Jessica Hynes's hapless publicist Siobhan may also return

Hugh Bonneville is set to revive his W1A character Ian Fletcher in a new comedy set in football’s governing body.

Writer John Morton is working on a new sitcom, set within Fifa, which may also feature hapless publicist Siobhan Sharpe, as played by Jessica Hynes.

Morton first created both characters for Twenty Twelve, which took a fictional look behind the scenes of London’s Olympic organisers.

News that he is working on a third comedy with them was broken by  Sarah Parish who played Anna Rampton, the BBC’s fearsome ‘director of better' on W1A

She told Gaby Roslin on her podcast: ‘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 probably Siobhan could go with him because wherever Ian goes, Siobhan goes as well and does all his PR, really badly.  So  I’m hoping those two characters will have a rebirth into a new series.

'You could put put them anywhere. You put them in the NHS. You can put them anywhere, really.'

Speaking about W1A, Parish, above, added: ’all of our interiors were filmed at the BBC, and I think most of the employees 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 picking out the subtleties of the horror of working in an institution that big, but he did it brilliantly. It was a joyful thing to be in.’

Parish said it was very unlikely she should be in the new series as Rampton, has ‘gone off to America’ or is working for Sky.

W1A ran for three series from 2014 to 217 and also starred Jason Watkins, Monica Dolan and Hugh Skinner, with David Tennant reviving his narrator’s role from Twenty Twelve.

Morton first came to prominence as the creator of People Like Us, which starred Chris Langham as bungling filmmaker Roy Mallard.  

Published: 8 May 2024