The fall of a plush British national treasure is no laughing matter – The Irish Times

Steven Moffat is best known as the creator of BBC’s Sherlock, so it’s fitting that his new comedy Douglas Is Cancelled (UTV, Thursday, 9pm) is based on a huge, imponderable mystery. How could anyone involved in this limp satire have concluded that it was doing justice to the complex issue of cancel culture?

It’s not that the subject isn’t ripe for criticism. We’ve all seen social media pick a random victim and tear them apart. Douglas is Cancelled’s problems are twofold: its clumsy execution and the enthusiasm with which it caricatures anyone who dares to be “woke.”

“Douglas” is daytime TV presenter Douglas Bellowes (Hugh Bonneville) – one of those types of cuddly national treasures that British television excels at producing. He is well-liked and has brilliant chemistry with his co-host Madeline (Karen Gillan). But when someone complains on social media about a “sexist joke” they made at a wedding, everything falls apart for the affable presenter (portrayed with a cheerful wink by Bonneville, always reliable).

People get excited around him. His agent explains that everything will be fine – as soon as Douglas takes responsibility for his joke (which he claims not to remember). Meanwhile, his wife Sheila (Alex Kingston), editor of a London newspaper who excels at culling celebrities, warns that wholesome Madeline may not be as loyal as he thinks.

Douglas Is Cancelled aims for a tone somewhere between the midnight-black zest of Succession (the jazzy theme tune echoes that of the HBO series) and the awkward sensitivity of Armando Iannucci’s The Thick Of It. But Moffat has never been associated with comedy, and his sense of wry, fast-paced chatter hits the mark from the moment he arrives.

Another problem is that the script doesn’t know how to handle the female characters. They’re all reduced to ciphers. That includes Gillan as Madeline, a cross between Holly Willoughby and Susanna Reid, and Douglas’s activist student daughter, Claudia (Madeline Power), who we’re invited to laugh at because she believes society is controlled by patriarchy.

British television has had no shortage of scandals in recent years. Douglas Is Cancelled echoes of the downfall of Phillip Schofield and Huw Edwards. However, the behaviour they were accused of was far more serious than the accusations against Douglas, and Moffat never lives up to the standard of plausibility. While Douglas Is Cancelled has much to say, it neglects an essential ingredient of any satire: a functional sense of humour.