BBC comedy W1A set for revival 'with a new sports twist'
Hugh Bonneville's character Ian Fletcher looks to be taking up a new position at FIFA.
It's been almost seven years since hit comedy W1A ended its run, but it looks like the show may now be set for a revival – with a twist.
Hugh Bonneville will reportedly be reprising his role as former Head of Values at the BBC, Ian Fletcher, who will this time be taking up a new role at another major institution – football's governing body FIFA.
It is not clear at this stage how many other W1A stars might be returning for the new show, but it is believed there are high hopes Jessica Hynes will be back as inept PR Siobhan Sharpe.
The news was first revealed by another former W1A cast member, Sarah Parish, who explained during an appearance on That Gaby Roslin podcast: "It’s being written — maybe I’m talking out of turn, I don’t know."
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Parish – who had a key role as Anna Rampton in the comedy – also praised writer John Morton, who she said was "so brilliant and so fabulous at picking out the subtleties of the horror of working in an institution that big".
And she added of the new series: "So Ian Fletcher will continue. And I thought probably Siobhan could go with him because wherever Ian goes, Siobhan goes as well and does all his PR, really badly.
"So I’m hoping that those two characters will have another rebirth in another series."
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Fletcher was first introduced in the series Twenty Twelve, which poked fun at the organising committee for the London Summer Olympics, before going on to appear in all three seasons of W1A between 2014 and 2017.
The series briefly returned for a short one-off lockdown special in 2020, which saw Fletcher chairing the first virtual meeting of the BBC's 'COVID-19 Bounce Back Group', while this year, the cast reunited once again for a Comic Relief skit.
In addition to Bonneville, Hynes and Parish, other well-known faces to appear in the show's main cast during its initial run included Jason Watkins, Monica Dolan, Nina Sosanya, Hugh Skinner, Rufus Jones and Jonathan Bailey.
RadioTimes.com approached the BBC for comment on this story.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
