In the review of “Douglas Is Cancelled,” CHRISTOPHER STEVENS explores the chilling tale of our modern, cancel-culture era as Hugh Bonneville’s character faces the consequences of a controversial joke that ruins his life. The review delves into the themes of the play and the impact of social media outrage on individuals in today’s society.

Douglas Is Cancelled (ITV1) 

Rating:

Never make a joke. Just don’t, ever. It’s too dangerous. The humourless forces of Woke will annihilate you and every futile excuse you attempt will only make matters worse.

By the time veteran news presenter Douglas Bellows realises he’s been heard cracking an injudicious funny at a family wedding, it’s too late.

The allegation is all over social media, his agent is already preparing to dump him, his employers are going into full ‘damage limitation mode’ and his career is dead. He just isn’t aware of it yet. It doesn’t matter that no one knows what the joke was. Even Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) can’t remember it. The whistleblower on Twitter, or X, says it was ‘extremely sexist’ and that’s enough to destroy him.

The fall-out could be catastrophic for his family too. Wife Sheila (Alex Kingston) is a newspaper editor whose own reporters are already sharpening the knives for Douglas. Even his 19-year-old daughter Claudia (Madeleine Power) is concerned she’ll never be able to speak to him again. Generation Z preaches kindness and tolerance above all things, but this doesn’t extend to actual jokes.

Hugh Bonneville is a limited actor but his amiably aggrieved persona is ideal for Douglas, a blend of Downton’s Lord Grantham and Paddington’s Mr Brown, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

With criss-crossing dialogue and punchlines paced so rapidly, writer Stephen Moffat is able to avoid the pitfall of making his satire too explicit

Writer Stephen Moffat, best known for Sherlock and Doctor Who, deftly maintains a balance between comedy and social satire in Douglas Is Cancelled (ITV), with a rapid-fire script that springs a series of surprises on us as well as its hapless hero. Bonneville is a limited actor but his amiably aggrieved persona is ideal for this part, a blend of Downton’s Lord Grantham and Paddington’s Mr Brown.

There’s nothing limited about Karen Gillan’s talents. She’s electrifying, with a supernatural ability to imply layers of conflicting thought and emotion under the most innocuous remarks. As Douglas’s co-star, Madeline Crow, she might be his most faithful supporter — or she could be the instigator of the entire scandal, plotting to finish him.

In one early scene, as she bantered with Douglas from the back seat of her chauffeured limo in the studio car park, a hint of flirtation crackled through the air.

‘How do you do that then?’ marvelled her driver. ‘Create chemistry?’ It’s an excellent question: somehow, Gillan was able to leave a subliminal impression that, just possibly, they had more than a professional understanding on the sofa. 

Yet when she returned to her soulless penthouse to find a male friend waiting for her, she threw him out, in a fit of apparent loathing for herself and the rest of the world. 

Then she took to social media and posted an ambiguous message about Douglas: ‘Don’t believe this. Not my co-presenter.’ Is she saying she refuses to think him capable of a sexist joke? Or that she’s so exasperated that she won’t work with him any more?

So far, Madeline has been a peripheral character. Watching her shift to centre-stage and reveal who she really is will be the most intriguing aspect of the series. There’s also a splash of old-fashioned Generation Gap comedy that wouldn’t be amiss in a sitcom 50 years older. Editor Sheila is flummoxed by her timid assistant Helen (Stephanie Hyam) who wields her own cancellation superpower.

She has only to whisper ‘HR’ to have her boss wringing her hands. ‘It’s OK for you to say anything you like to me,’ Sheila pleads. ‘I promise to break eye contact on request and will never sustain 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 your own safety,’ she pleads. ‘For my safety? Does this mean I won’t be allowed outside now?’ Claudia fumes. ‘If it’s safe for me to be outside, why isn’t it safe to leave the door open?’

With criss-crossing dialogue and punchlines paced so rapidly, Moffat is able to avoid the pitfall of making his satire too explicit. The inspirations are obvious, most of all the downfall of Huw Edwards last year.

Douglas is Cancelled is partly inspired by the downfall of BBC anchor Huw Edwards last year

There’s also a plot thread around Douglas’s relationship with his junior co-worker Madeline. The question is… has he taken inappropriate advantage of her?

Douglas has Edwards’s sort of gravitas, appropriate for state occasions and ominous bulletins: ‘As far as viewers are concerned,’ his producer tells him, ‘your voice is what makes people dead.’

But there’s also an echo of the trivial scandal that ended Alastair Stewart’s tenure at ITN, after he quoted a jibe about an ‘angry ape’ from Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure on Twitter and was accused of racism.

Then there’s Phil-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. You know who I mean. Never mind jokes at weddings — has Douglas taken inappropriate advantage of his relationship with a junior co-worker… Madeline?

If he has, he’s going to find himself cancelled to the centre of the Earth.

Sometimes you can dig yourself into a hole so deep, there’s no climbing out of it ever again