Enough of the satire, dial down the rom-coms - Philomena Cunk is right: we need more stupid comedy
Viv Groskop
These are serious times, and they demand silly entertainment. Please, British TV – send in the clowns, says comedian Viv Groskop
September 2022
TV review
Cunk on Earth review – Diane Morgan’s character is so well-written it’s easy to forget she’s not real
Philomena Cunk is back with a spoof documentary series that homes in on the pyramids, the Great Wall and philosophy. It’s impeccably surreal and occasionally genuinely insightful
April 2022
TV tonight
TV tonight: Diane Morgan crashes The League of Gentlemen cast reunion
Deadpan one-liners cut the tension in the new series of Inside No 9. Plus: tone-deaf singers take to the stage. Here’s what to watch this evening
January 2022
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Anne; Four Lives; Mandy; Toast of Tinseltown
The best original photographs from the Observer
Original Observer photography
TV review
Mandy review – slap my bum and call me a satanist! Diane Morgan is back
TV tonight
TV tonight: Diane Morgan brings back Mandy for a second season
December 2021
TV review
We Wish You a Mandy Christmas review – Diane Morgan does proper belly laughs
‘We always need stuff that cheers us up’: Diane Morgan on love, laughs and learning to let go
February 2021
Adam Curtis edits the Guide
'You could be a cult leader': Diane Morgan and Adam Curtis on Brexit, Trump and his new series
The film-maker talks to the comic, best known as Philomena Cunk, about the end of the empire and the ‘rigid’ age of self-expression
October 2020
Remote controller
Samantha Morton: 'My favourite TV villain? It's vain, but I think it's me in The Walking Dead'
The film and TV star on her hatred of the Kardashians, her love of Four in a Bed and why she’d love to be on Horrible Histories
August 2020
The week in TV: Unsaid Stories; The Australian Dream; The Great Heist; Mandy – review
Diane Morgan: ‘It sounds mad that I wrote, directed and star in Mandy. Like I’m Orson Welles'
July 2020
'I got so sunburnt, I was like a piece of chorizo': comedians on their holidays from hell
A vacation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Some of our favourite writers share their bad trips
April 2018
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Kiss Me First; The Island with Bear Grylls; Ordeal By Innocence; Cunk on Britain; Money Heist
TV review
Cunk on Britain review – look out, Philomena’s about
November 2017
The other side
Motherland: a vision of child rearing that is panic-inducingly scary
There’s something exhilarating about how Sharon Horgan, Graham Linehan and co don’t even try to make these people likable
October 2017
Diane Morgan: ‘I want to play weirdos’
From Philomena Cunk to her anti-heroine in new comedy Motherland, the Bolton actor never plays it straight. Here, she talks children (spongers), sex scenes (ugh) and failure (works out in the end)
December 2016
Philomena Cunk: 'No one likes Christmas pudding, but we have to respect it'
The other star of Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe casts her eye over festive food, from sprouts to rubbish advent calendar chocolate
May 2016
Meet Diane Morgan, the genius behind TV dimwit Philomena Cunk
She’s deadpanned her way from chip shop to comedy star. Diane Morgan talks about hating standup, loving Stan Laurel – and bringing Philomena Cunk’s unique insight to Shakespeare’s First Folio
