W1A characters set to return in FIFA spin-off
- Hugh Bonneville is set to reprise his character Ian Fletcher for a W1A spin-off set around football outfit FIFA
- The news was revealed by Sarah Parish, who played Anna Rampton in W1A, on Gaby Roslin's podcast
Hugh Bonneville is reportedly returning to his character Ian Fletcher for a spin-off of W1A set around football governing body FIFA.
Sarah Parish, who played Anna Rampton in the BBC Two comedy said on That Gaby Roslin Podcast: "[They are] putting Ian Fletcher now into FIFA. It's being written, I think. Maybe I'm talking out of turn, I don't know.
"So Ian Fletcher will continue. And I thought, 'oh God, probably Siobhan [Jessica Hynes' character Siobhan Sharpe] could probably go with him, because wherever Ian goes, Siobhan goes as well, to do his PR really badly'.
"So I'm hoping those two characters will have another rebirth into a new series because it'd be great. You can put them anywhere, in the NHS, anywhere really"
However, Parish added: "I won't be in it", noting that her character wouldn't fit that world, speculating that since the show Rampton has "gone off to America, working for Sky".
Written by John Morton, Ian Fletcher and Siobhan Sharpe first appeared in 2011 series Twenty Twelve, which focused on the team organising the London Olympics.
W1A, set around the management of the BBC, followed in 2014, running for 14 episodes up to 2017. The cast returned for a lockdown special recorded on Zoom in 2020. Several of the characters were seen again in March, for a Comic Relief sketch:
The FIFA World Cup is due to return in June 2026, hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico and the United States.
In the podcast interview, Parish - reflecting on W1A - noted that BBC staff didn't find the programme amusing, as it was too close to the truth. "I think most of the employees of the BBC thought we were making a documentary. They didn't find it remotely funny because we were basically just living their everyday life.
"John Morton, the writer, is so brilliant and so fabulous at being able to pick out the subtleties of the horror of working in an institution that big and he did it brilliantly, I think. It was a joyful thing to be in."