Douglas is Cancelled Episode 4 Ending Explained

The penultimate episode of Douglas is cancelled I saw flashbacks revealing that Madeline (Karen Gillan) endured a very awkward and uncomfortable interview for her Living at Six he was working with producer Toby (Ben Miles) and Douglas seemed to think there was something going on between them.

DOUGLAS IS CANCELLED SUMMARY

The final instalment of the story sees the long-awaited rehearsal between Madeline and Douglas begin as she tries to prepare the latter for his upcoming interview at the Hay Festival, where allegations that he made a sexist comment at a wedding are likely to be brought up. But it’s become clear that Madeline thinks the story is about her, so how will she react?

Here’s everything that happened in episode 4 of Douglas is cancelled…

Karen Gillan in a green dress holding her hand over her microphone as Madeline in Douglas is Cancelled — Madeline (Karen Gillan) questions Douglas. (Photo credit: ITV)

The episode opens at the Hay Festival and Douglas’s agent, Bently (Simon Russell Beale), and Toby are talking. Toby says they won’t be changing interviewers and he knows they’ll be using the video…

As the action flashes back a week, we witness Madeline and Douglas’ training session. Bently and Live at Six’s Comedy writer Morgan (Nick Mohammed) is in a booth watching, while crew member Jenn (Ramanique Ahluwalia) sorts through the tape and objects to Morgan’s sexist attitudes. Bently says they need a joke so Douglas can claim he told the wedding, which is pretty misogynistic, but not so misogynistic that it gets annulled. Meanwhile, as she also watches, Douglas’ wife Sheila (Alex Kingston) asks Toby how they can trust Madeline.

We see again the moment where Douglas says it was just a stupid joke and Madeline puts her hand on her microphone and says it wasn’t a joke, it was a story, all the men laughed and the story was about her. Douglas asks them to stop recording.

Madeline says she knows what was said and takes her hand off her microphone and continues as if she’s interviewing Douglas. She asks him about the online discussion about his joke and asks him what it was. But when Toby and Sheila come out on the dance floor, Douglas asks her to repeat what she said when she covered his microphone. Sheila says she heard that too. But Madeline claims she was just acting like “Kirsty”, her interviewer, and pretending the joke was about her, to throw him off, because the real Kirsty might do the same thing. Madeline says she’s been up all night thinking of all the dirty tricks she knows that could be used in the real interview, to help him, but he’s clearly not ready.

Hugh Bonneville sitting as Douglas looks on Alex Kingston as Sheila talks to Ben Miles as Toby in a studio in Douglas is cancelled

Sheila (Alex Kingston) and Toby (Ben Miles) prepare to listen to the interview between Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) and Madeline. (Photo credit: ITV)

Sheila then says she wants to sit and watch, as does Toby. As the interview resumes, Madeline says she has been in contact with the wedding guest who claims to have heard Douglas and she has a summary. Douglas gets angry because he is being called a misogynist and that anything the guest has revealed will be a distortion of what he said, it is just online gossip. Madeline then says the story was about Douglas’ first meeting with a colleague in a hotel room of his senior colleague. Toby looks shocked. She says the story was a theory about how she got her current job and the implication is that it was sexual. Toby tries to stop the recording and demands that she not mention anyone by name, even though it is just a rehearsal. She promises that she will not name anyone who is not in the room…

Douglas continues to deny it, but Madeline says he’s alluded to his first meeting with his current co-anchor in other interviews several times, so how come he can’t remember the story now? Was he joking at the wedding or does he really think she got her job because she slept with an older co-worker? What does he think of her? Madeline then cuts in for a comforting pause.

Toby says he needs to find out if Douglas thinks what happened at the hotel was inappropriate. They then notice that Douglas’ daughter Claudia (Madeleine Power) has arrived, as Madeline invited her. Sheila bursts into the bathroom to confront Madeline about bringing Claudia there and Madeline says it was another one of her dirty tricks and that Sheila has ruined lives in her diary and everything that is happening to Douglas now. She needs to set him up and he is her friend. Sheila asks if she is sleeping with him and she denies it and asks if Sheila is sleeping with him…

Madeleine Power in a patterned sweater as Claudia in Douglas is cancelled.

Douglas’ daughter, Claudia (Madeleine Power), listens to the interview. (Photo credit: ITV)

As Morgan makes up “jokes” for Douglas, Claudia challenges his sexism and Jenn documents it all. Claudia then confronts Douglas and asks him why he has a joke written for him, why can’t he tell the truth? He replies because they work in television and the truth needs help because their audience doesn’t understand the truth. Bently then uses sexist language and says he had a talk with Jenn and she won’t be a problem and that Douglas should let her know if he needs to save his career again.

As the interview resumes, Madeline asks how Douglas could forget about his encounter with her and he says he didn’t forget, he was lying, he just didn’t want to give credence to the rumors that Madeline slept with their producer. He didn’t tell the story, maybe the guest is lying, and he challenges her to read what she was told. She says the guest claims the joke was about a co-worker but doesn’t go into detail. Madeline then asks Jenn to show her a video of a drunk Douglas dancing at the wedding, which is on Facebook.

Madeline says there is bound to be more footage, which could appear at any moment. Douglas is convinced it is just dancing, but Madeline says they can put that to the test as she has a tweet ready to go asking people to post footage of Douglas and his joke. Douglas gets angry but tells Madeline to send it. She says the people there know him so they might be reluctant but if he gives them his blessing it would encourage them and she urges Douglas to tweet it himself. Despite Sheila’s desperate pleas to stop him, Douglas prepares to tweet this to his followers asking them to post any video evidence of his “unprofessional conduct”. He thinks they won’t find anything as, after all his years on TV, he knows when the cameras and microphones are on him and he can guarantee that no one recorded him telling “that story”. He then realizes he made a big mistake – Madeline asks how he doesn’t remember telling the story but remembers checking the cameras. While he claims he “misspoke”, Madeline summarizes that he told a sexist story, that he remembers doing it and that he lied to everyone out of shame and she ends the interview.

Ben Miles in a brown shirt as Toby in Douglas is cancelled

Will Toby’s (Ben Miles) chickens return home? (Photo credit: ITV)

Toby makes a point of clarifying that no one actually tweeted and Madeline says there’s never a phone signal in that room on her phone so she must always borrow Douglas’ device which means Douglas’ tweet could have gotten through… A furious Sheila tells him to delete it but Douglas says there can’t be any footage, he always checks and he tries to reassure Claudia, who is eager to believe him as he never lies to her.

Sheila, worried, says that the story will now come out if he told it. As they leave, Madeline asks him again what he said about her, if it’s now going to appear on Twitter, she needs to know. He says that sometimes people ask him when he first knew she was going to be a big star and he says that’s when he found her in his boss’s hotel room…

Claudia is devastated. Douglas says Madeline pushed him to self-destruct on Twitter. He asks why he’s being punished, it has nothing to do with him, it was Toby and her. Toby says those are false allegations. Madeline says she’ll deny any allegations, he was just drunk telling a story and getting angry because she’s more popular than him, but she’ll protect herself and not Toby, because she doesn’t want the story to get out. Again, Douglas says it wasn’t his fault, he’s not like Toby, and Madeline agrees that Toby is a monster, as Sheila says they could destroy his newspaper career…

Madeline asks why Douglas walked away from the hotel room and left her there and made a joke out of it. Douglas says if she was raped she should tell the police and if she slept with Toby to get a job she should tell her mother or a friend but why is it her fault? Madeline asks who said she slept with Toby? Douglas claims he knows she did it, she was in his room and he saw what was going to happen, she looked terrified…

Madeline, upset, said she was terrified but he still left and the moment she heard there was a story, she knew it was about her. She hates Toby, but he’s not worth it, what really hurts her is that Douglas was supposed to be her friend and the person she wanted to impress. As Douglas tries to apologize, she leaves.

We then flash back to what really happened in the hotel room after Douglas left. With Toby now in the bath, Madeline picks up her papers and throws them and her wine into the bath with him. She says she would love the job but she would never sleep with someone she works with and she is out of his league. She then takes his picture and says she doesn’t believe in women’s rights, there are human rights and not to mess with her, then she leaves.

We then return to the Hay Festival where Kirsty Wark interviews Madeline, who has taken over as main presenter of Living at Six from her former colleague Douglas after he resigned following a video that went viral. Madeline does not want to comment, but Kirsty said there had been rumours about her problematic attitudes and her appointment was seen as a victory for women everywhere, but Madeline says it is a victory for her.

Kirsty says the video ended her career and plays it – it consists of footage of Bently asking Jenn to stop recording and Douglas telling Claudia that the truth needs a little help and Bently asking Douglas to let her know if her career needs saving again.

As the credits roll, Toby’s driver Tom (Joe Wilkinson) is now driving Madeline and he asks her if she would mind if he did some work – he has an idea for a sex comedy set in a TV newsroom…

All episodes of Douglas is cancelled are available on ITVX.