TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.

In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Hugh Bonneville and John Morton about W1A, their much-loved satire of the BBC.

They discuss where the idea for W1A came from (there is, you’ll be pleased to hear, a fold-up bike involved).

John reveals which BBC grandee offered his services when it came to researching the show.

Hugh talks about the challenges of playing Ian Fletcher and Downton’s Earl of Grantham, often at the same time (and how it all actually helped W1A to prise a bit more cash out of the BBC!).

And we hear what Ian Fletcher might be doing next.

With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how they went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.

We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.

Original W1A clips written by John Morton

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in June 2020. Show less