'Douglas Is Cancelled' Is a Damning Exploration of Sexual Harassment

Douglas is Cancelled, the new four-part series premiering on BritBox, is not the show you are expecting. It’s billed as a treatise on social media's capricious and damaging nature. Instead, it is the “me too” experience brought to horrific life. It is a blistering condemnation of what women endure in the workforce and how casually, cruelly and dismissively they are treated.

Long-time journalist Douglas Bellowes (Hugh Bonneville) and the young and beautiful Madeline (Karen Gillan) host a popular nighttime current events program Live at Six. They share a collegial, slightly flirtatious, occasionally witty banter. After Douglas attends his cousin’s wedding with his wife Sheila (Alex Kingston), someone tweets that Douglas was overheard saying a sexist joke. Of course, Twitter and tweeting are no longer the dominant form of social media scandal gossip — a sure sign that this series, which premiered in the UK last summer, was conceived a while ago by writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock). Almost as a (post-production?) afterthought, the show occasionally references Twitter’s new name. “Or do we call it X now? I can’t keep up,” one character wonders.

Douglas denies telling any offensive joke and doubles down, saying he doesn’t remember saying anything. “We can move in the direction of honesty once we’ve decided on the facts,” Toby (Ben Miles), the show's producer tells him. Douglas isn’t worried, convinced the story will “burn itself out.” And it might have if Madeline hadn’t decided to quote the original tweet with the comment “Don’t believe this. Not my co-presenter” to her two million followers. She claims she did this to help and support Douglas.