Hugh Bonneville’s bumbling and bemused Ian Fletcher is back. But this time, he’s blundering his way through corporate crises across the pond to oversee the planning of the FIFA World Cup.
Ian has quite the CV. In Twenty Twelve, a mockumentary about a fictional committee tasked with planning the 2012 Olympic Games, he was Head of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission. Its sequel, W1A, saw him become the BBC’s Head of Values. Now, nearly a decade later, Ian has embarked on a new chapter in Miami as Director of Integrity for the 2026 football tournament, which David Tennant’s narrator tells us is “a key post”.
Fans of the first two series can expect more of the same as Ian is faced with another ragtag bunch of quirky characters with nonsense job titles. But this time, his employees are far more direct, and unlike in W1A, not every idea is “brilliant”.
© BBC/Expectation Entertainment/Jack BarnesThere’s the “mostly Belgian” co-ordinating attache Eric van Dupuytrens (Alexis Michalik), who communicates in philosophical musings; the aptly named Phil Plank, an English former footballer; uber-enthusiastic American-born vice president of sustainability and climate strategy Sarah Campbell; straight-talking New Yorker and head of legal Nick Castellano; headstrong Mexican VP of Optics and Narrative Gabriela De La Rosa; and the group’s grounding force, Canadian logistics VP Owen Mitchell.
© BBC/Expectation Entertainment/Jack BarnesIn his new role, Ian’s first challenge is to lead the oversight team towards a decision on which American, Canadian or Mexican city should host the World Cup semi-finals. But the announcement is eclipsed by the work of the mildly irritating Gen-Z social media team, whose new sustainability campaign based around human waste, The Power of Poop, goes viral on social media.
Like its predecessors, Twenty Twenty Six cleverly mocks modern management-speak with rhythmic pepperings of corporate jargon. Words like “absolutely,” “exactly” and “100 per cent” are repeated meaninglessly, and the characters often engage in “yes, no” table tennis. While amusing, these distinctly British conversational quirks don’t quite have the same effect when spoken with an American accent.
© BBC/Expectation Entertainment/Jack BarnesThere’s also the welcome return of Ian’s incompetent assistant Will Humphries (Hugh Skinner), who seems just as baffled as Ian by his arrival in Miami, having secured the job due to his parents’ connection with Eric (“I think it’s something to do with horses”). Once again, Will is by far the funniest character in the show, even if most of his lines are variations of “cool”, “yeah” and “crap”.
© BBC/Expectation/Jack BarnesThe previous two seasons are a masterclass in observing British awkwardness and social etiquette, which is perhaps why Hugh Bonneville and Hugh Skinner remain the stand-out stars in Twenty Twenty Six.
If you loved Twenty Twelve and W1A, then you can expect more of the same from this comedy treat.
This review was first published in HELLO!’s What to Watch newsletter. Subscribe here to read our reviews early.
Twenty Twenty Six is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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