W1A. Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville). Copyright: BBC
W1A

W1A

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC Two
  • 2014 - 2020
  • 14 episodes (3 series)

Spin-off from Twenty Twelve in which Ian Fletcher and Siobhan Sharpe now find themselves working for the BBC. Stars Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, Jason Watkins, Monica Dolan, Hugh Skinner and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 748

Press clippings Page 2

John Morton on ending W1A

This current series of the BBC comedy about itself is almost certainly going to be the last - and the writer has his heart set on a very different project next.

Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 20th October 2017

A note to the writers of W1A; having your characters spitting out the words "yeah", "no", "right" or, in poor Sarah Parish's case, "yes exactly" over and over and over again in staccato fashion is neither witty or endearing. Rather, it's migraine-inducingly irritating, maddening beyond all reason and it makes consuming the show a gruelling, mirthless chore. This week, if you're willing to chew through it, the renewal team discuss the BBC's orchestras.

Ben Arnold, The Guardian, 2nd October 2017

W1A, episode 3 review

Three series in, this one-time funny sitcom is just irritating.

Rupert Hawksley, The Telegraph, 2nd October 2017

BBC presenter 'annoyed' that W1A got rescheduled in NI

Opening his Radio Foyle show yesterday, Sean Coyle said he had been excited to find out the programme would be on BBC2 on Monday evening - only to tune in to see Cumhacht an Cheoil on the small screen instead.

Jonathan Bell, Belfast Telegraph, 27th September 2017

John Morton interview

W1A's John Morton on ending the show - and why he's writing a romantic film next.

Radio Times, 26th September 2017

The latest dispatch from the frontline of unnecessary meetings finds Ian Fletcher deciding what to do about Ryan Chelford. Judged purely in punditry terms, the cross-dressing ex-footballer's appearance on Match of the Day didn't go well, but he has been trending heavily on social media where "reaction ... has been almost universally divided". David Tennant's narration neatly skewers Auntie's dilemma: "The problem for the BBC is that they don't know what to do."

Jonathan Wright, The Guardian, 25th September 2017

W1A review

W1A's mix of physical, visual and verbal slapstick is as pin-sharp as ever.

Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 25th September 2017

W1A (BBC2, Monday), the witty mockumentary about the BBC, returned for another series and felt closer and closer to the real thing. I can't make up mind whether this is good or bad. By the end of the season let's have BBC boss Tony Hall doing a cameo in which he shuts down the production.

BBCMe, the Corporation's fictional version of YouTube, sounded ludicrous enough to actually happen. But you've got to laugh, because these types of meetings happen everywhere, only the jokes aren't as good. I loved the "more of less" initiative but the best line found an open goal at Match Of The Day.

When it was suggested that trans football pundit Ryan Chelford was too dull for the show, one PR queried: "Too dull for Match Of The Day?"

David Stephenson, The Daily Express, 24th September 2017

It was a genuine delight to hear, once more, the strains of the Animal Magic theme as W1A returned for a third series. One of the joys of watch-again is that, in addition to the more garish tropes to which we're now used - the folding bikes, Monica Dolan's perpetual Welsh whining, Jessica Hynes's PR gorgon - one can find, in almost every 30 seconds, unlooked-for subtleties. David Westhead as Neil Reid, the one-man Greek chorus whose muttered "bollocks" says, in sadly splendid isolation, what we're all thinking, and the more hidden verbal tics from deadpan narrator David Tennant: "the department for culture, media and also for some reason sport"... "assistant of some sort Will Humphries".

Incidentally, did you notice Dolan in Strike, playing the wrongly jailed wife? True skills, to turn from blistering darkness to high comedy over two nights. W1A continues to draw flak, roundly undeserved: too BBC-smug, too London, too hugging of itself, too versed in PR knowingness, too not-Brexit. I revere it as a brave commission, and a gleeful and celebratory use of most of the best comedy actors and improvisers of the last decade, surely a golden age, and long may it continue: at least until a massive backdrop of caustic creator John Morton appears on one of the walls, at which point the BBC can officially be proved to have eaten itself.

Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 24th September 2017

W1A review - the Way Ahead is behind and it's brilliant

The returning mockumentary send-up of the BBC is very funny at times, if a bit smug. Perhaps it should sharpen its daggers and look at Auntie's pay gap...

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 19th September 2017

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