Charlie Brooker Explained

Charlie Brooker
Birth Name:Charlton Brooker
Birth Date:1971 3, df=yes
Birth Place:Reading, England
Occupation:Presenter, author, screenwriter, cartoonist, producer, social critic
Years Active:1987–present
Children:2
Education:University of Westminster

Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English writer, television presenter, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show, 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. He also wrote the 2008 horror drama series Dead Set. He has written social criticism pieces for The Guardian and is one of four creative directors of the production company Zeppotron.

Early life and education

Charlie Brooker was born on 3 March 1971 in Reading, Berkshire.[1] [2] He grew up in a relaxed Quaker household in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire.[3] 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.[4] As a teenager, he first worked as a writer and cartoonist for Oink!, a comic produced in the late 1980s.[5]

After attending Wallingford School, Brooker attended the Polytechnic of Central London (which became the University of Westminster 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.[6] He has listed his comedic influences as Monty Python, The Young Ones, Blackadder, Chris Morris and Vic Reeves.[7]

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, London. When one of the employees left to found the second-hand retailer CeX, Brooker worked in their first shop and produced cartoon advertisements.[8]

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 early reviews included System Shock (1994)[9] and Fallout (1997). Brooker wrote for the magazine in the mid and late 1990s.[10] 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.[11] The original joke was supposed to be at the expense of the Tomb Raider games, known at the time for the number of animals killed, but the original title, "Lara Croft'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 newspaper's Saturday entertainment supplement The Guide in 2000, a role he continued until 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 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.[12]

On 24 October 2004, he wrote a column on George W. Bush and the forthcoming 2004 US presidential election[13] which concluded, "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, 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.[14] He has since commented about the remark in the column stating:

Brooker left the "Screen Burn" column in 2010. In the final column,[15] 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 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.[16]

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.[17]

Online

From 1999 to 2003 he wrote the satirical TVGoHome website,[18] [19] 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 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.[20]

In May 2012, Brooker was interviewed for Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast series.[21] In 2019, he made a second appearance on the podcast, which was released during March 2020.

Television

Brooker's television presenting debut was with Gia Milinovich on BBC Knowledge's The Kit (1999–2000), a programme that reviewed gadgets and technology.[22] From 1999 to 2000, Brooker played the 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 show The 11 O'Clock Show. In 2001, he was one of several writers on Channel 4's Brass Eye special on the subject of paedophilia. In 2003, Brooker wrote an episode entitled "How to Watch Television" for Channel 4's The Art Show.[23] 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 Spoons, produced by Zeppotron.

Wipe series

See main article: List of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe episodes. 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, 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,[24] [25] [26] [27] [28] the last one to date broadcast on 29 December 2016.[29] Due to Brooker's commitments to Black Mirror and other projects, the annual Wipe went on hiatus from 2017onwards.[30]

Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe was first broadcast on BBC Two on 31 January 2013.[31] 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.[32] Two more series followed in 2014 and 2015.[33] [34] [35] [36] A 60-minute special, Election Wipe, aired on 6 May 2015, focused on the events running up to the 2015 general election.[37]

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.[38] [39] It was produced during the UK lockdown, which had caused a series starring Wipe character Philomena Cunk 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.[40] [41]

He often signs off his programmes by saying "Thank you for watching. Now go away."[42]

Dead Set

See main article: Dead Set.

Brooker wrote Dead Set, a five-part zombie horror thriller for E4 set in the Big Brother house.[43] 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.[44] 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 starred as a runner on the TV programme, and Big Brother presenter Davina McCall guest starred as herself.[45] Dead Set received a BAFTA nomination for Best Drama Serial.[46]

Black Mirror

See main article: Black Mirror.

In December 2011, three episodes of Brooker's Black Mirror, a science fiction anthology series, aired on Channel 4 to largely positive reviews.[47] [48] [49] As well as creating the show, Brooker wrote the first episode and co-wrote the second with his wife Konnie Huq. He also wrote all three episodes of series two. In September 2015, Netflix commissioned a third season of 12 episodes, with Channel 4 losing the rights to the programme.[50] [51] A trailer for the third season was released in October 2016.[52] This was later split into two series of six episodes.[53] The third season was released on Netflix worldwide on 21 October 2016.[54] 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 Endemol. 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."[55]

An Endemol press release describes the series as "a hybrid of The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected which taps into our contemporary unease about our modern world", with the stories having a "techno-paranoia" feel.[56] Channel 4 describes the first episode as "a twisted parable for the Twitter age".[57]

Brooker explained the series' title to The Guardian, 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 smartphone."[55]

Several news reports, including one by Chris Cillizza, political reporter for The Washington Post, compared the 2016 Donald Trump political campaign to "The Waldo Moment", a 2013 episode of the Black Mirror TV series;[58] [59] later, in September 2016, Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to the episode and rightly predicted Trump would win the 2016 election.[60] [61]

Other television work and appearances

With Daniel Maier, he co-wrote a spoof crime drama for Sky1 called A Touch of Cloth, which first broadcast on 26 August 2012 and starred John Hannah and Suranne Jones, both notable for having starred in genuine crime dramas.[62] Two further series were broadcast in 2013 and 2014, with the latter starring Karen Gillan.

Brooker has appeared on three episodes and one webisode of the popular BBC current affairs news quiz Have I Got News for You. He appeared on an episode of the Channel 4 panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2009, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Would I Lie To You?. In December 2006 he reviewed two games written by the presenters of VideoGaiden, 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 BBC Three sketch show Rush Hour.

In 2009, Brooker began hosting You Have Been Watching, a panel comedy 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 David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr and Lauren Laverne.[63] 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.[64] A spin-off series, 10 O'Clock Live, started in January 2011 with the same four hosts.[65]

Brooker hosted How TV Ruined Your Life, which aired on BBC Two between January and March 2011.

In November 2020, Hugh Grant reported that Brooker was producing a mockumentary with Netflix "about 2020". Grant stated that he would star as "a historian who is being interviewed about the year."[66] The mockumentary, titled Death to 2020, was released on Netflix on 27 December 2020.[67]

In 2022, the animated interactive fiction Cat Burglar was released. Brooker was credited as creator.[68] [69]

Radio

From 2010 to 2012, Brooker presented a BBC Radio 4 series celebrating failure titled So Wrong It's Right, 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.[70] In common with Screenwipe's use of a Grandaddy track (A.M. 180) from the album Under the Western Freeway 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 BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.[7]

Personal life

Brooker became engaged to former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq after dating for nine months, having met while filming an episode of Screenwipe.[71] They married on 26 July 2010 at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.[72] They have two children, both sons.[73] [74] [75] Rupa Huq, the Member of Parliament for Ealing Central and Acton, is Brooker's sister-in-law.[76]

Brooker is an atheist and contributed to The Atheist's Guide to Christmas.[77] Due to his family's background, he has also described himself as a Quaker.[77] [78]

Awards and nominations

For his work as creator and screenwriter of Black Mirror, Brooker won three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and two consecutive for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.

Brooker won the 2009 Columnist of the Year award at the British Press Awards for his Guardian column.[79] Dead Set was nominated for the 2009 Best Drama Serial BAFTA. In 2010, he was given the Best Entertainment Programme Award for Newswipe from the Royal Television Society. He has received three British Comedy Awards: Best Newcomer in 2009, Best Comedy Entertainment Show Award for Newswipe in 2011 and Best Comedy Entertainment Personality in 2012. At the BAFTA TV Awards 2017, his show Charlie Brooker's 2016 Wipe won for Best Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme.[80]

Filmography

TitleYearWriterProducerAppearedRoleNotes
The 11 O'Clock Show1999–20004 episodes
Brass Eye2001Episode: "Paedogeddon"
TVGoHome2001Tony Rogers
How To Watch Television2003
Spoons2005Also co-creator
Nathan Barley2005Also co-creator
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe2006–2008PresenterAlso creator
Rush Hour2007Also creator
Dead Set2008Zombie5-part miniseries
Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe2009PresenterSpecial
You Have Been Watching2009–2010PresenterAlso creator
Newswipe with Charlie Brooker2009–2010PresenterAlso creator
Charlie Brooker's 2010 Wipe2010PresenterSpecial
How TV Ruined Your Life2010PresenterAlso creator
Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe2011PresenterSpecial
10 O'Clock Live2011–2013Presenter
Black Mirror2011–PresentAlso creator
Them from That Thing20122 episodes
Charlie Brooker's 2012 Wipe2012PresenterSpecial
A Touch of Cloth2012–2014HimselfAlso co-creator
How Videogames Changed the World2013PresenterSpecial
Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe2013PresenterSpecial
Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe2013–2015PresenterAlso creator
Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe2014PresenterSpecial
Charlie Brooker's Election Wipe2015PresenterSpecial
Charlie Brooker's 2015 Wipe2015PresenterSpecial
Cunk on Shakespeare2016Special
Charlie Brooker's 2016 Wipe2016PresenterSpecial
Cunk on Christmas2016Special
Mr Biffo's Found Footage2017Web series
Cunk on Britain[81] 20175-part series
2018Interactive film
The Simpsons2019Social Rating VoiceEpisode: "Thanksgiving of Horror"
Charlie Brooker's Antiviral Wipe2020PresenterSpecial
Death to 20202020Creator
Attack of the Hollywood Cliches2021Special
Cat Burglar2022Creator
Cunk on Earth20225-part series

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: On my radar: Charlie Brooker's cultural highlights. The Guardian. Bromwich. Kathryn. 8 July 2023. 23 October 2023. 19 June 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042034/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/08/on-my-radar-charlie-brooker-cultural-highlights-black-mirror. live.
  2. News: Spotlight on... Charlie Brooker. Western Mail. 29 January 2011. .
  3. Web site: No wonder Cameron wants to celebrate the Magna Carta - back then plebs had the same human rights as a parsnip. 16 June 2014. 23 October 2016. The Guardian. 15 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171115083335/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/16/david-cameron-britishness-charlie-brooker. live.
  4. News: At home with TVGoHome. BBC News. 29 August 2001. 9 June 2015. 18 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180918055500/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1513423.stm. live.
  5. Web site: Profile: Charlie Brooker . . RTS Futures . 26 September 2007 . 16 March 2010 . dead . https://archive.today/20110214134414/http://www.rtsfutures.org.uk/show_news_stories/25 . 14 February 2011 . dmy-all .
  6. News: Poor A-levels? Don't despair. Just lie on job application forms . The Guardian . UK . 21 August 2011 . 4 September 2011 . Charlie . Brooker . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042103/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/21/charlie-brooker-a-level-results . live.
  7. Desert Island Discs, Charlie Brooker, BBC Radio 4, 7 Jan 2018
  8. News: Ellison . Cara . 2013-07-16 . Gaming Made Me: Charlie Brooker, Part 2 . en . Rock, Paper, Shotgun . 2022-03-27.
  9. PC Zone. November 1994. 91–94. System Shock. Brooker. Charlie.
  10. News: Games (Technology),PC (games),Magazines (Media),Press and publishing,Consumer magazines . London . The Guardian . Greg . Howson . 15 July 2010 . 11 December 2016 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042038/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2010/jul/15/pc-zone-magazine-to-close . live .
  11. Doctor Helmut Werstler's Cruelty Zoo. PC Zone. 60. Dennis Publishing. 120.
  12. News: Logged in as click here to log out . Brooker's 30 October 2006 column, featuring Ignopedia and TVGoHome . The Guardian . London . 30 October 2006 . 16 January 2010 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042040/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/oct/30/comment.charliebrooker . live .
  13. Web site: Full text of deleted article . Antinomian.com . 23 October 2004 . 16 January 2010 . 27 December 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091227182729/http://www.antinomian.com/dumb_show.html . live .
  14. News: Close . Apology for Brooker's 24 October 2004 Screen Burn column . The Guardian . London . 24 October 2004 . 16 January 2010 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619041930/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/24/tvandradio.theguide . live .
  15. News: Close . Charlie Brooker Leaving Screen Burn Column . The Guardian . London . 16 October 2010 . 16 October 2010 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042004/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/16/charlie-brooker-leaving-screen-burn . live .
  16. Web site: Jones. Paul. Behind the Sofa: Charlie Brooker, Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Ross's Doctor Who memories. RadioTimes. The Radio Times. 20 December 2016. 24 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924143055/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-11-04/behind-the-sofa-charlie-brooker-neil-gaiman-and-jonathan-rosss-doctor-who-memories. live.
  17. Web site: 2014. Voices in Speech and Writing: An Anthology. 30 March 2021.
  18. Web site: Need To Know 2000-07-21. 23 October 2016. 2000-07-21. 27 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131027192813/http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02000-07-21&l=298#l. live.
  19. Web site: Need To Know 2004-10-29. 23 October 2016. 2004-10-29. 27 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131027184258/http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02004-10-29&l=22#l. live.
  20. Web site: Endemol UK - Zeppotron. 23 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20140206163832/http://www.zeppotron.com/shows/tvgh.html. 6 February 2014. dead.
  21. Web site: Herring. Richard. RHLSTP. British Comedy Guide. 20 December 2016. 22 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161222190027/https://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/richard_herring_lst_podcast/episode_5_charlie_brooker/. live.
  22. BBCArchive. 1631687124310269954. Charlie Brooker was born #OnThisDay in 1971..
  23. Web site: How to Watch Television. The Art Show. Channel 4. 14 December 2011. 6 June 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120606040102/http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-art-show/episode-guide/series-7/episode-1. dead.
  24. Web site: Charlie Brooker gets 'wiped' this Christmas on BBC Four. Endemol UK. 4 December 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111206060934/http://www.endemoluk.com/news/charlie-brooker-gets-wiped-this-christmas-on-bbc-f. 6 December 2011. dmy-all.
  25. Web site: Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe. BBC Four. 31 December 2011. 31 December 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111231043703/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018l74r. live.
  26. 277550163915063296. charltonbrooker. This time around 2012 Wipe is being shown on BBC2 on New Year's Day at 10pm. And then it'll hang around on the iPlayer for a bit I expect. . 22 December 2012. 8 December 2012.
  27. Web site: Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe. 12 December 2013. 29 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131229013406/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03n2yzk. live.
  28. Web site: Charlie Brooker's 2014 Wipe. 28 December 2014. 27 December 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141227005031/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04w7ytd. live.
  29. Web site: Charlie Brooker's 2016 Wipe. 30 December 2016. BBC. BBC Two.
  30. Web site: 2017 Wipe cancelled as Charlie Brooker concedes he 'ran out of road' . Hooton . Christopher . 28 November 2017 . The Independent . 30 December 2017 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042627/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/2017-wipe-charlie-brooker-bbc-release-date-cancelled-black-mirror-a8079416.html . live .
  31. Web site: Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe. Radiotimes. 25 January 2012. 13 May 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130513151621/http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/tvms7/charlie-brookers-weekly-wipe--31012013. live.
  32. Web site: Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe . entertainment.ie . 31 January 2013 . 2 February 2013 . McGinley, Sheena . 2 February 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130202042007/http://entertainment.ie/tv-highlight/Charlie-Brookers-Weekly-Wipe/162593.htm . live .
  33. Web site: Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe returns in 2014 after 'end-of-year' special. Digital Spy. 12 December 2013. 2013-11-05. 10 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131210182812/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a528866/charlie-brookers-weekly-wipe-returns-in-2014-after-end-of-year-special.html. live.
  34. Web site: Eames . Tom . Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe to return, 2014 Wipe confirmed . Digital Spy . 13 November 2014 . 27 April 2015 . 23 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150423164332/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a609845/charlie-brookers-weekly-wipe-to-return-2014-wipe-confirmed.html . live .
  35. Web site: BBC renew 'People Just Do Nothing' and 'Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe' . NME . 14 November 2014 . 27 April 2015 . 21 February 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150221062416/http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/bbc-renew-people-just-do-nothing-and-charlie-brook/363776 . live .
  36. Web site: Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe gets another series . British Comedy Guide . 13 November 2014 . 27 April 2015 . 19 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150419012945/http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/000001654/charlie_brookers_weekly_wipe_2015 . live .
  37. Web site: Eames . Tom . Charlie Brooker and Jack Dee to host General Election comedy specials . Digital Spy . 24 March 2015 . 24 March 2015 . 25 March 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150325062157/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a637484/charlie-brooker-and-jack-dee-to-host-general-election-comedy-specials.html . live .
  38. Web site: Charlie Brooker to make an Antiviral Wipe. 22 April 2020. Chortle. 21 April 2020. 23 April 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200423150703/https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/04/21/45933/charlie_brooker_to_make_an_antiviral_wipe. live.
  39. Web site: What time is Charlie Brooker's Antiviral Wipe on TV?. 14 May 2020. Radio Times. 14 May 2020. 19 June 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042444/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/charlie-brooker-antiviral-wipe-bbc-time/. live.
  40. Web site: 'We were supposed to be making a new Philomena Cunk show'. 14 May 2020. Chortle. 14 July 2020. 15 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153601/https://www.chortle.co.uk/features/2020/05/13/46090/we_were_supposed_to_be_making_a_new_philomena_cunk_show. live.
  41. Web site: Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker reveals why he initially said no to new BBC Antiviral Wipe. Digital Spy. West. Amy. 13 May 2020. 14 July 2020. 13 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200713183527/https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a32460660/charlie-brooker-bbc-antiviral-wipe-initially-said-no/. live.
  42. News: McAlpine . Fraser . The Diabolical Genius Behind Netflix's 'Black Mirror' . 15 May 2020 . Anglophenia . BBC America . 2015.
  43. News: Logged in as click here to log out . Charlie Brooker's E4 zombie thriller to be set inside the Big Brother house . The Guardian . London . 21 August 2008 . 16 January 2010 . 19 June 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240619042446/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/aug/21/television.television1 . live .
  44. News: Brooker to write E4 horror series . BBC News . 14 April 2008 . 16 January 2010 . 25 January 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090125153645/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7346204.stm . live .
  45. http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Monday-night-s-TV/article-431496-detail/article.html TV review: Dead Set
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