BBC orders W1A and Twenty Twelve follow-up

Expectation is to take over from BBC Studios to produce the follow-up to the BBC’S hit mockumentaries Twenty Twelve and W1A.

Centred around the fictional organising committee for the football World Cup, BBC1’s 6 x 30-minute Twenty Twenty Six will see Hugh Bonneville reprise his role as fictional BBC exec Ian Fletcher, joining the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team in Miami as director of integrity for the tournament hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.

It comes 15 years after Twenty Twelve aired on BBC4 in 2011, following the imagined Olympic Deliverance team as it prepared for the London 2012 games. The series inspired BBC2 spin-off W1A, which ran for three series and continued to follow the BBC team.

Also in the cast of the new Twenty Twenty Six are Nick Blood (Slow Horses), Chelsey Crisp (Ten Percent), Paulo Costanzo (Designated Survivor), Stephen Kunken (Billions), Jimena Larraguivel (Patience), Alexis Michalik (A Love Story) and Belinda Stewart-Wilson (The Inbetweeners).

The series was ordered by BBC comedy director Jon Petrie with commissioning editor Emma Lawson. The series is written and directed by John Morton, who will exec produce alongside Twenty Twelve and W1A alumnus Paul Schlesinger, and Expectation’s Nerys Evans. The producer is Catherine Gosling Fuller, who also worked on Twenty Twelve.

Evans said: “I’ve been a fan of John’s writing for such a long time, especially seeing the different challenges he creates for poor Ian Fletcher, so beautifully portrayed by Hugh Bonneville.

“We’re thrilled to be collaborating on Twenty Twenty Six, I can’t wait to see what he’s got in store for Ian this time.”

Schlesinger added: “It’s 15 years since Ian Fletcher’s journey started with the run-up to the London Olympics and we are delighted the BBC has given John another chance to capture the universal comedy of people trying to organise something really big in a room, but this time with an outstanding international cast.”

BBC Studios, which has a minority investment stake in Expectation, will handle global sales.