The new BBC Head of Values, Ian Fletcher, comes under scrutiny in the latest episode of BBC Two’s new sitcom satirising the very corporation that produces it.
Fletcher, played by Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), finds his own integrity questioned, due to his exorbitant salary despite his own sincere beliefs in the BBC; such as his earnest claim, “Songs of Praise isn’t actually about ratings, is it?”
For the first time in W1A drama raises its head, and the final moments of the episode will be most rewarding for fans of Twenty Twelve as the legacy of his relationship with his former personal assistant Sally Owen (Olivia Colman) is revealed in a national newspaper.
It’s a fantastic moment, devoid of the laughs that inhabit every moment of this instalment, making for a tasty denouement and the hope of a return for the ubiquitous actress (currently being brilliant in BBC Two’s other terrific sitcom, Rev).
Speaking of returns, there’s a return to form for Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) who’s been a tad quiet so far in the series, somewhat overwhelmed with the wealth of idiots (though undeniably hilarious) on display. But Sharpe delivers some belly-laugh-out-lines such as, “If you wanna upsize your footprint, you got to get different shoes,” and, “You’re drinking from the firehose from the get go, it’s a no brainer.”
And to cap it off, she visits her Perfect Curve team featuring another return in the shape of an Ideation Architect, a Trending Analyst and a Viral Concept Designer (played by Alex Beckett, Sara Pascoe and Joel Fry respectively). Siobhan is there to discuss rebranding the BBC logo, making it like an app but her team find the amount of letters used in the BBC, all three of them, are too much, making it “unappy”.
Elsewhere, there’s a series best performance from Jason Watkins (Being Human) as Simon Harwood, playing opinion tennis at every turn as he sympathetically churns out, “Brilliant. Very good, very strong,” with anything uttered in front of him or, “You’ll know more about this than I do,” when confronted with an issue he won’t handle. Watkins is sublime and hits the right note every time.
Likewise, and we say this every week but it bears repeating, the narration is astounding in its hilarity. John Morton, W1A’s writer and director, leaves the hardest laughs for Doctor Who‘s David Tennant. “Sting has phoned up Alan Yentob personally and called him an actual prick,” will have had many pausing the show until their laughing fit subsided.
With the end in sight and perhaps a dramatic finale to come, W1A has very quickly found a high standard and maintained it. Whilst everyone surrounding Ian Fletcher may be ignorant of the first Director-General of the BBC, Lord Reith, his mantra of “educate, inform, entertain” is certainly extolled; especially with the latter of his three edicts.
Aired at 10pm on Wednesday 2 April 2014 on BBC Two.
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