, apparently, so a lot of the people that watched it weren't watching it live anyway.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I liked it too. It was schizophrenic, but the good parts could be very good while the bad parts were rarely ever that bad, and it improved over the course of its run. But I don't see a need for it to be live, they could film it earlier in the day and edit out some of the less-than-slick bits, like The Daily Show does, and it would be pretty much the same show. It did well on 4OD, apparently, so a lot of the people that watched it weren't watching it live anyway.

Well the live thing worked out when the Libya thing happened, and it differentiated it from Mock the Week, Have I got news for you, Stand up for the week, etc.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Looks like Charlie is doing a spoof crime drama for Sky. It's called "A Touch of Cloth"

From The Guardian

Charlie Brooker has written a two-hour spoof crime drama for Sky1 starring John Hannah, Suranne Jones and Julian Rhind-Tutt.


A Touch of Cloth has been co-written with Daniel Maier, a writer on ITV1's Harry Hill's TV Burp, and sets out to be a "spoof of every British crime drama made in the last decade".


Hannah stars as DCI Jack Cloth, a "maverick, heavy drinking loner" who throws himself into his work after the death of his wife.


He is teamed with a "plucky, no-nonsense sidekick" played by Jones investigating a series of grisly murders. Rhind-Tutt plays their boss, Tom Boss.


It is the latest scripted TV project for Guardian columnist Brooker, who has also written comic drama series Black Mirror for Channel 4, described as a hybrid of The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected. He previously wrote Big Brother-based zombie thriller Dead Set, for E4.


Brooker said: "After you've seen A Touch of Cloth you'll never be able to watch another detective show again. Not because it's a devastating piss take, but because you'll have smashed your TV into pieces in a disappointed fury."

 

[Deckerd]

D'you think it's a play on 'touching cloth'?

 

[ITL]

I was thinking the same thing...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

What would come next -- Skiing for Crocodiles?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

D'you think it's a play on 'touching cloth'?

Almost certainly, would you expect any less from Charlie Brooker? I mean it's obviously a play on A Touch of Frost, but playing on Touching Cloth... at least that's what I took it for.