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"It&amp;#039;s fair to say that the first series of Charlie Brooker&amp;#039;s dark anthology series Black Mirror made quite an impact - the dark, dystopian &amp;#039;15 Million Merits&amp;#039; and the crushingly tragic &amp;#039;Entire History of You&amp;#039; were moving and dark in equal measure, while series opener &amp;#039;The National Anthem&amp;#039; - in a curious case of life imitating art - whipped up a sensational Twitter storm and became of the most talked-about pieces of drama of late 2011 / early 2012. From Monday night, the show returns to Channel 4 and, given the huge success of the first run, did Brooker feel the need to push the boat out even further? Was he aware of the pressure to &amp;#039;top the pig&amp;#039;?  &amp;quot;This time, he&amp;#039;s got to make the pig cum!&amp;quot; quipped the writer and broadcaster. &amp;quot;No, we didn&amp;#039;t think that! &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s interesting - with the first series, all three little films were different genres. You had a &amp;#039;ticking bomb&amp;#039; thriller with the pig, you had a dystopian Orwellian Apple store nightmare for the second one and then you had a kitchen-sink, futuristic relationship break-up for the third one. &amp;quot;They were different styles of film, although they had a similar sensibility. There&amp;#039;s not many places where you can do that - a completely different type of show from week to week.&amp;quot; Brooker explained that the three new films that make up Black Mirror&amp;#039;s second series - opening instalment &amp;#039;Be Right Back&amp;#039;, political satire &amp;#039;The Waldo Moment&amp;#039; and the urban thriller &amp;#039;White Bear&amp;#039; - are again inspired by his affection for the anthology shows he enjoyed as a younger, less cynical television viewer. &amp;quot;A lot of TV drama exists to give you what you want, on a week-by-week basis. There&amp;#039;s nothing wrong with that - you return to things because you like the characters,&amp;quot; he suggested. &amp;quot;But I missed shows like The Twilight Zone or Tales of the Unexpected - where in a way the show was the recurring character. You knew you were going to get something of a certain tone but you didn&amp;#039;t know what the ingredients were going to be.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;With this series, all three episodes are almost different genres, but again explore contemporary fears, woes, potential problems that are potentially over the horizon.&amp;quot;  The new run launches with &amp;#039;Be Right Back&amp;#039;, starring Captain America: The First Avenger&amp;#039;s Hayley Atwell - it&amp;#039;s a story of fantastic technology and a broken heart, with Brooker calling his script &amp;quot;very intimate and personal&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s sort of poignant - it might surprise people,&amp;quot; he admitted. &amp;quot;&amp;#039;The National Anthem&amp;#039; started out in my head as a spoof of 24, and then I thought it would be funnier to treat it straight and make this joke scenario a horrible thing. &amp;quot;This is different in that it&amp;#039;s possibly more earnest than people might expect. It&amp;#039;s more melancholy, this first episode.&amp;quot; The story&amp;#039;s emotional core and its heart were what attracted star Atwell to the role of Martha, a young woman who loses the love of her life Ash (Domnhall Gleeson) and is unable to let go. &amp;quot;Some comedians are brilliant and very clever, but there&amp;#039;s a cynicism there,&amp;quot; said the actress. &amp;quot;It lacks any kind of depth and just says, &amp;#039;Look how s**t everything is&amp;#039; - which absolutely has its place. But I just wanted an alternative.  &amp;quot;When I watched Black Mirror I found it inventive and very smart, and it had this weird tone and sense of foreboding. It was about relevant issues, but was still made in a witty, sexy way.&amp;quot; So enamoured was Atwell with Brooker&amp;#039;s work that she immediately called her agent and begged him to land her a role in the second series of Black Mirror - without any idea of what she might be letting herself in for. &amp;quot;I loved the tone of it, so I didn&amp;#039;t care what part I would get,&amp;quot; she admitted. &amp;quot;But having said that, when I read the script for &amp;#039;Be Right Back&amp;#039;, I just thought\u2026 that&amp;#039;s really weird, and really good! &amp;quot;It was really poignant, but it still had the wit. I was just completely and utterly delighted to be invited to be a part of it.&amp;quot;  [Above: Lenora Crichlow in &amp;#039;White Bear&amp;#039;] Beyond &amp;#039;Be Right Back&amp;#039;, the likes of Daniel Rigby, Tobias Menzies and Jason Flemyng star in &amp;#039;The Waldo Moment&amp;#039; - which explores the dark absurdity of politics - and Being Human&amp;#039;s Lenora Crichlow leads &amp;#039;White Bear&amp;#039; - the tale of an amnesiac woman who is ruthlessly pursued by a mindless mob. And beyond that? Brooker certainly has ideas for a third series of Black Mirror should the second run go down as well as the first. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s certainly more stories that we haven&amp;#039;t done,&amp;quot; he confirmed. &amp;quot;Partly because some of them would&amp;#039;ve been in similar territory to ones we&amp;#039;ve done already, and sometimes you think of a good idea for a story but don&amp;#039;t know how it ends. So definitely - there&amp;#039;s definitely more where these came from.&amp;quot; Black Mirror returns to Channel 4 this Monday (February 11) at 10pm. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/interviews/a456189/black-mirror-returns-charlie-brooker-hayley-atwell-talk-series-two/>