Art imitates life as Hugh Bonneville joins the BBC in 'W1A'
Just when Ian Fletcher thought it was safe to go back into the water….
Given the BBC’s announcement this week that BBC Three would be shut down in a cost savings measure with the content to be housed solely online beginning in 2015, the new BBC Two comedy, W1A, may just be the perfect example of art imitating life. There have also been rumblings that BBC Four will suffer the same fate but nothing definitive so far….
With the London Games of Twenty Twelve successfully delivered, W1A follows former Head of the Olympic Deliverance Commission, Ian Fletcher (Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville), as he starts a new chapter of his life as Head of Values at the BBC, a key and very specific new senior post, which has been created in the light of recent learning opportunities at the Corporation.
Ian’s task as Head of Values is to clarify, define, or re-define the core purpose of the BBC across all its functions and to position it confidently for the future. Upon arrival, Ian feels that there is something very exciting about the BBC and that he is now at the center of something genuinely important. The really exciting thing is to think that part of his job is to try to establish where that center is and also exactly what it is in the center of.
However, Ian will not be alone, as he is joined by a number of other BBC colleagues who are also already there and will ultimately join him on the journey towards License Fee Renegotiation and Charter Renewal.
Hugh Bonneville plays Ian Fletcher, Jessica Hynes (Spaced) plays Siobhan Sharpe, Brand BBC Consultant, Sarah Parish plays Anna Rampton, Head of Output, Jason Watkins plays Simon Harwood, Monica Dolan plays Tracey Pritchard, David Westhead plays Neil Reid, Nina Sosanya plays Lucy Freeman, Rufus Jones plays David Wilkes, Hugh Skinner plays Will Humphries, Ophelia Lovibond plays Izzy Gould, Jonathan Bailey plays Jack Patterson, and Max Olesker and Iván Gonzalez play Ben Rosenstern and Jerry Guildencrantz.
One can only hope that Siobhan develops a countdown clock which will count backwards to something. That would be sensational..and cool.
