Bbc spoofs itself in w1a: brave satire or sheer self-indulgence?

WHEN _Twenty Twelve_, John Morton’s excellent sitcom set in the “Olympic Deliverance Committee”, was curtailed by the start of the London Games themselves, the race was on to find a new home

for his memorable cast of characters.The result is _W1A_, in which Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), fresh from his Olympic triumph, has been hired as the BBC’s new Head of Values. Depending

on who you believe, it’s a mark of the corporation’s bravery, complacency or sheer self-indulgence that it is willing to spend a whole series mocking the absurdities of its own inner

workings. In fact, the ease with which the programme has relocated from the Olympic Park to New Broadcasting House suggests the target of its humour is less a specific institution than the

general corporate malaise presumed to exist in the upper echelons of most large organisations. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis

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delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. _W1A_ is therefore no more

anti-BBC than _Twenty Twelve_ was anti-Olympics - and that series ended with a toast to the people behind the 2012 Games. It was more farce than satire, but no less entertaining as a result.

Its successor treads a similar line, mocking the platitudes of modern professional life while sympathising with those who must talk the dispiriting talk. If you treat last night's

debut as the first episode of a new sitcom rather than the third series of an established comedy, then _W1A_ shows a great deal of promise. Bonneville’s character moves seamlessly into this

new non-job, his air of suppressed bewilderment growing from the moment he steps into his first Daily Senior Team Damage Limitation Meeting. In seeking to carve out a meaningful role, or

indeed any kind of role, he agrees to meet a one-man protest group campaigning against the BBC’s neglect of Cornish issues. The meeting does not go well. As in _Twenty Twelve_, the deadpan

commentary is artfully constructed. “If Ian’s job is to make the protester feel that he’s being listened to,” it says, “the first challenge is to find somewhere in the building where fewer

people can hear him.” _W1A_ doesn’t yet have the perfect pitch and pace of its predecessor, but the momentum is gathering. By the end of episode one, Ian Fletcher has been joined by his

nemesis Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes), the Olympic PR guru and scourge of the English language. His expression of repressed horror when she walks through the door bodes well for episode

two. _'W1A', BBC2, Wednesdays, 10pm; __Holden Frith tweets at @holdenfrith_