Channel 4 Announces One Off Comedic Look at Brexit ‘How Europe Stole My Mum’

16 October 2019

TX: Thursday 31st October 11.05pm, Channel 4

We’re leaving Europe. But how did we get into it in the first place? And after we leave, how do we put a divided country, or a divided family, back together? That’s the question comedian Kieran Hodgson is seeking the answer to in a new Channel 4 one off comedy documentary, How Europe Stole My Mum.

This timely 1 x 60’ show written and presented by comedian Kieran Hodgson, and starring Harry Enfield, Liza Tarbuck and Tom Palmer, will guide viewers on a journey to understand how and why Brexit split the country and explain how it was that we came to be in Europe in the first instance.

How Europe Stole My Mum is an irreverent, personal piece about Brexit which subverts the conventions of factual shows and illustrates the UK’s political landscape at a vital turning point in our history with impressions and flights of fancy.

Creator and writer Kieran Hodgson said, “I've made an extended audition tape to try and play every politician in the next series of 'The Crown'. With any luck, it might also be a bit of a different take on Brexit and our European relationship, finding out how this has gone on longer than we thought, is way more complicated than we thought, and ain't going nowhere! The only solution I can think of is to be very silly with Harry Enfield and Liza Tarbuck, so I've done that.”

How Europe Stole My Mum (1 x 60’) was commissioned for Channel 4 by Syeda Irtizaali, former Commissioning Editor for Entertainment and is being overseen by Emma Hardy, Acting Head of Entertainment. It is a Guilty Party Pictures production, the Executive Producers are Spencer Millman, Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet, the Director is Amanda Blue and the Associate Producer is Kieran Hodgson. How Europe Stole My Mum will air this Autumn on Channel 4

 

For more information, please contact:

Lesley Land lland@channel4.co.uk 0207 306 8597

 

ENDS

 

About Kieran Hodgson:

Kieran Hodgson has had four hugely successful shows at the fringe, three of which resulted in prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show Award Nominations for Lance, Maestro and ’75. Maestro also landed Kieran a nomination for the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2017.

His latest live show, ’75, was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2018 and has sold out venues around the country. It has had several sell-out runs at the Soho Theatre as well as a run at London’s Southbank Centre.

Kieran took his four last live shows to the Edinburgh Festival in 2019: '75, FRENCH EXCHANGE, LANCE, and MAESTRO. The shows played in rep at the Pleasance Beyond, after two weeks at the Soho Theatre main space, and the run was a sell-out success

Outside of the live circuit, Kieran has played series regular Gordon in two series of the smash hit BBC2 sitcom Two Doors Down alongside Arabella Weir, Doon Mackichan, Alex Norton, Elaine C Smith and Jonathan Watson.       

Kieran filmed the role of Dr Moorhouse in the forthcoming Victorian crime drama Miss Scarlet & The Duke this summer, which will air on UKTV’s Alibi channel in the UK and PBS in the US.

Other recent film and television roles include: BBC3 / BBC One’s Bafta-nominated Pls Like series 2, as a regular in two series of BBC3's hit Famalam, Channel 4 pilot The Mr Swallow Show starring Nick Mohammed, Dave's Unspun With Matt Forde, Netflix's Lovesick, and as Malcolm McLaren in Sky Arts' Urban Myths: The Sex Pistols vs Bill Grundy.           

Kieran’s Channel 4 Blap, God’s Own County, which he wrote and also starred in alongside Monica Dolan and Jim Howick, was released in summer 2018. It was developed with Jonny Sweet and Simon Bird’s production company Guilty Party Pictures and produced by TV Burp’s Spencer Millman and is being developed further for Channel 4.

He also appeared in BBC 2’s single drama We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story alongside John Sessions and Sally Phillips, BBC 2’s Ben Elton–penned Shakespearean sitcom Upstart Crow alongside David Mitchell, Harry Enfield and Spencer Jones, as well as Sky’s Mr Swallow’s Valentine with Nick Mohammed and the box office smash Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.            

His many radio credits include BBC Radio 4’s The School For Scandal alongside Roger Allam, Hugh Bonneville and Susannah Fielding and Pliny the Younger in Radio 4's How To Survive The Roman Empire by Pliny And Me. Kieran also wrote and performed his BBC Radio 4 series Kieran Hodgson's Earworms inspired by Maestro and recorded a special live version of Lance.

Kieran is also a hugely in-demand writer and performer who currently has his own scripted projects in development with Objective Fiction, Guilty Party Pictures / C4 and Merman Films / C4. He is also working with Fox Searchlight on a feature project.

 Reviews for ’75:

 ‘The single most brilliant thing anyone's said about Brexit' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Londonist

 ‘It’s breathless, it’s bonkers and it’s often high-brow…’ ✭✭✭✭✭ The Wee Review 

‘There are quite a few shows about Brexit at the Fringe this year… But I highly doubt any are quite as frenetically witty and refreshingly even-handed as ‘75’ ✭✭✭✭✭ Theatre Weekly

‘Everything’s unusual – and ravishingly entertaining, informative and full of insight and laughs – in the show…’  ✭✭✭✭ The Times 

‘There’s a delicious perfectionism here to the writing, structure and delivery that puts most other shows to shame’ ✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph 

‘Another sterling display of comic prowess from Kieran Hodgson’ ✭✭✭✭ The List

‘It’s a show about Brexit that manages to be inclusive, clever and funny at the same time’ ✭✭✭✭Short Com

‘Hodgson’s considerable skills as a vocal caricaturist are part of the pleasure here; so too the frequency and quality of the jokes…' ✭✭✭✭ The Guardian  

‘This is rich, thoughtful but belly-laugh stuff from an act whose showy virtuosity as both a character and confessional comic is backed by some outstanding writing’ ✭✭✭✭ The Scotsman

'It's the mother of history lessons, both good to know and also holds your interest in increasingly inventive ways.' ✭✭✭✭ The Skinny 

'One of the best researched and most thoughtful takes on the topic you are likely to see - insightful as well as genuinely funny.' ✭✭✭✭ What's On Stage 

Reviews for MAESTRO:

'This could well be the show of the Fringe.' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph

'Simultaneously one of the funniest and most heart-warming acts at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Kieran Hodgson is not to be missed. ' ✭✭✭✭✭ Broadway Baby

'This is comedy that feels in some way transcendental.  You leave Maestro feeling uplifted and elated.' ✭✭✭✭✭ TV BOMB

Reviews for LANCE:

‘An absolute gem...a delight to watch' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Guardian

'Kieran Hodgson has here served up a one-man effort that lets his comedic talents roar as never before.' ✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph

'A triumph of a show...with plenty of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments.' ✭✭✭✭1/2 Chortle