Bonneville's Ian Fletcher is back

The BBC is to make a follow-up to acclaimed Olympic sitcom Twenty Twelve – set in its own upper management.

In the new series, to be called W1A, Hugh Bonneville’s character, Ian Fletcher, will take on a new job as head of values at the Corporation.

Four half-hour episodes are to be made in-house at the BBC to air next year. It will focus on the efforts to define the broadcaster’s role as its charter is up for renewal in 2016.

Although fictional, the show may have echoes of reality. Twenty Twelve featured plots involving a malfunctioning Olympic countdown clock and dignitaries stuck in traffic, both of which later hit the real Games.

Writer and director John Morton said: 'It isn’t a demolition job on anybody or anything, and it isn’t one giant in-joke, and this isn’t a game of guessing who is supposed to be who.

'If it is satirical then it’s satirical about an environment, an ethos, and the absurdities of modern corporate life itself. The key principle is to operate at a level of reality just to the left or the right of fact, to create stories that haven’t actually happened but that could happen or might have happened.'

The show is also set to bring back Jessica Hynes’s hapless PR guru Siobhan Sharpe, although it is not clear what her role would be,

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow added: 'Twenty Twelve was one of BBC Two’s stand out comedy hits last year and I’m absolutely thrilled that John Morton and the fantastic off-screen team are coming together again as well as some of our most loved characters from the first series.'

Before Twenty Twelve aired, the BBC faced criticism that it plagiarised Australian comedy series The Games, about the build-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, although the corporation denied the claims. 

Published: 5 Dec 2013