Hugh Bonneville has returned to one of his most acclaimed roles, Ian Fletcher, in the new BBC mockumentary Twenty Twenty Six. The actor, best known for playing Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey and Mr Brown in Paddington, admitted to mixed feelings about revisiting the character. 'I was on the one hand absolutely delighted,' he said. 'On the other hand, I was terrified because it's the most painful and horrible experience I've ever had on television.'
Twenty Twenty Six is the latest instalment in John Morton's Bafta-winning series, following Twenty Twelve and W1A. Fletcher now works as 'Director of Integrity' for a nameless international football organisation hosting a major tournament, a clear parody of FIFA. The show was filmed in a school in Wembley, London, redecorated to resemble a Miami arts centre, complete with purple fabric, gold palm tree lamps, and fake flowers.
Bonneville described the unique challenge of performing Morton's dialogue, which is packed with stammered half-sentences and awkward pauses. 'It's the most impossible thing to learn because sometimes the sentences don't make sense,' he said. 'The difference between “yes well but” and “but well yes” is profound.' He added that he is 'constantly the one who runs into the buffers when everybody else is brilliant.'
Fletcher is reunited with his former intern Will Humphries, played by Hugh Skinner, a fan favourite from W1A. Bonneville called Will 'the Paddington of the office world – he means well, but he's going to bump into everything and set the photocopier on fire.' Skinner, whose own conversation mirrors his character's self-effacing style, said he is used to being mistaken for Will. 'When W1A was on the air, people would look at me and laugh in a sympathetic way,' he said.
The cast also includes Warrington's Phil Plank, an ex-footballer who speaks in post-match clichés, and mysterious Belgian Eric Van Dupuytrens, who communicates in koans reminiscent of Eric Cantona. The host nation representatives are two Americans: an idealistic sustainability head and a corporate liaison.
