Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: W1A: Series 3, Episode 6 (2017)

*Spoilers from episode 5*

This is the last episode of W1A, although there’s also a short special from 2020 that David Tennant narrated. So I’ve got a bit more for the show with Other Doctor Lives, but this is the end for Joel Fry-days.

The Less is More Initiative strikes again: it’s just come out that Head of Values, Head of Output, and Director of Better and being rolled into one new position. Matt has already cut his losses, so now Ian and Anna are left to decide whether they want to apply for it. To Izzy’s surprise, she learns that Will managed to pull out a last-minute save for the Hugh Grant fiasco. Everything comes to a head, where else? At the BBC Me launch.

Our last character of the week is Fiona Craig, played by Pooky Quesnel. She’s the civil servant who’s been working with the BBC on the contract negotiations. Fiona doesn’t have a very big role in the finale, but she’s at the BBC Me launch with everybody else.

I won’t get into spoilers, but there’s a little of everything quintessentially W1A here. Ian trying to pin things down in a meeting where no one wants to commit to anything. David not realizing he’s just thrown a huge wrench into things and Siobhan offering a very bad idea as a “fix.” Mostly unspoken love triangle stuff between Ian, Anna, and Lucy. A major crisis at a key movement that Ian has to step in and smooth over.

I like how things shake out with Will, Izzy, and Jack. Often, Will’s wins have been completely by accident, but this time, he sets out with a specific plan and it actually pays off. We also get a good full-circle moment for On Your Bike that’s nice to see.

Here’s what we’ve got for David Tennant’s narration today:

• This is how Tennant introduces David making everything worse at the eleventh hour  – “Even though it’s already been a big week at the BBC, for those that haven’t managed to get out of the building yet, it’s just got even bigger.”
• As the characters deal with an unfolding/urgent crisis, this made me smile – “They need to think of something fast, and worse still, something good.”

Karl and the rest of Siobhan’s team are at the BBC Me launch. Ostensibly, they’re there to help run things (I think? they all have their tablets with them,) but more than anything, they wind up serving more of a hype man role. Most of their lines are simply “yay!”, shouted after Siobhan or anyone else says something significant.

As such, Joel Fry doesn’t get to do much for his final episode. It’s an improvement over the Twenty Twelve finale, but not by much. Karl continues his habit of often being a little behind the others, at one point chiming in with a “yay!” when Barney and Coco don’t do it. And when Siobhan’s explaining some plans involving a smoke machine to the execs, Karl adds, “With, like, real smoke.” Oh, Karl!

Okay, last thoughts on the Joel Fry portion of W1A (I’ll do my David Tennant wrap-up next week): 

Accent Watch

Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It’s amusing, but it gets too repetitive for me.

Joel Fry – I would. It can be hard to watch at times when the others are mean to Karl, but he’s always hilarious and endearing to me!