Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker on Cameron and #piggate

"The first question people were asking me was, Did I know anything about it? And the answer is no, absolutely not. I probably wouldn't have bothered writing an episode of a fictional comedy-drama if I'd known."

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror to become a Netflix show

Sources say the US streaming giant has agreed terms to make original episodes of the hit dystopian comedy drama.

Black Mirror will be back, but could be made by Netflix

Charlie Brooker is penning more series of the technofear thriller - but he is currently being wooed by the US streaming giant alongside other American broadcasters, RadioTimes.com can reveal.

Charlie Brooker's unnerving series returns for a feature-length Christmas special on Tuesday, starring Jon Hamm. But you can watch all previous episodes, which exhibit a compelling sense of unease about the modern world.

Black Mirror - series one box set review

From the PM blackmailed into having sex with a pig to the gadget that rewinds the past, Charlie Brooker's dystopian visions are unlike anything else on TV.

Charlie Brooker: "I'd love to do a Black Mirror film"

The Weekly Wipe writer and broadcaster says some episodes of the dystopian drama could work better on the silver screen.

Endemol in talks to make US version of Black Mirror

A U.S. rendition of Black Mirror, the British sci-fi series that has been a buzzy hit for Netflix, is in the works, the new leaders of Endemol Shine North America said Wednesday at the Real Screen confab.

The festive special of Charlie Brooker's dystopian anthology series is, as you might expect, entirely lacking in goodwill, depicting the holiday season as a period of solitude and emptiness. Which makes it perfect viewing for January, a time when even the faintest memory of the Christmas gorging session is likely to have you reaching for the sick bucket. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall are two singletons, sharing stories of gadget-enabled love and loss over a Christmas dinner. But something's not quite right with their situation...

I didn't have to starve for too long in search of equally gamey broth, in the reliable shape of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror: White Christmas. Mr Brooker takes few prisoners when it comes to those possessed of pygmy imaginations, which is meet and right for grown-up telly. So within 90 minutes we were introduced to the concept of "blocking" an individual as one would an ex-Facebook friend, but actually doing so in real life (thanks to everyone in the near future having chosen to implant so-called Z-Eyes, hooked up of course to the net: do keep up); the blockee appears only as a greyed-out shadow and may neither call nor approach.

Then to the concept of extracting an "egg" of consciousness, a kind of Mini-Me, purely to toil in a tiny, white, closed cyberjail at the tasks of keeping the real-life Me fed and watered and kept at the right temperature and with the toast done just so: basically, the concept of outsourcing a small twitch of one's own soul, the better to keep body and... body together. Already we'd addressed the issues of slavery, alienation, the speeding up of time (and thus, when there's absolutely nothing to do, the creation of pathological boredom), the inadvisability of taking anyone's advice on dating, and that was within about seven minutes, before we even got on to the concept of Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall stuck in Ice Station Zebra at Christmas, caning the port.

These actors, and this in its entirety, were phenomenal, but there were so many fine ideas, both uplifting and dystopian, that I can't quickly do them justice - other than to offer the obvious thought that it's not the technology: it's us. And to observe that Mr Brooker must be becoming mildly fed up at having his technological imaginings superseded every six months. Google, do be careful what you wish for: when the gods wish to punish us, first they answer our prayers.