TV: Return Of Rev, Plus New Twenty Twelve Follow-Up W1A

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 120 months ago
TV: Return Of Rev, Plus New Twenty Twelve Follow-Up W1A

The W1A crew.

This is wee-makingly exciting: W1A, the follow-up to Twenty Twelve, and Rev are back on TV screens within the week.

Twenty Twelve was the mockumentary starring Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes that followed the Olympic Delivery Team in the run-up to the London 2012 Games. As well as predicting cock-ups to the extent that we started to think writer John Morton had a time machine (the countdown clock breaking, a coach carrying officials getting lost on the way to the Olympic Park), it spawned a mountain of catchphrases. We really think that.

In W1A, Bonneville's Ian Fletcher takes up his new role as the BBC's Head of Values just as the corporation also hires Hynes's clueless Siobhan Sharpe to inject some PR 'savvy'. David Tennant provides his deadpan narration again (this Independent article includes an example that had more than one of us snickering over our laptops). But what we don't know, and what nobody's saying, is whether Olivia Colman is back after Twenty Twelve's emotional cliffhanger ending...

One place Colman's definitely back is in Rev, filmed around St Leonard's church in Shoreditch. She plays the wife of Tom Hollander's put-upon vicar, in what's possibly the most atheist comedy about religion we've seen. This series adds to the excellent cast (including Miles Jupp on punchable form) with Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, always a sign of quality. We're not sure why Rev's dry wit hasn't found a bigger following, but now's a good chance to see for yourself.

So that's all good.

W1A starts on Wednesday 19 March, 10pm, BBC2. Rev starts on Monday 24 March, 10pm, BBC2.

Last Updated 18 March 2014