20 March 2014, The Tablet

Westenders


Television

 
Imagine what Jonathan Swift, or Lindsay Anderson, or even Armando Ianucci would have made of the BBC’s recent turmoils. W1A (19 March), set in New Broadcasting House, is satire – but not that sort of satire.W1A is a kind of sequel to Twenty Twelve, the well-received sitcom about the run-up to the London Olympics. It shares a couple of characters with that show, and a production style: mock-documentary, with a David Tennant commentary that provides a lot of the laughs. The target for the satire is not the BBC as such, more the absurdities of modern business language and attitudes. But it does tease the corporation about its hypocrisies and alludes, very gently, to its recent troubles.The principal character, Ian Fletcher, “Head of Deliverance” for the Olympics in Tw
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