{"id":568097,"date":"2026-03-27T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568097\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:56:08","slug":"the-most-painful-tv-experience-ive-ever-had-hugh-bonneville-on-his-excruciating-office-comedy-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568097\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The most painful TV experience I\u2019ve ever had!\u2019 Hugh Bonneville on his excruciating office comedy | Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Hugh Bonneville<\/a> was first asked to reprise the role of Ian Fletcher \u2013 protagonist of John Morton\u2019s Bafta-winning workplace satires Twenty Twelve and W1A \u2013 his feelings were mixed. \u201cI was on the one hand absolutely delighted,\u201d says the actor, now most famous for playing dignified patriarchs in Downton Abbey and Paddington. \u201cOn the other hand, I was terrified because it\u2019s the most painful and horrible experience I\u2019ve ever had on television.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Twenty Twelve<\/a>, Fletcher flexed his managerial muscles as \u201cHead of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission,\u201d guiding his team through the chaotic run-up to the 2012 London Games. In W1A<\/a>, he landed a job as \u201cHead of Values\u201d at the BBC, where he waded through a series of absurd disasters. Nine years on, a weary Fletcher is back in back-to-back meetings as the \u201cDirector of Integrity\u201d of a nameless international football organisation hosting a nameless international football tournament (its blindingly obvious real-world basis is never identified due to \u201can overabundance of caution on the production\u2019s part,\u201d says Morton).<\/p>\n

Fletcher may be in a high-pressure position, but sitting at a boardroom table gazing at PowerPoints doesn\u2019t sound like a particularly agonising acting experience. What made Twenty Twelve and W1A stand out in a sea of post-Office mockumentaries, however, was its meticulously constructed naturalism; an intricate tapestry of stammered half-sentences. For the viewer, it was a satisfying send-up of British awkwardness. For the cast, it was a nightmare to memorise; the scripts are twice as long as your average 30-minute sitcom. \u201cIt\u2019s the most impossible thing to learn because sometimes the sentences don\u2019t make sense, [yet] the difference between \u2018yes well but\u2019 and \u2018but well yes\u2019 is profound,\u201d says Bonneville. \u201cI am constantly the one who runs into the buffers when everybody else is brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Different ball game \u2026 Bonneville (centre) with Hugh Skinner as Will Humphries, Nicole Sadie Sawyerr as Emily Fang, Alexis Michalik as Eric Van Dupuytrens, Stephen Kunken as Owen Mitchell, Paulo Costanzo as Nick Castellano, Nick Blood as Phil Plank,Chelsey Crisp as Sarah Campbell and Jimena Larraguivel as Gabriela De La Rosa in Twenty Twenty Six. Photograph: BBC<\/p>\n

On the set of Twenty Twenty Six last summer, I didn\u2019t see much evidence of that. It\u2019s mid-August, and filming is taking place in a school in Wembley, which has been draped in purple fabric and trussed up with tacky gold palm tree lamps and huge bunches of fake flowers in a bid to pass as a Miami arts centre. That\u2019s right: Fletcher, bastion of British politeness and prevarication, has been parachuted into the heart of American corporate culture. And he\u2019s not alone. By some twist of fate, he has been reunited with Will Humphries (Hugh Skinner), his hapless intern from the BBC days, whose excruciating social uncertainty remains unrivalled.<\/p>\n

When the partner of Twenty Twenty Six\u2019s producer suggested that Will \u2013 a W1A fan favourite \u2013 should return, Morton thought it was a \u201cfunny joke. About a week later I found myself thinking, yeah, I could just about believe that he\u2019s washed up somehow in Miami.\u201d Bonneville was delighted to reprise the double act. \u201cI\u2019m now describing Will as the Paddington of the office world \u2013 he means well, but he\u2019s going to bump into everything and set the photocopier on fire. You want to look after him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m equally delighted to discover that Skinner \u2013 whose conversation is a stop-start blizzard of self-effacement (\u201cI sound like a knob, sorry!\u201d, he exclaims, after comparing delivering Morton\u2019s dialogue to \u201ca sport\u201d) \u2013 isn\u2019t a million miles from his character. \u201cThe line\u2019s blurring, isn\u2019t it?\u201d he says after starting to talk about his own experience on set in response to a question about Will\u2019s struggle to adjust to Miami life (when I mention Will\u2019s inability to complete a sentence, Skinner cuts in: \u201cwho are we talking about now?!\u201d). To be fair, the actor is used to the general public mistaking him for his character: when W1A was on the air, he found people tended to \u201clook at me and laugh in a sympathetic way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alongside his spectacularly incompetent assistant, Fletcher has a couple of other European colleagues: Warrington\u2019s Phil Plank, an ex-footballer who speaks like he\u2019s in a perpetual post-match press conference, and mysterious Belgian Eric Van Dupuytrens, the nameless international football organisation\u2019s chief coordinating attach\u00e9, who communicates in Eric Cantona-style koans. Then there are the host nation representatives: two Americans \u2013 earnestly idealistic head of sustainability and climate strategy Sarah Campbell and no-bullshit New York lawyer Nick Castellano \u2013 plus feisty Mexican \u201cVP Optics and Narrative\u201d Gabriela De La Rosa and gentle Canadian logistics guy Owen Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Crisis managers \u2026 Bonneville with Hugh Skinner as Will Humphries in W1A. Photograph: Jack Barnes\/BBC<\/p>\n

If Twenty Twelve and W1A were studies in unspoken British social etiquette, Twenty Twenty Six is more of a culture clash comedy. Fletcher has \u201calways been a captain of a ship of fools but in this case he\u2019s a captain of a ship of very forthright, direct and energetic fools,\u201d says Morton. \u201cWe\u2019re used to seeing him in meetings where nobody\u2019s saying what they actually mean and he\u2019s good at navigating that. He\u2019s suddenly dropped into a world where people say exactly what they mean \u2026 again and again.\u201d According to Bonneville, Fletcher maintains \u201chis very British approach of trying to be a mediator, trying to keep calm, trying to be cooperative.\u201d Eventually, though, he does end up borrowing \u201ca bit of that American boosterism,\u201d says Morton.<\/p>\n

Morton had been keen to resurrect Fletcher for a while, and the upcoming World C** (as per David Tennant\u2019s very amusing and heavily censored narration) felt like a \u201cpotentially fertile\u201d backdrop due to its unwieldy scale; held across 16 cities, it\u2019s the biggest to date. \u201cAs a writer, you think: hmm, that smells like things could go wrong.\u201d That said, Morton maintains Twenty Twenty Six is not about football at all. Like W1A and Twenty Twelve, \u201cit\u2019s about trying to organise something \u2013 it could be the village fete, it could be an EU summit.\u201d For Bonneville, the joy of Fletcher-based shows is in the workplace theme: \u201cthe big ideas probably won\u2019t be executed properly \u2013 certainly not by Thursday \u2013 and the maneuvering of office furniture and who\u2019s allowed access to which biscuit tin. All these background details make it delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s no getting away from the fact that even as a backdrop for comedy, the World Cup carries a lot of baggage. 2022\u2019s Qatar tournament was steeped in controversy due to concerns over humans rights abuses, while on the morning I speak to Morton and the cast, Iran\u2019s participation is in doubt after Trump warned \u201cthe life and safety\u201d of their players could be at risk on US soil. Morton says there is \u201ca show to be written about\u201d these issues, but \u201cthis is not it. I can\u2019t write it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a bear \u2026 Bonneville as Mr Brown in Paddington.
Photograph: Studiocanal\/Allstar<\/p>\n

Which is not to say the show shies away from uncomfortable topics. Bonneville thinks \u201cdark is probably a bit of a strong word\u201d for Twenty Twenty Six. \u201cI\u2019d say shaded.\u201d There are references to Trump, plus much discussion about the environment, including carbon-offsetting and safe temperatures in stadiums. Chelsey Crisp, who plays Campbell, even interviewed her real-life equivalent from the 2023 women\u2019s World Cup to get a grip on the agenda. Then there is the small matter of what happened to Fletcher\u2019s predecessor, who fell off a roof terrace with inordinately high safety barriers, presumably to his death.<\/p>\n

There are also far more light-hearted angles. Whereas W1A and Twenty Twelve had Jessica Hynes\u2019s delusional PR maven Siobhan Sharpe, now the baton for massaging public perception has been passed to the social media team, a group of puppyish Gen Zs headed up by Madison, whose mindset is \u201cany press is good press,\u201d says Erin Kellyman who plays her (good press in episode one includes Mr Beast liking a post about faeces).<\/p>\n

Back on set, I watch a scene in which Bonneville\u2019s Fletcher is surprised to see Will sporting pink hair for reasons tangentially connected to Megan Rapinoe. The action is taking place on a stairwell in front of a large window with a view of Wembley Stadium, which will later be replaced by a picture of Miami (something the producers I\u2019m sitting with quickly realise will be a lot more difficult with all the extras walking past; they are swiftly dispensed with).<\/p>\n

With such a famous landmark in the eyeline, it\u2019s a struggle to buy into the Florida setting \u2013 yet the cast agree they didn\u2019t have to suspend their disbelief too much during the London-based shoot. \u201cIt was excruciatingly hot,\u201d says Kellyman. \u201cIt really felt like we were in Miami.\u201d There was one typically miserable difference about filming in the UK, though. Bonneville describes the heat as \u201cunbearable. The irony being had we filmed it in Miami, it would have been air-conditioned,\u201d he sighs. \u201cBut that\u2019s the British way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty Twenty Six is on BBC Two on 8 April at 10pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Hugh Bonneville was first asked to reprise the role of Ian Fletcher \u2013 protagonist of John Morton\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-568097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}