Black Mirror's Milanka Brooks developing generation clash TV comedy
- Milanka Brooks is adapting her autobiographical stage show Mum And I Don't Talk Anymore into a television comedy set in the north of England
- The actor, who reprises her role as a blue-skinned alien in the Black Mirror sequel episode, USS Callister: Into Infinity, hopes to play a version of her late mother in the comedy about three generation of women with Serbian heritage
- Brooks describes the planned series, which is being developed by production company 42, as "Gavin & Stacey meets Better Things with a massive dollop of Absolutely Fabulous"
Black Mirror star Milanka Brooks is developing a television comedy about three generations of women set in the north of England, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Brooks, who reprises her role as the blue-skinned alien Elena Tulaska in USS Callister: Into Infinity, in the first sequel episode in Charlie Brooker's dystopian sci-fi anthology, launching tomorrow as part of the seventh series on Netflix, is drawing upon her relationship with her late mother and their Serbian heritage for her loosely autobiographical series.
Described by Brooks, who also played Ionela, the Romanian fiancée of Johnny Vegas' character Geoff in Benidorm, as "Gavin & Stacey meets [Pamela Adlon's] Better Things with a massive dollop of Absolutely Fabulous", the series is being developed with Bad Education and Psychobitches creator Ben Cavey for 42, the London and Los Angeles-based production company behind Paramount+ comedy drama The Road Trip and Steve Coogan's comic film The Penguin Lessons, released in UK cinemas next week.
Brooks' planned series is an adaptation of her live, one-woman show, Mum And I Don't Talk Anymore, directed by Cavey, which she debuted at last year's Edinburgh Fringe. Now titled Adult Orphan, she is planning to tour it around the UK and US later this year.
In the stage show, she inhabits her mother Lela, a striking, confident Serbian-Bosnian former model. And she hopes to play a version of her mum in the television adaptation, which has a pilot script "nearing completion".
The other main characters are a 17-year-old version of herself and "a grandmother figure, metaphorical to a degree but based on staunch Serbian family members that I have".
The comedy explores "the clash between this very rigid Serbian culture from the grandmother, versus some slight assimilation from the mother in her 40s, versus the daughter who was born and bred in the UK" Brooks explains.
The actor, who also portrayed Princess Svetlana in The Windsors, and whose father was the late English actor and writer Harry Brooks Jr, who appeared in the Warren Mitchell and Barry Took-starring Comedy Playhouse Tooth And Claw and four episodes of Doctor Who, added that the series would be "socio-political" but also much more "sitcommy" than the stage show.
London-based Cavey, who joined 42 as head of comedy and entertainment and is currently managing director of international TV at the firm, is a former Netflix executive and MD at Tiger Aspect, where he co-created Bad Education with the BBC Three show's star Jack Whitehall, and has been pivotal in producing the stand-up's television projects, facilitating his transition to the screen and an international career.
Meanwhile, Brooks feels there is "more comedy" in USS Callister: Into Infinity than the original, fan favourite, Star Trek-inspired 2017 episode, in which she starred alongside Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Michaela Coel, Jimmi Simpson, Osy Ikhile and sometime sketch comic Paul G Raymond.
With all but Plemons and Chewing Gum star Coel returning, Milioti's character Nanette Cole is now captaining the USS Callister in the virtual multiverse as they become a target for millions of game players. Brooks was, perhaps surprisingly, given how the original episode concluded, happy to sit in make-up for two and a half hours to sport Elena's blue alien skin, echoing the character's stoicism and dry sense of humour.
"She's this sharp, no-nonsense woman, ready with a quick comeback" Brooks enthuses. "She's unimpressed by the delusions of grandeur of Daly (Plemons) and builds on that in the new episode, remaining brave and sarcastic. She's fiercely loyal to the crew and won't back down in a fight.
"So I'm bringing even more of that energy and I think, hopefully, everyone will see quite a lot of humour in Into Infinity. And, if I may so myself, I brought some of that to Elena and it's an honour to be slipping back into her boots."
In a very Black Mirror twist, Brooks had to change the ID settings on her phone while on set "to recognise my blue face with a wig on, because I spent more time looking like Elena than myself and my phone was just short fusing all the time."
Brooker, who originally created the series for Channel 4 in 2011 before it was poached by Netflix for the third series onwards in 2016, is "one of the most inimitable people you will ever meet" she reflects. "He's a tech nerd, that's why Black Mirror exists in the first place. But he writes characters, especially female characters, so well."
The sequel had been in development for years, delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic and US writers strikes, and has been through "185 different iterations" Brooks estimates.
Yet Brooker "exuded calm and relaxation on set, he's charming, funny and his memory is quite magnificent, he can remember things from conversations we had years ago that I'd long forgotten. There's a lot of stress in such an environment as this. But I never saw him flustered, he made everyone else comfortable."
Brooks is "hugely excited" for fans to see Into Infinity. And she's plotting a Fringe return in the future, collaborating with Cavey again on a show with similar themes to Mum And I Don't Talk Anymore but in the comedy section of the brochure rather than theatre.
"Despite the challenges and exhaustion of Edinburgh, I really learned a lot. It's been a fascinating journey so far and I'm really pleased now to be developing my show for television."