Line #18 Series/W1A


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/w1a.jpg]]
2
3	The sequel to ''Series/TwentyTwelve''. Following his success as head of the Olympic Deliverance Committee, Ian Fletcher (Creator/HughBonneville) is appointed the new Head of Values at Creator/TheBBC and has to deal with a new group of crazies at his new job. The series also features Jessica Hynes, Sarah Parish, Monica Dolan, Jason Watkins, Nina Sosanya, Creator/HughSkinner, and Creator/JonathanBailey.
4
5	!!Tropes in [=W1A=]:
6
7	* AchievementsInIgnorance: Will gets to stay at the BBC as Ian's temporary assistant after accidentally revealing that his sister's boyfriend is tennis star Jo Wilfried Tsonga, whom the corporation is after for Wimbledon commentary. Will had absolutely no idea who Tsonga was until everyone else spelled it out for him.
8	** Will also somehow manages to swap desktops through the BBC's Syncopatico system with coworkers. Apparently the Syncopatico instructor had thought such an event to be theoretically impossible because it's not a feature built into the software.
9	* [[AsHimself As Themselves]]: Carol Vorderman and Clare Balding.
10	* AwesomeButImpractical: The BBC's Synctopatico software, that networks all the corporation's employees and controls the building's security system, is prone to going on the fritz at inopportune moments. Like when Prince Charles comes for a visit.
11	* BitingTheHandHumor: It's a BBC sitcom poking fun at the BBC.
12	** Tony Hall, the BBC's real-life Director General at the time the show was made, is depicted as an eccentric who nonetheless terrifies the staff without ever being shown on screen.
13	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Done and lampshaded by Ian Fletcher: "At the risk of sounding like Tracy Pritchard, I've got a bad feeling about this."
14	* CallBack: Many to ''Series/TwentyTwelve'', inevitably.
15	* {{Catchphrase}}: Aside from Ian' and Siobhan's returning [[VerbalTic verbal tics]], there's:
16	** Simon Harwood: "Brilliant."
17	** Tracy Pritchard: "I'm not being funny or anything...", "I've got a bad feeling about this"
18	** Anna Rampton: "The fact is...", "Yes, exactly", "I don't want this."
19	** David Wilkes: "Well yes no."
20	** Will Humphries: "Oh yeah no yeah cool totally yeah cool. No worries. [[OverlyLongGag Yeah, no, cool]]. [[DelayedReaction Yeah, crap, okay."]]
21	* DeadpanSnarker: Creator/DavidTennant, as the narrator, gets in his fair share of jabs all while speaking in the most soothing tone imaginable.
22	* TheDitz: Oh, poor sweet, adorable Will. He really does want to help, it's just that he's completely hopeless at everything. He had no idea that his internship at the BBC was over and simply kept coming to work.
23	* DoingItForTheArt: In universe, David Wilkes' plan to get rid of Amanda Holden from ''Cycling Shorts'' by offering her a derisory fee, backfires when it turns out she's so keen to front the show that she agrees to do it for free.
24	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Siobhan Sharpe, who is even worse here than in ''Twenty Twelve''. Hired on the (completely incorrect) assumption that because she and Ian both worked on the Olympics, they must be a really great team, she spends the entire series obliviously undermining Fletcher's work, while her [[{{Hipster}} Perfect Curve]] colleagues develop a new BBC logo that nobody asked for, and that accidentally turns out to be [[spoiler:the Star of David]].
25	* {{Hipster}}s: PR company Perfect Curve and its ''Nathan Barley''-esque staff are a fairly vicious parody of the type.
26	* InsistentTerminology:
27	** "Generic Head of Comedy and/or Drama Matt Taverner"
28	** "The Department of Culture, Media, and also Sport"
29	* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: Many characters, particularly Siobhan and her PR people, speak almost entirely in buzzwords.
30	* McGuffin: The tribulations of casting presenters for ''Britain's Tastiest Village'' generate a lot of the plotlines for the first series.
31	* NarratingTheObvious: The narrator has a tendency to explain things that don't require explanation.
32	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Ian has difficulty doing his job because those in power simply don't want to make any dramatic changes to the BBC.
33	* OfficeRomance: The series resolves the ambiguous ending to Ian and Sally's storyline from ''Twenty Twelve'' and introduces a new romance between [[spoiler:Ian Fletcher and Lucy Freeman]].
34	* TheReliableOne: Izzy Gould is certainly this in the first series when she is Simon Harwood's [=PA=], though after she is promoted to Junior Development Producer she becomes a small fish in a big pond, and while undoubtedly more capable than those around her, has less opportunity to show it. Her role then becomes more that of the TokenGoodTeammate.
35	* SceneryPorn: Makes full use of the BBC's recently-opened New Broadcasting House, particularly in the gorgeously-shot timelapse sequences that punctuate the show.
36	* ShapedLikeItself: The Narrator often speaks in this manner.
37	* SmallNameBigEgo: The BBC is filled with people like this, trying to wring as much leverage out of their positions as possible even though it's abundantly clear that they have very limited scopes of responsibility.
38	* SoundEffectBleep: used to prevent the audience from learning Ian Fletcher's salary. It's funnier when the FridgeLogic kicks in and you realise that this would have been completely useless in-universe as the ''whole point'' of the storyline was that his salary was already public knowledge.
39	* ThatCameOutWrong: Sadiq the weatherman in episode 2.4 has a rather unfortunate description of a cloud, which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Tracey: "[[CatchPhrase I'm not being funny or anything]], but did he actually just say the cloud was going to be blowing itself off?"
40	* ThoseTwoGuys: Who are those two guys who always turn up to meetings and [[TheVoiceless say nothing]]? [[AllThereInTheManual According to the show's publicity material]], they are "digital strategists" [[StealthPun Ben]] [[ShoutOutToShakespeare Rosenstern]] and [[StealthPun Jerry]] [[ShoutOutToShakespeare Guildernkrantz]]. In the second series they do speak, a little (but pretty much just echo other people) and in the third they get a storyline, of a kind - they're both sacked.
41	* ThrowTheDogABone: Ian Fletcher has a pretty rough time throughout the first series, but does at least get (albeit accidentally) [[ShipperOnDeck shipped]] with [[spoiler:drama producer Lucy]], who for once actually looks like a good match for him.
42	* TokenGoodTeammate:
43	** Lucy Freeman is given a place on the Way Ahead committee mainly because Ian Fletcher regards her as this.
44	** Izzy Gould increasingly becomes this, particularly in the third series when she goes out of her way to protect Will, even putting her own job on the line rather than dropping him in it over the Hugh Grant incident.
45	* TheUnseen: BBC Director General Tony Hall (the RealLife holder of that position at the time ''[=W1A=]'' was made) serves as an omnipresent force on the program, with every character basing their decisions on how he'd react. The closest viewers ever get to see him, however, is his office door. He does turn up in the final episode, but doesn't speak or interact with any of the main characters at all.
46	In the Series 2 premiere, Jeremy 's name has to be bleeped out and his face (in archival footage) blurred because he is the subject of an (in universe) internal BBC investigation over his use of offensive language. ([[HilariousInHindsight The episode was shot before]] **'s real-life "fracas" with a producer on ''Series/TopGear''.)

Context Series / W1A