The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20200828154702/https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/cult/a869500/black-mirror-spin-off-novels-cancelled/

Charlie Brooker reveals why planned Black Mirror spin-offs novels have been shelved

The writer promises new trivia "nuggets" from new companion book Inside Black Mirror.

charlie brooker promoting 'black mirror' on netflix
Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

For fans of terrifying tech-based anthology series Black Mirror, the new companion book Inside Black Mirror promises to be the ultimate collector's item.

Essentially an oral history of all 19 Black Mirror episodes, from 'The National Anthem' to 'Black Museum', the 320-page tome features contributions from series creator Charlie Brooker, executive producer Annabel Jones, plus various members of the cast and creative team, and it's also packed with trivia and previously undisclosed secrets from the show's production.

Channel 4

"Overall, 19 episodes are covered in the book, but because each episode is different and functions as its own little film, there are actually whole worlds to discuss in there – if I can say that without sounding like a pretentious prick!" Brooker exclusively told Digital Spy.

Influences for Inside Black Mirror, Brooker revealed, included The Twilight Zone Companion – originally published in 1982, and providing a complete show-by-show guide to one of Black Mirror's biggest inspirations – and The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies' frank and honest account of his experiences as showrunner of the revived Doctor Who.

"It's almost conversational," Brooker suggested. "It's based on lots of interviews that Jason [Arnopp, author] did with myself, and Annabel and lots and lots of people involved in the show, which meant that there's room for disagreement, and room for people to remember things differently.

Netflix

"We were keen for it to not just be a detached 'guide' – for it to have conversational flavour, and hopefully that means there's room for jokes, as well as little nuggets of information. Hopefully you also get a sense of the personalities behind the show, and the challenges involving in making it.

"It's also quite big and quite heavy, which means you could definitely stun a burglar with it. That's a prerequisite for me when it comes to any book – I want to know that if I slammed into the bridge of a burglar's nose, I might buy a few seconds to escape."

The world of Black Mirror – Brooker's series which explores nightmare visions of how humanity might abuse technology – was originally set to expand to the printed page in a different form, with a series of new spin-off novels.

Jonathan Prime / Netflix

However, these books have now been postponed indefinitely, due to the project requiring more time from Brooker and executive producer Jones than they were ultimately able to give. "It was slightly tricky," he explained. "That ended up demanding slightly more involvement than myself and Annabel had time for - so we sort of messed up a bit there!

"I'm not sure when or if that [novel series] will appear. Probably not."

He added: "Our show is more idiosyncratic than we realised and so it's kind of frustrating for somebody else stepping into that. Because we have all sorts of rules about how the Black Mirror universe works that we're probably not aware of, until someone else is making stuff for it."

Production is now underway on a fifth season of Black Mirror, which is expected to launch on Netflix in 2019.

Inside Black Mirror is out on Thursday (November 1) from Ebury Press.


Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Black Mirror