The Making of Black Mirror's The Waldo Moment

A sneak peek at the making of Black Mirror's The Waldo Moment

Meet Waldo. A blue bear from a children's educational TV show, teaching them about the world through interviews with politicians and establishment figures. In reality however Waldo is an anarchic animated character on a satirical late-night topical comedy show who, once he has lured someone into the studio, unleashes a series of humorous innuendo, sarcasm and childish vitriol.

Behind the scenes, Waldo is voiced and controlled by failed comedian Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby). The public success of Waldo contrasts with Jamie's less than happy personal life.

When the channel decide they would like to give Waldo his own pilot, the production company come up with the idea of Waldo standing against one of his victims, Conservative Liam Monroe (Tobias Menzies), who has been parachuted in to win a safe Tory seat in an up-and-coming By-Election. Worried about entering the world of politics, Jamie takes some convincing by Jack Napier (Jason Flemyng), boss of the production company. On the campaign trail Jamie meets and falls for Gwendolyn Harris (Chloe Pirrie), the Labour candidate who is a rising star in the Labour party. When Gwendolyn backs away, warned off Jamie by her campaign manager, Jamie struggles to contain his disdain for career politicians.

And in a ‘Meet the Politicians' election hustings, when taunted by Monroe, Jamie lashes out at all the other Party candidates accusing them of being more artificial than Waldo is. The clip seems to hit a nerve with a disengaged mistrusting public. It becomes a hit on YouYube and generates a lot of broadsheet commentary about the state of politics. Could this blue bear actually win the By-Election? Or is there more to play for?