Born in Reading in 1971, Charlton “Charlie” Brooker started to write TV reviews for the Guardian in 2000, winning the British Press award for columnist of the year in 2009. He has written for television programmes including Brass Eye, The Eleven O’Clock Show, Nathan Barley and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe. In 2011 he created Black Mirror, a speculative fiction show on Channel 4 (and later on Netflix) set in a succession of near-future dystopias, for which he has won five Emmy awards. He lives in London with his wife, Konnie Huq, and their two children. Series six of Black Mirror is on Netflix now.
1. Documentary
Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland (iPlayer)
I thought this documentary about the Troubles was absolutely brilliant. Shamefully, on watching it I realised how little I actually knew or understood about the situation, even though when I was growing up it was on the news every day. It’s an incredible series of interviews with people who lived through it, from all different sides. It was a real eye-opener – very moving and sometimes darkly amusing. Patrick Kielty shows up in it and speaks very articulately and intelligently about the Good Friday agreement. I sometimes prefer documentaries to scripted things, partly because I don’t get professional jealousy.
2. Game
This is a game where, during the day, you dive down into a lagoon to harpoon or catch fish and collect seaweed. Then, at night, you run a sushi restaurant: you create recipes and serve them. I’ve done some form of salt-encrusted shark-fin sushi – a lot of this stuff sounds inedible. But it’s weirdly meditative: it’s a strangely comforting, old-school piece, which I found extremely addictive and soothing. And we can all do with that in this day and age.
3. Film
RRR is possibly the single most over-the-top thing I’ve seen in my life. It’s set in India in around 1920 and it’s about two men who become friends despite being enemies. It manages to be simultaneously ridiculous, incredibly engaging and hilarious – in places harrowing, and then joyful. There are two huge dance sequences in it, mind-bending action, and it’s funny to see something in which the British are unequivocal villains. It’s a real feat to get me to watch a three-and-a-half-hour film – it’s almost endless. But it’s brilliant.
4. TV
24 Hours in Police Custody (Channel 4)
I thought this would just be people getting booked for nicking an e-scooter or breaking a window, but it’s a lot more interesting than that. We watched an episode recently and immediately got obsessed. There are extremely bizarre stories in there: horrific murders but also quirky human dramas, and a lot of interviews with people who are obviously lying. In one episode, Black Widow, this guy has been dating someone he thinks is cheating on him, so he hides a phone in his room and records her trying to arrange the murder of her ex-husband. Which he wasn’t expecting, obviously.
The Observer New Review’s On My Radar
This one’s a bit meta. I always find this a very compelling thing to read and I come away with lots of recommendations, but the other thing is, I’m always slightly shamed into realising that other people read lots of books and go to galleries and eat at interesting restaurants. And I don’t do any of that – after having kids, there was a period where I was just reading Mr Men books. So the On My Radar section is a great shaming device. It’s made me realise I need to broaden the range of things I do.
6. Podcast
This is going to sound like faint praise, but for years I had trouble getting to sleep until I stumbled across a device called SleepPhones, which is a headband with earphones: I put on a podcast and I’m out in 20 minutes. I listen to a lot of things, but this is one I actually stay awake for. It’s two Irish guys, Steven Cockcroft and Jason Carty, talking about the Beatles and still finding interesting and slightly underexplored avenues to discuss. Paul McCartney, I think, is an endlessly fascinating figure who is a lot weirder than people give him credit for.
7. Card game
It’s a pack of cards with numbers from one to 100, and the aim is to simply play them in ascending order, without talking or communicating in any way. So if your card is 18 and mine is 25, you should put your card down before me. And you do it by reading the room. There is something really spooky about it: I don’t believe in anything like ESP [extrasensory perception], but it almost feels a little like that. It’s a really good icebreaker if you’ve got some friends over – it helps cure the disconnect that happened during the pandemic.
