National anthem black mirror wiki series#
The series was commissioned for three hour-long episodes by Channel 4, taking its budget from the comedy department. The executive producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones began work on Black Mirror in 2010, having previously worked together on other television programmes. However, behind closed doors, he begs his wife to speak to him as she silently walks away. A year later, Susannah is pregnant and Callow's approval rating has improved.
As Callow vomits in a toilet, ignoring his wife's calls, Cairns tells him that Susannah is safe. The finger sent to the news station was the kidnapper's- Turner Prize winner Carlton Bloom, who died by suicide during the broadcast.
Princess Susannah is released unharmed in London on The Millennium Bridge, 30 minutes before the broadcast begins-a fact Cairns covers up. Gravely, Callow has intercourse with a pig while 1.3 billion people watch. As a deterrent to viewers, a painful tone plays before the broadcast begins possession of a recording will become illegal at midnight. Having filmed the scene, Malaika is shot in the leg as she tries to flee.Ĭairns tells Callow that he will jeopardise his public image and family's safety if he refuses to comply with the kidnapper. The journalist Malaika ( Chetna Pandya) learned of the raid from a government staff member to whom she sent sexually explicit selfies. Meanwhile, an armed team raid a building from where the YouTube video was first uploaded but it is a decoy. In a sharp change of opinion, a majority of the public now expect Callow to follow the kidnapper's demands, to the distress of Callow's wife Jane ( Anna Wilson-Jones). After a person at the studio tweets an image of Senseless, the kidnapper sends a news channel a severed finger and a video of Susannah writhing in pain as punishment. Callett plans for Callow's head to be superimposed on porn star Rod Senseless (Jay Simpson), a difficult task given the kidnapper's technical specifications for the broadcast. Unbeknownst to Callow, the Home Secretary Alex Cairns ( Lindsay Duncan) orders Special Agent Callett ( Alex Macqueen) to arrange for footage to be fabricated. Within hours, tens of millions have seen the video. In the morning, news media stop complying with a DSMA-Notice issued by the government which requested that they not broadcast the story. These demands were posted on YouTube and have been viewed by tens of thousands of people, whilst the topic is trending on Twitter. As ransom, the kidnapper demands that the prime minister have sexual intercourse with a pig, live on national television, for motives unknown. Plotīritish prime minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) is woken during the night to learn that Princess Susannah ( Lydia Wilson), a beloved royal, has been kidnapped. On average, reviewers have ranked the episode middling in comparison to other Black Mirror instalments.
National anthem black mirror wiki professional#
Mostly positive professional reviews found the episode to be a good opener for the series, plausible in its storyline and well-acted, though some critics dissented.
The episode garnered seven-day ratings of 2.07 million viewers, alongside many viewer complaints to broadcasting regulatory body Ofcom. The episode was later compared to Piggate, an anecdote published in the 2015 biography Call Me Dave, which alleged that British prime minister of the time, David Cameron, had placed a "private part of his anatomy" into a dead pig's head as an initiation rite at university. Reviewers identified themes including the spread of information across social media, the relationship between politicians and the public, and the role of news media. "The National Anthem" had several inspirations, the idea originally conceived by Brooker years previous, with broadcaster Terry Wogan in place of a prime minister. Scenes follow government attempts to track the kidnapper, news coverage of the unfolding events and public reaction. In the episode, a member of the British royal family is kidnapped and will only be released if the British prime minister Michael Callow ( Rory Kinnear) has sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, it was directed by Otto Bathurst and first aired on Channel 4 on 4 December 2011. " The National Anthem" is the series premiere of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror.