From W1A to the USA, the Twenty Twenty Six cast talk football and Ian Fletcher’s journey — “What could possibly go wrong?”

The BBC’s former Head of Values has been appointed to a key new role as Director of Integrity in the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team in Miami.

What do the Twenty Twenty Six cast have to say about the World Cup

The BBC has produced one of its regular sets of interviews for the new show. It also gives a handy summary of what we might expect:

A new six-part fictional comedy series brought to us by the team behind W1A and Twenty Twelve. The BBC’s former Head of Values Ian Fletcher has been appointed to a key new role as Director of Integrity for the upcoming global football tournament. Having previously held a leadership role on the London Games in Twenty Twelve and a spell as the Head of Values at the BBC in W1A, Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) is now bound for the greatest stage in world football.

The tournament will be the biggest ever. Hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, with 48 countries taking part and 16 venues thousands of miles apart across the whole of North America; what could possibly go wrong? Ian Fletcher is about to find out, as he joins the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team in Miami. There’s a feast of content in the article linked, from which we have grabbed a few morsels.

Hugh Bonneville’s thoughts on Ian Fletcher

These seem to encapsulate just what the show will bring:

Ian has evolved. Although, ‘evolution’ is, of course, an interesting word, conjuring images of change – development from flaccid amoeba, for example, to homo erectus and indeed sapiens. Ian sees himself as crouching somewhere in between.

If Ian was a lapel pin it would be enamelled with the words, Stay Calm. The seas may be tossed and blown but Ian will be neither tossed and certainly not blown. He manages to maintain a degree of equilibrium when all around him is verging on chaotic. He’s essentially a cat-wrangler, even when there’s no cat food, or possibly even no cats.

Chelsey Crisp introduces Sarah Campbell

Sarah’s the Head of Sustainability and Climate Strategy, which means she’s inherently at odds with the rest of the team. They’ve been tasked with planning the largest scale event they can – and here’s poor Sarah trying to protect the planet by making it all smaller. But she’s so sweet and pure and good that she’s not wired for confrontation.

Nick Blood introduces Phil Plank

We confess. The name Phil Plank rather appealed. Nick Blood explains his character:

I play Phil Plank, he’s the VP of On Pitch Protocols, which is a suitably vague title. He had a few trials for Oldham Athletic back in the day, and then somehow managed to carve a career for himself in US soccer and found himself working for this global tournament. He’s a very linear thinker, he takes things very literally and offers very literal solutions.

There’s a lot more in the BBC article as well as a short trailer: