Cunk on Life star Diane Morgan on playing Philomena Cunk and spouting alternative facts
In her latest mockumentary series, Cunk on Life, Philomena Cunk is as deadpan as ever as she challenges experts with alternative facts
Some kids aspire to be doctors, astronauts, teachers or firefighters. Growing up in Bolton, a former mill town in the north of England, Diane Morgan was interested in one thing: comedy. She watched a lot of it, mostly British. Peter Sellers, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python.
When she landed in drama school, she told the head of the programme, “‘Look, I’m not here for the Shakespeare’– so they gave me Lady Macbeth, all the big roles,” she recalls in a video chat from her London home.
“All these lovely, beautiful girls who wanted to play the ingénues – they hated me because they were like, ‘Why is she getting these parts? She wants to be the stupid maid.’”
Several decades later, Morgan’s commitment to playing the fool has paid off. Since 2013, she has starred as Philomena Cunk, a know-nothing television pundit, in a series of mockumentaries about history, philosophy, art and science (including Cunk on Earth).
As she strides through picturesque locations, dressed in tweed, and sits down with distinguished experts from the world of academia, she looks every bit the part of a BBC presenter.
