If the Beeb’s half as bungling as this spoof, it’s in big trouble

The BBC has a problem. It’s in danger of losing the Wimbledon rights to a rival broadcaster. On top of that it’s considered that the tournament is too staid, white and elitist.

enter PR extraordinaire Siobhan Sharpe, who is tasked with the job of making Wimbledon cool and ‘ethnically, not so much white’.

It was just one of the corporation’s dilemmas witnessed in W1A (BBC2), which returned for a new series with an hour-long special. It’s the mockumentary that mercilessly lampoons the Beeb in all its politically correct, management-speak glory.

Just like most of the employees Siobhan (played by the brilliant Jessica hynes) communicates in meaningless, corporate parlance. ‘Yah. Totally. epic,’ is her favourite soundbite. her solution to the Wimbledon issue was to ‘mash it up and pimp it’ by calling it Win-bledon, getting people like Alan Sugar and David Attenborough to act as umpires while members of the crowd chant and wave giant foam fingers.

Meanwhile hapless entertainment Format executive David Wilkes is desperate to come up with a new family-viewing show following the spectacular failure of Britain’s Top Village.

his suggestion is heavy Petting, a reality show were celebrities swap pets. Alternatively there’s Britain’s Top Family, where a family of toffs and a family of chavs fight it out to decide who is better.

‘That’s what ITV is for,’ snapped Anna Rampton, the steely, charm- less head of Output. She had a point. I bet I wasn’t the only person imagining ITV executives watching last night, pen and paper in hand, furiously scribbling notes.

Jeremy Clarkson’s endless gaffes must be manna from heaven for writer and director John Morton. Last night head of Values Ian Fletcher (hugh Bonneville) was investigating the number of times Clarkson (whose name was bleeped out) said the word ‘t*****’ following viewer’s complaints.

Posh, clueless intern Will had to sit through four years’ worth of Top Gear counting the number of times the word was uttered — and, naturally, he messed that up as well.

Amid all that, the BBC was preparing for a visit from Prince Charles to congratulate them on becoming the first ‘zero energy broadcaster’.

The BBC’s bungling head of Security, who bragged about his ‘foolproof zonal lock-down system’, was as competent as Mr Bean, while producer Lucy Freeman was chosen to greet hRh for no other reason than the fact she was non-white.

Last night’s opener was witty, wordy and frantic with David Tennant’s voiceover hitting the mark perfectly. At times it felt like too much was being crammed in, leaving the viewer almost breathless by the end.

You have to credit the BBC for allowing its operation to be ripped apart so savagely. everybody had a daft title, nobody knew what they were doing and all were too afraid to do their job for fear of upsetting somebody else.

If the bumbling buffoons of W1A are even halfway accurate then it’s little wonder all the political parties are promising to either reduce or freeze the licence fee!

Immediately afterwards came the penultimate episode of Inside

No 9 (BBC2) providing a muchneeded change of pace.

With each show being a standalone story, the series has been hit and miss. Last night’s, Nana’s Party, showed a family unravelling as secrets were revealed at a birthday bash for an elderly relative.

Angela and Jim were a typical middle-aged suburban couple. Angela (played by Claire Skinner — best known as the mum in Outnumbered) kept an immaculate home and spoke with an affected posh accent. Jim spent the majority of his time locked in his shed.

Only when Angela’s brassy, alcoholic sister Carol turned up with her practical joker husband Pat did the secrets start to spill.

The party turned to farce with flatulent Nana choking on ice cubes and a strippergram arriving as drunken Carol blurted out the revelation of her affair with Jim.

Anybody used to the work of the show’s writers and stars, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, will know their comedy always comes with a side order of pathos and weirdness. It doesn’t always work but last night it mostly did.