Laughs are on viewers as W1A repeats its celebration of stupidity
There’s no denying the BBC’s self-parody W1A has been good for a laugh or two. For me, if you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all, which fits in neatly with complaints there are too many repeats on the BBC. That’s not much of a compliment, though.
I’m not convinced W1A is that merciless a takedown of the BBC – it feels more like a celebration of stupidity and mismanagement.
Fine if you love the Beeb and everything it stands for. Annoying if you resent the licence fee and feel like the BBC is laughing in your face.
The third series kicked off on BBC2 last night and it was soon business as usual. Fold-up bike gags, pointless meetings and clueless PR girl Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) blustering through yet another presentation.
There were still some neat touches. The giant backdrop of Mary Berry was a lovely two fingers to C4. Rufus Jones’ character David Wilkes (Senior Executive, Primetime Factuality) remains W1A’s funniest – and most believable – character. And David Tennant’s voiceover still leaves me wishing he would do more comedy.
Sadly, the main storyline – a crossdressing footballer axed from Match of the Day for being a rubbish pundit – missed the net by miles. The only laugh was hearing Gary Lineker utter the line “third-placed Arsenal”.
Yeah, right. Is the Beeb covering the Europa League now, Gaz?