W1A (TV)

 2014-2017
Created, Written, and Directed by John Morton
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, Jason Watkins, Nina Sosanya, Hugh Skinner,Monica Dolan, Rufus Jones, David Westhead, Ophelia Lovibond, Jonathan Bailey, David Tennant
IMDB Entry

After the success of Twenty Twelve,* creator John Morton put together another TV show about the adventures of the beaurocrat Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville):  W1A**.. No longer working for the Olympic committee, he is hired by the BBC as Head of Values. He is -- to his horror -- joined again by Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) from Perfect Curve PR, a woman who is always wrong but who thinks she's always right and spends most of her time saying cool at ever opportunity. David Tennant returns to handle the narration.

The various coworkers include his boss Simon Harwood (Jason Watkins), the Director of Strategic Governance, a cheerleader for everything that goes on.  Lucy Freeman (Nina Sosanya) is a producer there, frustrated by the bureaucratic madness. Will Humphries (Hugh Skinner) is an intern who is thicker than the Grand Coulee Dam, often saying yes to something and then immediately asking what it is. Tracy Prichard (Monica Dolan) is in charge of communication and is somewhat brighter than the rest, but gives an apology before every idea she puts forth. Neil Reid (David Westhead) runs the news department and despairs at the hairbrained schemes people put forth.  Anna Rampton (Sarah Parish) is the no-nonsense Head of Output, one of the few who tries to avoid taking part in hairbrained plans.  D

The show also includes quite a few British TV stars as themselves as they are name dropped by the group.

The humor is similar to Twenty Twelve, as people make plans in a vacuum, cheering every half-assed plan and having them avoid disaster by dumb luck. There are also subtle running gags, like Ian's folding bicycle, which starts out with him not being able fold, then a status symbol as he competes with Simon for a newer and more expensive model.

The building itself is a source of gags. It's an ultra modern facility, with no offices or assigned work stations. Conference rooms as named for past BBC stars. It has a bleeding edge computer system for managing it all, which, of course, is buggy and unreliable.

Siobhan is hilariously clueless.  When they come up with a new logo for the BBC, they create a Star of David, and have no idea it has another meaning.  She tries to rebrand the Wimbledon tournament as WINbledon, ignoring any objections to the fact that it's just plain stupid. She gets away with it because of British politeness: Ian tries to set her right with softspoken objections, and she bulldozes over them.

I liked discovering a couple of minor characters were named "Ben and Jerry," and their last names are "Rosenstern and Guildencrantz." They show up at meetings and say "Hurrah" to every suggestion.

Very funny show.  There was a third show in this series, Twenty Twenty-Six, which I hope to see soon.

A minor quibble: Twenty Twelve ended on a deliberate cliffhanger and I loved the fact it was left hanging. This show unfortunately explains what happens.  I wish they hadn't.

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*It was critically acclaimed and won several BAFTA awards.

**It derives its title from the postal code for BBC headquarters.