Interview with Philomena Cunk on Cunk on Life – stream from December 30

Philomena, tell us about your new documentary, Cunk on Life?

The aim of this new documentary was very straightforward. My previous documentaries, like Cunk On Britain, have taken me to some very interesting but, ultimately, very cold places, like Britain. With Cunk On Life I wanted to go to somewhere warmer. The show is all about what it means to be human – I ask important questions about the meaningless of life.

There’s a lot in it about religion, but also quite a lot about sex. Partially because without sex they’d be no life, but mainly because no one would watch a show about religion over Christmas, so we had to throw in the sex to make people tune in.

What research did you do when searching for the meaning of life?

I thought if I did a show about being human then I wouldn’t have to do any research, because I already knew what it was like to be human. Sort of.

But I did do a lot of research: I studied the work of all the major motivational fridge magnet makers and mixed it with some eastern philosophies I’d learned about from tiktok.

Did anyone or anything inspire you to make this show?

Yes. All humans. I was looking at one of them one day through a window, and I thought:

What does it mean to be human? What is the Human Conditioner? Do they sell it at Superdrug? And would humans watch a TV show about all this stuff if we put it on between Christmas and New Year when everyone is bored out of their tiny minds and just might watch a show that’s not about celebrities dancing, or how to make the perfect roast potato?

If you could interview anyone in the world who would it be and why?

I think I’ve interviewed everyone I’ve ever wanted to. Because I don’t actually really want to interview anyone.

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to be a documentary film maker?

I don’t want to give any advice to other documentary makers because they might end up being better than me. You’ll get no advice from me, I’m pulling up the ladder mate.

Did anyone ever give you any good advice on making these shows?

Award-winning documentary maker Adam Curtis once gave me some very good advice but he said it in his doom-laden voice so I was too frightened to remember what it was. Something about “the very opposite happening” I think.

You’ve travelled the five corners of the world when making your documentaries, where was the worst place you’ve had to go?

Actually the worst place I’ve travelled to is Chieveley services on the M4 on Boxing Day. It’s one of those terrible ones that trick you because it’s actually 10 minutes drive from the motorway via loads of roundabouts. You should have seen the queue for the ladies.

As well as being a landmark film maker, you’ve also written two books, do you prefer writing books or making a tv show?

Both are quite boring but in different ways. Writing books is being bored on your own.

Making a TV show is being bored but with other people staring at their phones near you.

Do you have any new year’s resolutions?

I’m vowing to try and have a Brat Winter. Also, I’m going to get my wisdom teeth removed next year. Get them frozen in case I want them when I’m older.

What’s next for Philomena Cunk?

I’ll probably just have a sit down, eat a Ritz biscuit and listen some ambient noise for a bit until me Ocado turns up. And I’m thinking of going on tour where I lipsync to my audiobooks. Save my voice.

Following the global success of Cunk on Earth, pioneering documentary-maker Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) returns with her most ambitious quest to date; venturing right up the universe and everything, to examine life itself.

“What’s the point of it all?” is a question humans have been asking themselves since the dawn of time. But as we cling to our dying planet, working round the clock while we’re slowly being replaced by machines, now more than ever, people are desperately looking to make sense of their lives – before someone invents a computer that makes sense of it for them.

This one off special will see Philomena tackle some of the most complex concepts to have ever been discovered, including Quantum Physics, Existentialism, Nihilism, Hedonism – and at least four other isms – as well as exploring subjects from the big bang to biology, morals to meditation and art to artificial intelligence.

Also streaming on Netflix globally from January 2. Read Netflix’s press release on ‘Cunk For Life’ here: https://bit.ly/41JO1gJ