Black Mirror, Channel 4, review

A shocking but ballsy, blackly comic study of the modern media.

Black Mirror: The National Anthem review

As genuinely thought-provoking as it was darkly funny, The National Anthem lived up to my high expectations as one of the best hours of television in 2011.

Black Mirror - The National Anthem review

It's delivered with all the solemnity of a serious political drama, you know, the ones that always have Michael Sheen in the lead (in fact Rory Kinnear bears a passing resemblance), that makes the humour doubly funny. It's impossible to suppress a chuckle at line like "This is virgin territory; there is no playbook" or "Make sure there's no Peppa Pigs".

Review of Black Mirror - 'The National Anthem'

This carefully crafted and compact drama is engrossing, with the tension rising by degrees as the time moves ever closer for the PM to meet the kidnapper's demands.

Black Mirror: 'The National Anthem' review

The first episode of Black Mirror is hilarious, horrible, barely watchable, utterly unmissable and absolutely, 100% true.

Black Mirror review

It felt like Charlie Brooker had pitched A Serbian Film crossed with The Thick Of It to the people at Channel 4, and Black Mirror had been commissioned despite it occurring to everyone just how soulless and unenjoyable the former is, and how the latter would be terribly difficult to imitate in a one-off drama.

Charlie Brooker's hotly anticipated comic horror series launches tonight, with Rory Kinnear starring as prime minster Michael Callow. A move away from his sneering, one-man topical shows, the first in the Black Mirror three-part series represents Brooker's first foray into TV dramas. Expect it to be dark, expect to be clever and expect it to be very, very funny.

Acerbic broadcaster and columnist Charlie Brooker is behind this new three-part satirical drama series, which examines the ways technology has changed our lives. Tonight's first episode, which he wrote, is billed as a "twisted parable for the Twitter age", and follows the crisis that engulfs a fictional Prime Minister when a beloved member of the Royal family is kidnapped.

Charlie Brooker talks about Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker says his new part sci-fi, part satire comedy Black Mirror is not 'anti-Twitter', but highlights the insidious effect the exaggerated opinion of social networks can have.

Charlie Brooker: the dark side of our gadget addiction

We are addicted to gadgets - but what are their side-effects? In his new drama series, Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker explores the dark side of our love affair with technology.