![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/47bd4366e835e2c914663d6995e7bc31b070251d.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
June 10, 2026 \u2014 11:00am<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Twenty Twenty Six \u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n Fans of British comedy won\u2019t need an introduction to Ian Fletcher. He first appeared in the mockumentary series Twenty Twelve <\/a>as the \u201chead of deliverance\u201d at the London Olympics, a fancy title for fixer of PR and logistical nightmares. The character returned years later in the fabulous W1A<\/a>, where Fletcher was \u201chead of values\u201d at the BBC. The show gleefully mocked the broadcaster and bureaucratic meddling with scenarios that mirrored real-world people and events.<\/p>\n Fletcher, as played by Hugh Bonneville, is an urbane though colourless public service manager who has somehow floated to the top. A result, perhaps, of his decent nature, his patience for fools and sincere belief in management slogans. Surrounding him was an ensemble of sharply drawn idiosyncratic characters, whose interactions were often as uncomfortable as they were sidesplitting funny.<\/p>\n Fletcher is the creation of writer John Morton, whose career took off with the pioneering though now forgotten mockumentary People Like Us. His brand of comedy might lean towards smugness, but the parody of everyday mediocrity embedded in the \u201cmanagerial class\u201d is immediately familiar to anyone who has interacted with, let alone worked in, a bureaucracy.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick This new six-part series puts Fletcher in Miami \u2013 \u201csomewhere in Florida\u201d as the sardonic voiceover narration (once again by David Tennant<\/a>) helpfully informs us \u2013 as director of integrity for \u201cthe biggest sporting event the world has ever seen\u201d. One of several running gags is that references to the 2026 World Cup, FIFA, its president and shadowy regulations are bleeped for legal reasons.<\/p>\n So instead of eccentric Brits, we get hot-headed Mexican Gabriella (VP of optics and narrative), a short-fused New York lawyer running business affairs, a Teflon-coated attach\u00e9 from Belgium who is back-channelling intel to FIFA, an earnest American running sustainability who has a serious crush on Fletcher, a Canadian logistics expert who doesn\u2019t have a position on anything, and a gaggle of clownish Gen Z-ers running social media. Catnip for the fans, Fletcher\u2019s inept intern in W1A Will Humphries (Hugh Skinner) also returns as baffled and clueless as ever.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a running list of disasters for the oversight team to deal with, from an official football with an embedded chip that has conspiracy theorists in overdrive, to a US president named Trump, to gaffes about condoms for players.<\/p>\n Fourteen years on from Twenty Twelve, the seams in the concept are beginning to strain. Some unsubtle race and age stereotypes in Twenty Twenty Six are more likely to elicit a sharp intake of breath than laughs, and the fly-on-the-wall technique that was once innovative and fresh has now become a standard fixture of workplace comedies and sitcoms everywhere. The earlier shows made hay by casting well-known actors into roles where they played against type; here the cast is mostly unknown and unable to milk that comedic vein.<\/p>\n But Bonneville\u2019s depiction of Fletcher remains as fresh and endearing as ever. That he pulls it off with a straight face is masterful. Like Rob Sitch\u2019s put-upon bureaucrat Tony in Utopia<\/a>, he is a glass-half-full idealist thwarted by bureaucratic red-tape, group-think and political compromise. And that\u2019s the point these shows make: that regardless of the privilege, wealth and influence these events and institutions wield, they\u2019re not immune to the foibles, whims and imperfections of the people who run them.<\/p>\n Twenty Twenty Six airs Wednesdays at 9.25pm on ABC and ABC iview. <\/p>\n Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.Newsletter: Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/a>.Best TV of the year (so far): From The Pitt to Widow\u2019s Bay, and ABC comedy Dog Park, these are the shows that have caught our critics\u2019 attention<\/a>.Adults only: Sex work is all over TV right now<\/a>. Which shows are telling the real story?Nick Mohammed: The British comedian has been drafted by SBS for the World Cup. But all we want to know is whether he\u2019ll be back in Ted Lasso<\/a>.Ground Up review: This new ABC comedy about forming an AFL team in Tasmania misses the mark<\/a>.Video: Deputy TV editor Meg Watson on the TV shows she recommends watching right now (below).Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/948a55107026b11962f236aefb7399a03ec339b9.jpeg\")
From the creator of Twenty Twelve, Twenty Twenty Six is a new comedy possibly based on the FIFA World Cup.ABC<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781065514_768_2491414a9774735d5a7560f8957307617ab887742f6d8426e314e653beaa36ad.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Hugh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a254b682a2b4a909158ea7d752d56f9d1a880aec.jpeg\")
Hugh Skinner returns as Will Humphries in Twenty Twenty Six. ABC<\/p>\n