Entertainment

W1A team returning to tackle BBC charter renewal

W1A team returning to tackle BBC charter renewal
W1A team returning to tackle BBC charter renewal

BBC comedy W1A will tackle the corporation’s charter renewal when it returns for a third series.

The spoof documentary will see the BBC’s head of values, Ian Fletcher, played by Hugh Bonneville, deal with the broadcaster’s new mission statement of doing “More Of Less”.

In six new episodes, Sarah Parish will return as Anna Rampton, head of output, who describes the new strategy as “putting what we do best front and centre and about identifying better ways of doing less of it more”.

Hugh Bonneville (Ian West/PA)

The show will also see the return of Jessica Hynes as Siobhan Sharpe, Jason Watkins as Simon Harwood, Monica Dolan as Tracey Pritchard, and Nina Sosanya as Lucy Freeman.

Filming starts next month and it will be broadcast on BBC Two later this year.

Shane Allen, controller of comedy commissioning at the BBC, said: “It’s commendable that the team are able to increase the funniness of this series by 20%-25% year on year with just 54% of the original budget.

“This beautifully crafted series provides the answer to the age-old phrase, ‘If these walls could speak’, in our case it turns out they’d talk b*******.”