BBC greenlights follow-up to Twenty Twelve, W1A sitcoms with Hugh Bonneville

The BBC has greenlit a follow-up sitcom to its Twenty Twelve and W1A series, with Hugh Bonneville set to reprise his role as Ian Fletcher after more than a decade.

Hugh Bonneville

Twenty Twenty Six (6×30′) will see Fletcher head to Miami to become ‘head of integrity’ of a fictional soccer tournament in the Americas.

It comes after Twenty Twelve, a spoof on-location mockumentary, followed the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, in which Bonneville played the head of the fictional Olympic Deliverance Commission.

The sequel, W1A, aired in 2014 and followed Bonneville’s character as he took on a new role as the fictional ‘head of values’ at the BBC.

Writer and director John Morton continues to write and direct, although production has passed from BBC Studios to Expectation for the new series, which will air on BBC One and stream on iPlayer next year. BBC Studios, which has a minority stake in Expectation, handles international distribution.

Morton exec produces with Paul Schlesinger and Expectation’s creative director of scripted Nerys Evans.

Morton said: “I wasn’t sure what Ian Fletcher had been up to recently. The last I heard he was still recovering from a serious Mindfulness Course in Somerset. So, it’s great to hear that he’s made it back and has re-emerged in his natural habitat at the centre of a well-known institution, but now on the world stage and facing his biggest opportunity yet to get things right. I’m thrilled and hugely grateful to the BBC for giving me the chance to follow him again, this time all the way to Miami, and I literally can’t wait to see what happens.”

Jon Petrie, BBC director of comedy, said: “We’ll miss Ian’s invaluable contribution to the BBC as head of values but how could he resist getting the call-up to be a part of one of the most expansive and ambitious sporting events in the world. We wish him, and the team, all the best.”