Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...
. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...
''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fiction ...
'', and has written for comedy series such as ''
Brass Eye
''Brass Eye'' is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, written ...
'', ''
The 11 O'Clock Show
''The 11 O'Clock Show'' is a satirical late-night British television comedy series on Channel 4 which featured topical sketches and commentary on news items. It ran between 30 September 1998 and 8 December 2000, most notably hosted by Iain Lee a ...
'' and ''
Nathan Barley''.
Brooker started his career as a cartoonist; he produced adverts for the second-hand video game retailer
CeX before becoming a journalist for ''
PC Zone.'' He has presented a number of television shows, mostly consisting of satirical and biting criticism of modern society and the media, such as ''
Screenwipe'', ''
Gameswipe'', ''
Newswipe'', ''
Weekly Wipe'', and ''
10 O'Clock Live
''10 O'Clock Live'' is a British comedy/news television programme that ran from 2011 to 2013, presented by Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and David Mitchell.
The programme was commissioned following the success of ''Channel 4's Alt ...
''. He also wrote the 2008 horror drama series ''
Dead Set''. He has written social criticism pieces for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and is one of four creative directors of the production company Zeppotron.
Early life
Charlie Brooker was born on 3 March 1971 in
Reading,
Berkshire. He grew up in a relaxed
Quaker household in
Brightwell-cum-Sotwell,
Oxfordshire. His parents were fans of the television sitcom ''
Bewitched'', and named him Charlton after a character in one episode and his sister Samantha after the series' main character. As a teenager, he first worked as a writer and cartoonist for ''
Oink!'', a comic produced in the late 1980s.
[
]
After attending
Wallingford School
Wallingford School is a secondary school with academy status located in the town of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England. It was founded by Walter Bigg in 1659 in association with the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, formally succeeding ...
, Brooker attended the Polytechnic of Central London (which became the
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Polyte ...
during his final year there) to study for a
BA in Media Studies. He says that he did not graduate because his dissertation was written on video games, which was not considered an acceptable topic.
[
] He has listed his comedic influences as
Monty Python, ''
The Young Ones'', ''
Blackadder'',
Chris Morris, and
Vic Reeves.
[Desert Island Discs, Charlie Brooker, BBC Radio 4, 7 Jan 2018]
Brooker did some early work as a cartoonist, and worked in the video game department of Music and Video Exchange, a retailer in
Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name.
Location
At Ossington Street/Ke ...
, London. When one of the employees left to found the second-hand retailer
CeX, Brooker worked in their first shop and produced cartoon advertisements.
Career
Print
After some of Brooker's CeX cartoons were printed in the magazine ''
PC Zone'', he was invited to write for the magazine. His first published review was of the 1997 game ''
Fallout''.
Brooker wrote for the magazine in the mid and late 1990s. Aside from games reviews, his output included the comic strip "Cybertwats" and a column titled "Sick Notes", where Brooker would insult anyone who wrote in to the magazine – and offered a £50 prize to the best letter. One of Brooker's one-shot cartoons caused the magazine to be pulled from the shelves of many British newsagents. The cartoon was titled "Helmut Werstler's Cruelty Zoo" and professed to be an advert for a theme park created by a
Teutonic psychologist for children to take out their violent impulses on animals rather than humans. It was accompanied by
photoshopped pictures of children smashing the skulls of monkeys with hammers, jumping on a badger with a pitchfork, and chainsawing an
orang-utan, among other things. The original joke was supposed to be at the expense of the ''
Tomb Raider
''Tomb Raider'', also known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, ...
'' games, known at the time for the number of animals killed, but the original title, "
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around th ...
's Cruelty Zoo", was changed for legal reasons. In October 2008, Brooker and several other ex-writers were invited back to review a game for the 200th issue. Brooker reviewed ''
Euro Truck Simulator''.
Brooker began writing a TV review column titled "Screen Burn" for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper's Saturday entertainment supplement ''The Guide'' in 2000, a role he continued through to October 2010.
From late 2005, he wrote a regular series of columns in ''The Guardian'' supplement "G2" on Fridays called "Supposing", in which he free-associated on a set of vague what-if themes. From October 2006 this column was expanded into a full-page section on Mondays, including samples from
TVGoHome and Ignopedia, an occasional series of pseudo-articles on topics mostly suggested by readers. The key theme behind Ignopedia was that, while
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
is written and edited by thousands of users, Ignopedia would be written by a single sub-par person with little or no awareness of the facts.
On 24 October 2004, he wrote a column on
George W. Bush and the forthcoming
2004 US presidential election which concluded, "
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth ...
,
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
,
John Hinckley, Jr. – where are you now that we need you?" that was criticised for Brooker's apparent encouragement of the assassination of the American president. ''The Guardian'' withdrew the article from its website and published and endorsed an apology by Brooker. He has since commented about the remark in the column stating:
Brooker left the "Screen Burn" column in 2010. In the final column, he noted how increasingly difficult he found it to reconcile his role in mainstream media and TV production with his writing as a scabrous critic or to objectively criticise those he increasingly worked and socialised with. Longtime covering contributor
Grace Dent
Grace Dent (born 3 October 1973) is an English columnist, broadcaster and author. She is a restaurant critic for ''The Guardian'' and from 2011 to 2017 wrote a restaurant column for the ''Evening Standard''. She is a regular critic on the BBC' ...
took over the column. He continued to contribute other articles to ''The Guardian'' on a regular basis, his most recent comment column appearing in May 2015.
In 2012 he contributed to the book ''Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who''.
In 2014, an article he wrote for ''The Guardian''—"Too much talk for one planet: why I'm reducing my word emissions"—was published in the
A-Level anthology ''Voices in Speech and Writing: An Anthology''.
Online
From 1999 to 2003 he wrote the satirical ''
TVGoHome'' website, a regular series of mock TV schedules published in a format similar to that of the ''
Radio Times'', consisting of a combination of savage satire and
surreal humour
Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of surrea ...
and featured in technology newsletter
Need To Know. A print adaptation of the site was published by
Fourth Estate in 2001. A TV sketch show based on the site was broadcast on UK digital station
E4 the same year.
In May 2012, Brooker was interviewed for
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the lead ...
's ''
Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' series. In 2019, he made a second appearance on the podcast, which was released during March 2020.
Television
From 1999 to 2000, Brooker played hooded expert 'the Pundit' in the short-lived show ''
Games Republic'', hosted by
Trevor and Simon on
BSkyB.
In 2000, Brooker was one of the writers of the
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
show ''
The 11 O'Clock Show
''The 11 O'Clock Show'' is a satirical late-night British television comedy series on Channel 4 which featured topical sketches and commentary on news items. It ran between 30 September 1998 and 8 December 2000, most notably hosted by Iain Lee a ...
'' and a co-host (with
Gia Milinovich
Gia Michele Milinovich (born 11 July 1969) is an American-British television presenter and writer.
Early life
Milinovich was born in Minnesota to an ethnic Serbian family,.
Career
She presented television programmes such as Channel 4's ''Demo ...
) on
BBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge was a British television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 1 June 1999, broadcasting documentary, cultural and educational programmes. It was shut down on 2 March 2002, and was replaced by BBC Four.
History
L ...
's ''The Kit'', a low-budget programme dedicated to gadgets and technology (1999–2000). In 2001, he was one of several writers on Channel 4's ''
Brass Eye
''Brass Eye'' is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, written ...
'' special on the subject of
paedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...
.
In 2003, Brooker wrote an episode entitled "How to Watch Television" for Channel 4's ''The Art Show''. The episode was presented in the style of a public information film and was partly animated.
Together with ''Brass Eyes
Chris Morris, Brooker co-wrote the sitcom ''
Nathan Barley'', based on a character from one of TVGoHome's fictional programmes. The show was broadcast in 2005 and focused on the lives of a group of London media 'trendies'. The same year, he was also on the writing team of the Channel 4
sketch show
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...
''
Spoons'', produced by Zeppotron.
''Wipe'' series
In 2006, Brooker began writing and presenting the television series ''
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'' on
BBC Four, a TV review programme in a similar style to his ''Screen Burn'' columns in ''The Guardian''. After an initial pilot series of three editions in April, the programme returned later in the year for a second run of four episodes plus Christmas and Review of the Year specials in December 2006. A third series followed in February 2007 with a fourth broadcast in September 2007, followed by a Review of the Year in December 2007. The fifth series started in November 2008 and was followed by another Review of the Year special. This series was also the first to be given a primetime repeat on terrestrial television (
BBC Two), in January 2009.
''Screenwipe'' editions have focused on a themes including American television, TV news, advertising and children's programmes. The last of these involved a segment where Brooker joined the cast of ''
Toonattik'' for one week, playing the character of "Angry News Guy". An episode focused on scriptwriting, which saw several of British television's most prominent writers interviewed by Brooker.
''
Newswipe with Charlie Brooker
''Newswipe with Charlie Brooker'' is a British news review comedy programme broadcast on BBC Four during 2009 and 2010 which was written and presented by Charlie Brooker. It is similar to Brooker's ''Screenwipe'' series which is also shown on BB ...
'', a similar show focusing on current affairs reporting by the international news media, began on BBC Four on 25 March 2009. A second series began on 19 January 2010. He has also written and presented the one-off special ''
Gameswipe'' which focused on video games and aired on BBC Four on 29 September 2009.
Brooker's ''2010 Wipe'', a review of 2010, was broadcast in December 2010. The end-of-year ''Wipe'' specials continued annually, the last one to date broadcast on 29 December 2016. Due to Brooker's commitments to ''Black Mirror'' and other projects, the annual Wipe went on hiatus from 2017
onwards.
''
Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe'' was first broadcast on BBC Two on 31 January 2013. It is an amalgam of ''Screenwipe'' and ''Newswipe'', with sections focusing on recent news, television shows and films. Along with the regular cast, it also features guests who discuss recent events.
Two more series followed in 2014 and 2015. A 60-minute special, ''Election Wipe'', aired on 6 May 2015, focused on the events running up to the
2015 general election.
A 45-minute BBC Two special, ''Charlie Brooker's Antiviral Wipe'', aired on 14 May 2020. It focused on life during the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. It was produced during the UK lockdown, which had caused a series starring ''Wipe'' character
Philomena Cunk
Diane Morgan (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress, comedian, television presenter, and writer. She is best known for playing Philomena Cunk on Charlie Brooker's ''Weekly Wipe'' and in other mockumentaries, as Liz in the BBC Two sitcom ' ...
to be postponed. Most of the crew from the series transferred to work on ''Antiviral Wipe''. Brooker initially turned down the offer to make the special but accepted when it was clear that production would be largely unchanged, the format of the series—with few characters appearing on the same screen together and extensive use of archive footage—well-suited to the lockdown rules. The editing process was the most affected.
He often signs off his programmes by saying "Thank you for watching. Now go away."
''Dead Set''
Brooker wrote ''Dead Set'', a five-part zombie horror thriller for
E4 set in the ''
Big Brother'' house. The show was broadcast in October 2008 to coincide with Halloween and was repeated on Channel 4 in January 2009 to coincide with ''Celebrity Big Brother'', and again for Halloween later that year. It was produced by Zeppotron, which also produced ''Screenwipe''.
Brooker told MediaGuardian.co.uk it comprised a "mixture of known and less well known faces" and "Dead Set is very different to anything I've done before, and I hope the end result will surprise, entertain and appall people in equal measure." He added that he has long been a fan of horror films and that his new series "could not be described as a comedy". "I couldn't really describe what it is but it will probably surprise people," Brooker said, adding that he plans to "continue as normal" with his print journalism.
Jaime Winstone
Jaime Margaret Winstone (born 6 May 1985) is an English actress, best known for her roles in '' Kidulthood'', '' Dead Set'', '' After Hours'' and her portrayal of Barbara Windsor in ''Babs''.
Early life and education
Winstone was born in Camd ...
starred as a
runner on the TV programme, and ''Big Brother'' presenter
Davina McCall
Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She was the presenter of the reality show '' Big Brother'' during its run on Channel 4 between 2000 and 2010. She also hosted Channel 4's ''Streetmate'' (199 ...
guest starred as herself.
[TV review: Dead Set](_blank)
, Leicester Mercury
The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its ...
, 28 October 2008 Dead Set received a
BAFTA nomination for ''Best Drama Serial''.
[Bafta TV Awards 2009: The winners](_blank)
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
In December 2011, three episodes of Brooker's ''Black Mirror'', a science fiction anthology series, aired on
to largely positive reviews. As well as creating the show, Brooker wrote the first episode and co-wrote the second with his wife
. He also wrote all three episodes of series two. In September 2015, Netflix commissioned a third season of 12 episodes, with
losing the rights to the programme. A trailer for the third season was released in October 2016.
This was later split into two series of six episodes. The third season was released on Netflix worldwide on 21 October 2016. Brooker has solely written four of the episodes in series three, and has co-written the remaining two.
The fourth season was released in December 2017, followed by a full-length interactive film ''Bandersnatch'' in December 2018. The fifth season was released in June 2019.
The series is produced by Zeppotron for
. Regarding the programme's content and structure, Brooker noted, "each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy."
'' which taps into our contemporary unease about our modern world", with the stories having a "techno-paranoia" feel.
describes the first episode as "a twisted parable for the Twitter age".
Brooker explained the series' title to ''
'', noting: "If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where ''Black Mirror'', my new drama series, is set. The 'black mirror' of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a
later, in September 2016, Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to the episode and rightly predicted Trump would win
.
, both notable for having starred in genuine crime dramas. Two further series were broadcast in 2013 and 2014, with the latter starring
''. He appeared on an episode of the Channel 4 panel show ''
''. In December 2006 he reviewed two games written by the presenters of ''
'', on their show. He also made a brief appearance in the third and final instalment of the documentary series ''Games Britannia'', discussing the rise and popularity of computer games.
Brooker wrote for the
TV quiz on Channel 4 which discusses television. A second series was broadcast the following year.
On 6 May 2010, Brooker was a co-host of the Channel 4 alternative election night, along with
. The telethon was interspersed with contributions from Brooker, some live in the studio but mostly pre-recorded. Notably, these included an "Election Special" of ''You Have Been Watching'' and two smaller segments in an almost identical style to ''Screenwipe'' (the only noticeable difference being that Brooker was sitting in a different room). Brooker described the experience of live television as being so nerve-wracking he "did a piss" during the broadcast. A spin-off series, ''
with Netflix "about 2020". Grant stated that he would star as "a historian who is being interviewed about the year." The mockumentary, titled ''
'' was released. Brooker was credited as creator.
'', in which guests compete to pitch the worst possible ideas for new franchises and give the "most wrong" answer to a question. It aired 17 episodes across three series. In common with ''Screenwipe's'' use of a
'' as its theme tune, ''So Wrong It's Right'' uses another track from the same album, ''Summer Here Kids''.
In January 2018 he was the guest on
''.