Fifteen Million Merits 

In a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.

Director:

Euros Lyn

Writers:

Charlie Brooker, Konnie Huq (as Kanak Huq)

Stars:

Daniel Kaluuya, Jessica Brown Findlay, Rupert Everett

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Kaluuya	...	Bingham 'Bing' Madsen
Jessica Brown Findlay	...	Abi Khan
Rupert Everett	...	Judge Hope
Julia Davis	...	Judge Charity
Ashley Thomas	...	Judge Wraith
Paul Popplewell	...	Dustin
Isabella Laughland	...	Swift
David Fynn	...	Oliver
Colin Michael Carmichael	...	Kai (as Colin Carmichael)
Hannah John-Kamen	...	Selma Telse
Kerrie Hayes	...	Glee
Eugene O'Hare	...	Hammond
Jaimi Barbakoff	...	Anna
Merce Ribot	...	Big Shot Registration Lady
Matthew Burgess	...	Botherguts Host

Storyline

In a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.

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Plot Keywords:

human powered electrical generator | exercise bicycle | apple | watching pornography | playing a video game | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 December 2011 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zeppotron, Channel 4 Television Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

Merce Ribot is miscredited as "Big Shot Registration Lady"at the end, when the show she works on is Hot Shot.

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Goofs

When Bing meets Abi in the cafeteria, Abi buys an apple. While standing and talking, Abi takes two bites out the apple. But when the sit at a table, Abi picks up the apple and it is untouched.

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Quotes

Bing: I haven't got a speech. I didn't plan words. I didn't even try to I just knew I had to get here, to stand here, and I wanted you to listen. To really listen, not just pull a face like you're listening, like you do the rest of the time. A face that you're feeling instead of processing. You pull a face, and poke it towards the stage, and we lah-di-dah, we sing and dance and tumble around. And all you see up here, it's not people, you don't see people up here, it's all fodder. And the faker the ...

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Crazy Credits

Merce Ribot was wrongly credited as "'Big Shot' Registration Lady" (it should say 'Hot Shot').

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojoUK: Top 10 Black Mirror Storylines That Could Actually Happen (2018)

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Soundtracks

I Have a Dream
Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Performed by Hannah John-Kamen

User Reviews

A powerful, heart wrenching vision of the future (and the present).

This episode tore my heart out and stomped on it for good measure. Whereas Black Mirror's first episode was more darkly comic in tone (disturbing nonetheless), this was an utterly bleak excursion into the realms of reality television and our consumerist culture. Oh and a beautiful love story to boot. But if you think this love story is bound for a happy ending, you haven't watched Black Mirror before.

Although a touch heavy handed in its message, its themes still ring painfully true. It looks with disdain upon our symbiotic relationship with reality television, and how anything of purity, authenticity, and honest beauty will inevitably become corrupted and filtered down to a 'lowest common denominator' level of entertainment to feed the willing masses.

Its simply a powerful yet utterly bleak hour of brilliant thought provoking television.