The National Anthem (Black Mirror)

"The National Anthem"
Black Mirror episode
File:Black Mirror - The National Anthem.jpg A stunned Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear, left), having watched a video of the kidnapped Princess Susannah (Lydia Wilson).
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Otto Bathurst
Written by	Charlie Brooker
Cinematography by	Jake Polonsky
Original air date	4 December 2011 (2011-12-04)
Running time	44 minutes
Guest appearances
Rory Kinnear as Michael Callow Lindsay Duncan as Alex Cairns Donald Sumpter as Julian Hereford Tom Goodman-Hill as Tom Blice Anna Wilson-Jones as Jane Callow Patrick Kennedy as Section Chief Walker Alastair Mackenzie as Martin Chetna Pandya as Malaika Alex Macqueen as Special Agent Callett Jay Simpson as Rod Senseless Lydia Wilson as Princess Susannah Sophie Kennedy Clark as Lauren Andrew Knott as Brian Shazad Latif – Mehdi Raboud

"The National Anthem" is the first episode of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. The episode was written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Otto Bathurst; it first aired on Channel 4, on 4 December 2011.

In the episode, the British Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) awakens to be told by the Home Secretary Alex Cairns (Lindsay Duncan) that Princess Susannah (Lydia Wilson), a much-loved member of the Royal Family, has been kidnapped, and will be killed unless the Prime Minister has sexual intercourse with a pig on national television.

The episode received very positive reviews. It was later compared to Piggate, a real-life scandal which occurred in 2015.

Plot

British Prime Minister Michael Callow is woken during the night to learn that Princess Susannah, a much-loved member of the Royal Family, has been kidnapped. For her safe return, the Prime Minister must have live sexual intercourse with a pig on national television, following a list of technical specifications designed to make it impossible to fake. Callow adamantly opposes fulfilling the demand. His team, led by Alex Cairns, reluctantly inform him that the ransom video was posted on YouTube and has been viewed and downloaded by thousands of people. Although the UK media initially agrees to comply with a D-Notice to not report the story, clones of the video are available on YouTube and public discussion is taking place on Facebook and Twitter. Later, UKN breaks the D-Notice by discussing the kidnapping, though censoring the kidnapper's demands; other news media also begin to report on the story. The public's response is initially one of sympathy, and the majority do not expect Callow to go through with the demand.

Special Agent Callett (Alex Macqueen) attempts to arrange a method for footage to be faked. The kidnapper discovers this and sends a severed finger, ostensibly Princess Susannah's, to a UK news station as a response. The story is outed, and public opinion turns sharply against Callow; a majority now expect him to follow the kidnapper's demands, though his wife Jane (Anna Wilson-Jones) begs him not to go through with it. Callow orders an immediate rescue operation on the building where they believe Susannah is being held. Meanwhile, UKN journalist Malaika has been sending sexually explicit photographs to an associate in return for details about the government's actions. She learns of the rescue operation and films it on her phone. However, the building is a decoy, and Malaika is shot as she tries to flee the scene.

Cairns convinces Callow that he will be despised by the public, and threatens that his family may not be safe, if he refuses to comply with the kidnapper's demands. He reluctantly agrees, being informed that recording the event will be illegal at midnight, and an unpleasant tone will be played to discourage viewers from watching. Gravely, Callow has intercourse with the pig while an audience of 1.3 billion watches; some people are disgusted and others amused.

Princess Susannah is discovered unharmed on a bridge – she was released 30 minutes before Callow's sex act began, though Cairns covers this up. Turner Prize winner Carlton Bloom commits suicide; he was the kidnapper. Cairns tells Callow, as he vomits into a toilet, that Susannah is safe. A year later, Susannah is pregnant and Callow's approval rating has improved, but his wife Jane ignores him and walks off as he begs, "Jane, please."

Production

Brooker notes in an interview that other animals to a pig were considered for the sex act that Callow is forced to perform: he says, "We thought all through the farmyard", and even considered "a giant wheel of cheese", but chose a pig as "You needed something that straddles the line between comic and horrifying." He states that the plot of the episode was inspired by controversy of Gordon Brown calling a member of the public "a bigot" after speaking with her, and a Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers where "as he remembers it, a police chief is required to have sex with a hog".

Brooker has said in an interview that he and Konnie Huq, his wife, were on the set watching during the filming of the scene where Callow has sex with the pig. He claims that amusingly, Bathurst didn't call "cut", and instead let Kinnear carry on getting closer to the pig, putting his hand on the pig's back, until Kinnear said "I'm not going any further..."

Critical reception

The A.V. Club gave it an A, writing: "The genius of Black Mirror is how subtly it builds, keeping you from ever questioning the insanity of the premise or any minor plothole. Every twist seems organic, every decision rational. Every effort is made to find the kidnapper, of course, but that necessarily has to fail. The press initially struggles with how to report on such an insane story sensitively, but its hand is forced by social media and the ineffable power of the internet." The Telegraph rated it four out of five, commenting: "Virgin territory indeed. This was a dementedly brilliant idea. The satire was so audacious, it left me open-mouthed and squealing. Rather like that poor pig." The Independent said: "This carefully crafted and compact drama is engrossing, with the tension rising by degrees as the time moves ever closer for the PM to meet the kidnapper's demands. It comes across as being anti-Twitter but also serves as a cautionary tale about the power of the collective 'hive mind' that is social media. It takes no prisoners, particularly those in the public eye." The Guardian wrote: "To the untrained eye, the first [episode of Black Mirror], National Anthem, looked suspiciously like political satire – and a very superior one – rather than a sci-fi vision of technology's power to distort the world. All the gadgetry seemed only too familiar and the voyeurism all too credible: there's more dystopia in an episode of Spooks."

Comparisons to Piggate

See also: Piggate

In September 2015, allegations were published that David Cameron, who at the time was British Prime Minister had, as a student, placed a "private part" into the mouth of a dead pig as part of an initiation rite. Charlie Brooker denied any prior knowledge of this claim, although both the story and Black Mirror became topics of popular comment; #snoutrage, a hashtag that appears in "The National Anthem", was one of the leading hashtags used on Twitter to refer to the story (along with #hameron and #piggate). Brooker has called the event a "coincidence, albeit a quite bizarre one", and was quite perturbed when he first heard the allegations: "I did genuinely for a moment wonder if reality was a simulation, whether it exists only to trick me", he said in an interview.

External links

• "The National Anthem" at IMDb