Other Doctor Lives: W1A: Series 3, Episode 5 (2017)

*Mild spoilers for episode 4*

I watched Twenty Twelve and W1A a number of months ago and have had my reviews written up for a while, but when I went to post about this episode for last week’s Other Doctor Lives, I found just the notes I’d taken during my initial watch—somewhere along the line, I’d missed writing the review and had never gotten back around to it. Whoops! Anyway, I just rewatched this, the penultimate episode of W1A, to jog my memory and to write a new review of it.

There are a couple fresh crises brewing at the BBC. Claudia Winkleman, longtime host of Strictly Come Dancing, has been offered a deal with a rival network and is considering walking. While the executives scramble to find a way to woo her into staying, Izzy and Jack are met with a crisis of their own. Last week, Will had an unexpected win when he got Hugh Grant to film a “Super Me” ahead of the BBC Me launch. The only problem is, Grant didn’t realize it was for a viral marketing campaign—because, of course, Will didn’t explain things clearly—and now he’s upset about the BBC using his image without permission.

We’re getting two characters of the week this time around, because they’ve been a package deal from the start of the series. Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez play a pair of interchangeable junior executives, the terrifically-named Ben Rosenstern and Jerry Guildencrantz. As their surnames would suggest, much of their humor throughout the series has come from Ian and other executives generally being unable to tell which is which. They’re both quintessential yes-man and have a particular habit of echoing whatever Simon says in meetings. This past season, they’ve gotten their own mini-subplot. Like Lucy, their positions have been targeted by the BBC Less is More initiative, with two jobs being reduced to one. This has caused friction between them as each tried to distinguish himself from the other and prove he was the one worth keeping around. The subplot comes to its conclusion in this episode.

Claudia Winkleman is wanting to take on more serious projects, and the new offer she’s received would allow her to branch out from her role as the host of a popular but insubstantial show like Strictly Come Dancing. Losing her would be a huge blow to the BBC, so the execs are desperate to satisfy her. There’s an amusing pitch session where they search for anything more serious that they could offer her, and naturally, any time you have a delicate meeting with onscreen talent where it’s critical for everything to go right, it’s not great to have both Siobhan and David involved.

The Hugh Grant debacle has quickly spiraled out of hand. In addition to removing his image from the BBC Me marketing, he’s demanding that the BBC apologize by making a charitable donation of over a million pounds. As Izzy panics over the situation, Jack tries to convince her that her best option is blaming the whole thing on Will.

Some nice David Tennant narration today. Here were my favorite bits from him:

• This one cracked me up – “Meanwhile, upstairs, what was supposed to be a renewal meeting mainly about something called ‘distinctivity’ has spontaneously turned into an emergency damage limitation meeting mostly about disaster.”
• Nicely worded – “Elsewhere in the building, Jack Patterson and Izzy Gould have taken some time out to have an argument.”
• This is such a textbook W1A line – “It seems that the BBC is shortly to announce a major senior management simplification, which follows the pattern of encouraging more staff to apply for fewer jobs by abolishing the ones they’ve already got.”