Charlie Brooker says he ‘always expected’ something like Covid-19 pandemic ahead of Wipe special

Charlie Brooker has said he is finding coping with the coronavirus pandemic easier than some people because he “always expected something like this to come along”.

The creator of dystopian TV series Black Mirror told the Radio Times he is not struggling to adapt to the situation as much as some others.

He said: “Because I’ve really always expected something like this to come along, I think maybe I’m not going through quite the level of psychological adjustment as some other people.

“If you’ve spent years anticipating the worst, oddly, when the worst happens, you can stop worrying about that possibly happening because it has.

“So I’m dealing with this on a personal level far better than I would have anticipated.”

Brooker added that he is optimistic about the situation and hopes positives will arise from it.

He said: “If you look at what happens in classic dystopian fiction – where everyone turns on each other immediately – so far that hasn’t happened.

“It’s not to say it won’t. But I pivoted quite early to an optimistic view that this is terrible but, at the end of it, there’s a possibility that we’ll have the stomach to realign society a little.

“Is this forcing our hands to address financial inequality and climate change?”

The comedian and writer added: “You hope that’s the outcome, rather than that it makes psychotic strongman politicians look more secure”.

Read the full interview in the Radio Times, out now. Additional reporting by Press Association