Steven Moffat has penned cancel culture comedy drama Douglas Is Cancelled. Here’s the trailer for the new programme.
Before Steven Moffat became known for writing some of the greatest episodes of Doctor Who, like The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl In The Fireplace, Blink, Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead and then showrunning the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi eras, he was a prolific comedy writer.
His first series, Press Gang, was a huge success and he followed it up by drawing on his own divorce for the fantastic, farcical Joking Apart. Though school sitcom Chalk was a misfire, his greatest sitcom success was Coupling, a tightly plotted ensemble sitcom that included one episode with half the dialogue in Hebrew and another in split screen, with several plots taking place simultaneously.
Moffat’s next series is comedy drama Douglas Is Cancelled. The synopsis reads as follows:
Douglas Bellowes (Hugh Bonneville), a respected newsreader and raconteur who loves the life he’s created with his newspaper editor wife, Sheila (Alex Kingston).Despite being an experienced broadcaster, greying, middle-aged Douglas surprisingly needs constant reassurance behind the scenes on Live At Six, from his sharper, younger, tech-savvy and social media aware co-presenter Madeline (Karen Gillan), who seems able to wrap him around her little finger.
A national treasure who can seemingly do no wrong, Douglas enjoys his privileged status. Until that is, he makes an ill-advised joke at his cousin’s wedding, overheard by a fellow guest, who threatens to expose his comments on social media.
Douglas’ alleged indiscretion is dissected, analysed and blown out of all proportion in the subsequent digital storm. Can Douglas count on the support of his agent and colleagues or will he become a victim of “cancel culture”? And just what is Madeline’s motivation for posting socially on his behalf?
Bonneville, Kingston and Gillan previously worked with Moffat on Doctor Who, where they played Captain Henry Avery, River Song and companion Amy Pond, respectively. Ben Miles, who previously worked with Moffat on Coupling, Nick Mohammed, Simon Russell Beale and Madeleine Power are also in the cast.
Douglas Is Cancelled will be broadcast on ITVX soon. Watch the trailer below:
