Charlie Brooker Bringing Back Screenwipe For Virus Special

If you’re sitting there thinking, ‘What this lockdown needs is a good old dose of Charlie Brooker serving us realness with his weird and wonderful creations’, I have great news for you.

Why? Because the Black Mirror creator is returning to the BBC for the first time in four years, bringing back his iconic and scathing Screenwipe for a one-off special all about the coronavirus pandemic.

Aptly called Charlie Brooker’s Antiviral Wipe – for the time being anyway, it’s a working title – the show will take a wry look at the current news coverage, with a focus on the various ways people are keeping themselves occupied during lockdown.

Set to air on BBC Two – although a date for transmission has yet to be announced – Antiviral Wipe will be 30 minutes long and will feature regulars Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) and Barry Shitpeas (Al Campbell).

As usual, the pair will offer their ‘own very special brand of in-depth reporting’. Other contributors will also be involved, though the press release didn’t name anyone else so far, as they ‘haven’t been told they’re doing it yet, but have no good excuse not to’.

Luckily, the BBC press release did give us a tad more information:

Charlie Brooker has been lured out of isolation, to go into isolation for the one-off. Charlie will be taking a typically sharp look at life in lockdown, in a show made during lockdown.

As well as coverage of the crisis itself, he’ll also be looking at the things people are watching and doing to keep themselves occupied.

Before Black Mirror, Brooker rose to fame with the BBC Wipe review series, which began with Screenwipe in 2006 and went on to include Newswipe with Charlie Brooker, Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe and Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe.

The last episode aired in 2016, with Brooker previously saying he was too busy working on Black Mirror to focus on Wipe. For obvious reasons, this now seems to have changed.

And while the circumstances in which we’re being graced with the show might not be perfect, at least we’re about to be provided with some light-ish entertainment about the whole thing. Can’t wait.

Charlie Brooker’s Antiviral Wipe will air on Thursday May 14 at 9pm on BBC Two.