Black Mirror
The National Anthem
TV Flash files “The National Anthem” as the hour the catalog opens — Black Mirror (2011–present) on Channel 4/Netflix, season 1, episode 1, aired 2011-12-04, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 32 in the Black Mirror guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 2011-12-04 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Fifteen Million Merits” (S01E02).
The National Anthem is the Channel 4 dare: a public, ugly premise with no franchise to hide behind. Not the friendliest door. The first door.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Prime Minister Michael Callow faces a huge and shocking dilemma when Princess Susannah, a much-loved member of the Royal Family, is kidnapped.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The National Anthem sit in the Black Mirror guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 32 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Black Mirror S01E01 air?
The National Anthem aired 2011-12-04 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I have to watch in order?
No. These are closed hours with Easter eggs, not homework. Order is for completists and for spotting the jokes. New viewers can enter at San Junipero, Nosedive, or The Entire History of You and not be lost.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as a drawer of closed arguments, not a franchise: one premise, one hangover, permission to skip. The best hours make a gadget feel like a moral choice. The rest still end on time, which is a feature the serials cannot copy.
The grain of The Entire History of You is the thesis, not the twist. A couple in a room, a memory you can rewind, a close-up that turns intimacy into evidence. Black Mirror did not invent tech dread. It invented a popular grammar for it: one idea, one moral, one hangover with your lock screen. Channel 4's early hours were cruel on purpose. Netflix's later ones are bigger, prettier, occasionally in love with the lecture they used to smuggle. The work still has to answer a simple question. Does the cut make the…
Filed against
- Bryce Dallas Howard as Lacie Pound (Nosedive)
Bryce Dallas Howard’s Lacie Pound in Black Mirror’s “Nosedive” made social-score anxiety feel like a pastel nightmare — smile for the algorithm or fall. Film-star polish turned a single anthology hour into a cultural reference point. On…
- Daniel Kaluuya as Bing (Fifteen Million Merits)
Daniel Kaluuya’s Bing in Black Mirror’s “Fifteen Million Merits” turned bike-pedal dystopia into tech-dread dessert — one episode that ruins your relationship with screens. Anthology as modern Twilight Zone, applause as a threat. TV Flash…
- Hayley Atwell as Martha (Be Right Back)
Hayley Atwell’s Martha is the Black Mirror hour that treats grief as a market: a closed argument about replacing a person with a product, then living with the playback. Charlie Brooker’s anthology books stars for premises, not franchises.…
- Jon Hamm as Matt Trent (White Christmas)
Jon Hamm poured Don Draper’s whiskey and identity crisis across Mad Men’s AMC prestige run — cigarettes, suits, and the American century in a glass. Black Mirror’s White Christmas later proved his anthology chill. TV Flash still smells…
- Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Kelly (San Junipero)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw played Kelly in Black Mirror's San Junipero — anthology as a closed argument about gadgets, grief, and a dance floor that still gets cited like a moral. TV Flash files her as the hour that made Charlie Brooker's drawer…
- Jesse Plemons as Robert Daly (USS Callister)
Jesse Plemons’s Robert Daly is Black Mirror’s USS Callister as a star booking that curdled on contact — a closed argument about games, power, and who gets to be the sprite. Charlie Brooker’s anthology treats premises as moral hangover. On…