Konnie Huq

As the ticker tape settles over in the ITV studios, a drama will begin on Channel 4 that is so closely modelled on The X Factor that there is no doubting that its scheduling directly after this year's grand final was a deliberate one.

Black Mirror's second episode, 15 Million Merits, is co-written by Charlie Brooker's wife Konnie Huq, who presented X Factor companion show The Xtra Factor in 2010.

Brooker abandoned his TV criticism column in The Guardian midway through his wife's stint on the ITV2 show, prompting many to speculate that he felt his partiality had been compromised by Huq's involvement in the franchise. The plot thickens.
Like The National Anthem, the first in the Black Mirror series, 15 Million Merits' plot is not its strongest point. But the fine performances from its stars - who include Julia Davis and Rupert Everett - more than make up for some weak links in the narrative.

And in terms of capturing the terrifying, oppressive nature of The X Factor, Brooker has it spot on with his barely fictitious show Hot Shot, which plucks ordinary folk from their dystopian drudgery and bombards them with stardom.

For X Factor fans, it will serve as the perfect way to reflect on what has been a more sinister and contrived series than any other.
It is dark and disturbing, but is it any darker and more disturbing than the real X Factor we know and love to hate?

Radio Times review

Some guests on this series fade into the background; others grab it by the lapels and make it their own. In the former category tonight is Konnie Huq, who while charming and plausible doesn't have a great deal to do. In the latter is comedian Greg Davis (from Mock the Week and The Inbetweeners) who dominates proceedings with his booming voice and extreme anecdotes. Except, are they anecdotes or fabrications? Did he really spend his first term at university sleeping in a bath, a tale that sounds as tall as he is? And how could a 6ft 8in man get any sleep in a bath anyway?

To describe Charlie Brooker as biting the hand that feeds him in How TV Ruined Your Life isn't quite right. What actually happened is that television saw him gnashing and snapping away in print like a rabid alsatian, and thought "That looks lively... I wonder if it would be fun to stick a hand in his mouth." And the answer is yes. This week, he was addressing the effect the "flickering fibbing machine" has on our attitudes to romantic love, with its nightly propaganda about soul mates, physical beauty and the proper conduct of a love affair.

Much of the energy came from satirising our illusions about love itself, rather than any telly-induced misconceptions about it. He made a decent case, for example, that chewing gum offers a good metaphor for the trajectory of the average infatuation: "After the initial burst of excitement you soon find yourself just going through the motions, while your interest drains away and then you end up just spitting it into a hankie." But he's also very good at the clichés of television presentation, neatly caught here in a TV news bulletin about the progress of an office romance, presented as if it were an unfolding political story, with an earnest pavement reporter telling the news anchor that "our sources indicate she intends to terminate their 18-month relationship". I'm not sure what Konnie Huq will make of his bleak view of love, but for anyone not married to him it was very entertaining.

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