-Our next guest is a very talented actress and comedian
you know from shows like "After Life" and "Motherland."
Her very funny show "Cunk on Earth"
is streaming now on Netflix. Let's take a look.
-Just look at this 14th-century painting of Jesus
having his fateful tea party.
The dimensions are all wrong.
The room's squashed up
so it looks like it's happening in the lid of a cardboard box.
Jesus is twice as big as the others.
So it looks like it's enjoying an intimate dinner
with some schoolboys -- not a good look.
And what are those, bowls or seashells?
It's just shoddy craftsmanship. Absolutely disgraceful.
Shouldn't even be in a museum.
But da Vinci's reboot of the same painting
is a different story.
He knew how to perspective the [Bleep] out of things.
Look at the angles of the walls in "The Last Supper"
and the table there. You almost feel like
you could crawl inside it and betray Jesus yourself.
[ Laughter ]
-Please welcome to the show Diane Morgan, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
Welcome to the show, Diane.
-Well, thanks for having me.
-I'm really thrilled to have you.
I keep saying everybody has been talking about "Cunk"
for the last month to me. And I love --
I mean, the name Philomena Cunk
is such a wonderful character name.
-Yeah. -When you first saw it,
did you know, "Oh, that's really good"?
-Uh, yeah. I thought, "That's weird."
-Yeah. -And, well, it turns out
that they wanted, like, a posh character.
And I'm not posh. [ Laughter ]
And so, I went into the audition for Philomena,
did my best posh. And but I knew
that it would be just better in my own accent,
because it's so flat. [ Laughter ]
And depressing. It just adds something.
-Well, it is -- The most wonderful thing is,
you have this character who is telling us about history
and just seems not only disinterested, deeply bored
by everything. [ Laughter ]
And I think that's where the flatness really comes in handy.
-Absolutely. 'Cause I know
that everyone watching it is bored by history, as well.
[ Laughter ] So I know what people want.
-Yeah. -I know.
I know, when someone is being really boring and dull,
to move it on. [ Laughter ]
Or just yawn in their face. [ Laughter ]
-It's true because when you watch those history shows
where the host is really excited about it,
it makes you feel bad because you don't share it.
-Yeah, 'cause you're thinking, "This is boring."
-Do you have any personal interest in history yourself?
-No, I hate it. [ Laughter ]
Boring. Unless it's something really weird.
-Okay. So you -- -I like weird stuff.
-Yeah. -I like to hear
about the Bermuda Triangle, stuff like that.
-Okay, gotcha. So, that's --
-I realize that's not history. But, you know...
I like -- Just saying I like weird stuff.
If it's not weird, I'm not interested.
-Yeah. So, you -- I know you've done a couple series of this.
You did "Cunk in Britain," and this is "Cunk on Earth."
One of the things that's been a through line is
you do talk to very informed people,
experts, professors. [ Laughter ]
And I mean, it's so wonderful to watch you talk to them,
because you ask them -- let's be honest --
very funny, but very dumb questions.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. Very deep questions sometimes.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
One of my favorites in the series,
you believe the Renaissance, Cunk believes was --
thought was a sauce. -A nice sauce, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Now, while you're speaking to this Renaissance expert,
how much do they know ahead of time,
when you shoot those,
what they're about to embark upon?
-They don't know -- Well, they know that it's a comedy now.
The cat is out of the bag now. -Right.
-But they play along. But they don't know
what I'm going to ask. -Yep.
-So they don't know any of the questions.
And it's nice to sort of back people into a corner...
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-...and watch them struggle. -They do a very --
They do a very nice job of not breaking, because --
-They break. -Yeah, and then you --
-They just cut it out. -You just edit it out, yeah.
[ Laughter ] Now, do you like them?
So, you, obviously, know it's unusable once they break.
But do you, as a performer, enjoy the moment
that you make these professors and art historians laugh?
-Yeah, but you think "Oh, no, we'll have to go back
and do it again." [ Laughter ]
-You do a wonderful job.
It feels as though, you are -- everybody who makes this show
is experts in the sort of tropes
of these historical reenactment or travel shows.
You do a great amount of walking in the woods.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-A lot of walking and talking. And we were talking backstage,
there's a scene in the second episode
where, I mean, I think it's about a four-minute monolog
where you're walking around a castle.
-Yeah. -I'm so impressed
by the amount of walking and talking you do.
-I do a lot of walking. -Yeah.
Do you enjoy being out in the woods,
doing your walking and talking? -Uh, not really.
It's very cold. -Yeah.
-But it's just one of those tropes
that history documentaries always have.
They're always walking through the woods.
[ Laughter ]
Or just staring off into the middle distance.
[ Laughter ] You know?
-You do wonderful as a performer.
I'm very taken with how Cunk trips a lot.
-I love a trip. I love a bit of physical comedy.
-They're all very little trips that you try to then play off.
-Yeah.
-I'm such a fan of the little trip.
-Are you? I love a trip! -Oh, I love a trip.
Especially from someone who is hosting a history show
and there's this real gravitas to it,
and then a little trip. -Fall over. Yeah.
-Yeah. -Do you know
when you've done a good one when you're shooting?
You're like, "Perfect, yeah"? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, there was one I rolled down a hill at one point.
[ Laughter ]
Which I was at the top of a sand dune.
And I thought -- I didn't tell anyone I was going to do it.
I just thought, "This is going to be quite boring,
me walking down a sand dune. So, I'm just gonna fall over."
[ Laughter ]
No one came to help me. I was rolling.
[ Laughter ] Just kept rolling.
And they were just filming.
[ Laughter ]
-This is how much you care about your craft,
you're willing to take a header. -I'm just worried
that people are gonna be bored, so I think, "I'll fall over."
[ Laughter ] -Now, again,
because there's such attention to detail,
have people, when this first started in the U.K.,
did people think it was a real show?
-Yes. -Okay, so, they did.
-And they still do. -They still do?
[ Laughter ] -On Twitter, I still get people
going, "This presenter is terrible."
[ Laughter ]
"She doesn't know what she's talking about.
She's getting all these facts wrong."
[ Laughter ]
"The BBC are really dumbing down."
[ Laughter ] -Now, were you --
Did you originally think comedy was your path?
Or did you think just acting in general?
-No. I wanted to be a comedy actor from age 15.
-Oh, wonderful. -That's what I wanted to do.
You know, I grew up watching, like, Harold Lloyd
and Laurel & Hardy, and I was just, you know,
obsessed that's what I wanted to do.
-And did you do it at all at university?
Or did you -- -I went to drama school.
-Okay, gotcha. -Yeah.
-And then how were they with attempting comedy?
Were they alright with it? -Well, I went --
I went to the head of the school and I said,
"Look, I'm not interested in Shakespeare, you know?
I only want to do comedy. So just let me do --
I just want to get better at comedy."
And he started giving me, like, Lady Macbeth, parts like that.
But, luckily, I got big laughs as lady Macbeth.
[ Laughter ] I was really proud.
-To this day, they say you were the funniest Lady Macbeth.
-The funniest Lady Macbeth, yeah.
-And then, it is true that you did stand-up for a while?
-I did it for nearly 10 years. -And did you love it?
-I hated it. [ Laughter ]
I hated it. Did you do stand-up?
-I do, still, a little. -Did you hate --
You still do it? -I do, yeah.
-Do you hate it? -I don't hate it, no.
-Why not? It's awful. [ Laughter ]
-What did you hate about it? -just going about at night
on your own, traveling around late at night.
Dealing with crowds that, you know, were horrible.
[ Laughter ] You could just tell,
some nights, they were just horrible people.
And be like, "Ugh." You'd have to pander to them.
-Yeah. -I just-- I just felt
physically sick every time I did it.
[ Laughter ] -Do you feel great relief
being past that part of your career?
-Yes, absolutely, I mean, you know, fingers crossed.
Knock on wood. -Well, I certainly --
-I might have to go back at some point.
-Base on what you've said, I won't be very excited
if I'm in an audience and you walk out.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, no. -And now, we were talking
about this backstage, but, you know,
this hasn't been on Netflix very long,
but here you are in New York City,
and people are recognizing you from "Cunk"?
-It's amazing. People are lovely.
They're so enthusiastic. -Well, it is a show
that deserves all the enthusiasm.
It's really wonderful. And thank you so much
for being here. -Thank you for having me.
-I'm just delighted that you're here.
[ Cheers and applause ] You guys, that's Diane Morgan.
"Cunk on Earth" is streaming now on Netflix.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."