Douglas is cancelled (ITV1)
Never make a joke. Never do it. It’s too dangerous. Woke’s humorless forces will annihilate you, and every useless excuse you try will only make things worse.
When veteran news anchor Douglas Bellows realizes he’s been overheard telling an ill-advised joke at a family wedding, it’s too late.
The accusation is all over social media, his agent is already preparing to drop him, his employers are going into ‘damage limitation mode’ and his career is dead. He’s just not aware of it yet. Never mind that no one knows what the joke was. Not even Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) can remember it. The whistleblower on Twitter, or X, says it was “extremely sexist” and that’s enough to destroy him.
The consequences could also be catastrophic for your family. His wife Sheila (Alex Kingston) is an editor at a newspaper whose own reporters are already sharpening Douglas’ knives. Even his 19-year-old daughter Claudia (Madeleine Power) worries that she will never be able to speak to him again. Generation Z preaches kindness and tolerance above all else, but this doesn’t extend to actual jokes.
Hugh Bonneville is a limited actor but his amiable, aggrieved personality is ideal for Douglas, a mix of Downton’s Lord Grantham and Paddington’s Mr Brown, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS.
With interwoven dialogue and one-liners at such a fast pace, writer Stephen Moffat is able to avoid the mistake of making his satire too explicit.
Writer Stephen Moffat, best known for Sherlock and Doctor Who, deftly balances comedy and social satire in Douglas Is Cancelled (ITV), with a fast-paced script that throws a number of surprises at us and his hapless hero. Bonneville is a limited actor, but his affable, aggrieved personality is ideal for this role, a cross between Downton’s Lord Grantham and Paddington’s Mr Brown.
There is nothing limited about Karen Gillan’s talents. She is electrifying, with a preternatural ability to imply layers of conflicting thoughts and emotions beneath the most innocuous of comments. As Douglas’s co-star, Madeline Crow, she could be his staunchest supporter, or she could be the instigator of the whole scandal, plotting to bring him down.
In an early scene, as she bantered with Douglas from the backseat of his chauffeured limo in the studio parking lot, a hint of flirtation crackled through the air.
‘How do you do that then?’ – his driver marveled. ‘Create chemistry?’ It’s an excellent question: somehow Gillan was able to leave a subliminal impression that they possibly had more than just a professional understanding on the couch.
However, when she returned to her soulless attic and found a friend waiting for her, she threw him out, in a fit of apparent hatred towards herself and the rest of the world.
She then took to social media and posted an ambiguous message about Douglas: “Don’t believe this. He’s not my co-presenter. Is she saying she refuses to believe he’s capable of making a sexist joke? Or that she’s so exasperated she doesn’t want to work with him anymore?”
Until now, Madeline has been a peripheral character. Watching her step center stage and reveal who she really is will be the most intriguing aspect of the series. There’s also a touch of old-fashioned comedy about Generation Gap that wouldn’t be out of place in a sitcom 50 years older. Editor Sheila is bemused by her shy assistant Helen (Stephanie Hyam), who wields her own superpower of cancellation.
Sheila only has to whisper “HR” to make her boss wring his hands. “It’s okay to tell me whatever you want,” Sheila pleads. “I promise to break eye contact if I ask and will never maintain it for more than 30 seconds.”
At home, Sheila is baffled by her daughter’s insistence on leaving the front door wide open. ‘People might come into the house, this is for their own safety,’ she pleads. ‘For my safety? Does this mean I won’t be allowed out now?’ Claudia fumes. ‘If it’s safe for me to be outside, why isn’t it safe to leave the door open?’
With such quick-fire dialogue and punchlines, Moffat is able to avoid the danger of making his satire too explicit. The inspirations are obvious, not least the downfall of Huw Edwards last year.
Douglas is Canceled is partly inspired by the downfall of BBC presenter Huw Edwards last year.
There is also a plot thread surrounding Douglas’ relationship with his younger co-worker, Madeline. The question is… has he taken inappropriate advantage of her?
Douglas has Edwards’s kind of gravitas, appropriate for official occasions and sinister bulletins: “As far as viewers are concerned,” his producer tells him, “your voice is what makes people die.”
But there is also an echo of the trivial scandal that ended Alastair Stewart’s tenure at ITN, after he cited a jibe about an “angry ape” from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure on Twitter and was accused of racism.
Then there’s Phil-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You know who i mean. Never mind the pranks at weddings: Has Douglas taken inappropriate advantage of his relationship with a junior co-worker…Madeline?
If you have, you will find yourself canceled out at the center of the Earth.
Sometimes you can dig a hole so deep that you will never be able to get out of it again.
