The National Anthem (Black Mirror)

"The National Anthem"
Black Mirror episode
Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) before having filmed sexual intercourse with a pig
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Otto Bathurst
Written by	Charlie Brooker
Cinematography by	Jake Polonsky
Original air date	4 December 2011 (2011-12-04)
Running time	44 minutes
Guest appearances
Rory Kinnear as Michael Callow Lindsay Duncan as Alex Cairns Donald Sumpter as Julian Hereford Tom Goodman-Hill as Tom Blice Anna Wilson-Jones as Jane Callow Patrick Kennedy as Section Chief Walker Alastair Mackenzie as Martin Chetna Pandya as Malaika Alex Macqueen as Special Agent Callett Jay Simpson as Flynn/Rod Senseless Lydia Wilson as Princess Susannah
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "Fifteen Million Merits"
List of episodes

"The National Anthem" is the series premiere of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, it was directed by Otto Bathurst and first aired on Channel 4 on 4 December 2011.

In the episode, a member of the British royal family is kidnapped and will only be released if the British prime minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) has sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. Scenes follow government attempts to track the kidnapper, news coverage of the unfolding events and public reaction. "The National Anthem" had several inspirations, the idea originally conceived by Brooker years previous, with broadcaster Terry Wogan in place of a prime minister. It had a deliberately serious tone.

Reviewers identified themes including the spread of information across social media, the relationship between politicians and the public, and the role of news media. The episode garnered seven-day ratings of 2.07 million viewers, alongside many viewer complaints to broadcasting regulatory body Ofcom. Mostly positive professional reviews found the episode to be a good opener for the series, plausible in its storyline and well-acted, though some critics dissented. On average, reviewers have ranked the episode middling in comparison to other Black Mirror instalments.

The episode was later compared to Piggate, an anecdote published in the 2015 biography Call Me Dave, which alleged that British prime minister of the time, David Cameron, had placed a "private part of his anatomy" into a dead pig's head as an initiation rite at university.^[1]