A hilarious skewering of both the BBC and the mindset of corporate lackeys everywhere. Absolutely crammed with great characters, many of whom, in the British manner, have their distinctive and increasingly wonderful catch-phrases. It seems impossible that this got made by the same organization that is portrayed in the show, but it is very pleasing that it was. It's just a shame that the number of episodes per season is small even by UK standards.

I found this very funny and very true. I worked at BBC Future Media (and other parts of the BBC) and recognise a number of these senior managers. The caricatures are not far removed from reality. On the creative side, you might think the show was cruel. Not really, they used to have weekly "creative sessions" in my kitchen area. There's nothing like the sight of desperate 40-somethings trying to come up with something young and hip to make you wish you were far, far away from the commissioning process and the necessary obliges noblesses! The meeting rooms, "Strictly Come Dancing" and "Top Gear" and so on, and Syncopatispace is beyond parody. This show is almost exactly like working there.

I suspect that some of the reviews here have been made by people who are perhaps too close to the BBC, or are amongst a significant section of the British population who regard the licence fee as the wrong way to fund the Corporation.I didn't see "Twenty Twelve" (but have just ordered the DVDs of Series 1 & 2), and in fact have only managed to see the first two episodes of "W1A". That clearly leaves me open to criticism for reviewing a series I haven't fully seen. On the other hand, it meant that I had no particular expectations before I viewed.What I did see I found to be hugely funny - certainly one of the most wryly observed and succinctly written comedies of recent years.Yes, I am sure that what it portrays is desperately close to reality! And indeed, that is what makes it all the funnier. The characters are, of course, caricatures with little depth, but in a light-hearted series of just four episodes, I doubt we would be expecting serious character development, especially when some of them speak the same (or similar) lines in every episode.As a Brit who loves the BBC, despite its weaknesses and failings, and who thinks the licence fee is truly excellent value for money, I admire the organisation all the more for its willingness to have the mickey taken in this way.Reading the other reviews, you might think that there was little to laugh at in this short series. Far from it. I very rarely laugh out loud, but this had me chortling more than most.

No doubt about it,the BBC wants to be loved,wants to be "Auntie" and "The Beeb",wants to be known as the home of "Children in Need" and "Sports Relief" where its favoured entertainers and presenters are given endless opportunities to show their caring side whilst simultaneously promoting themselves and their BBC programmes whilst engaging in emotional blackmail. In reality,the national broadcaster is smug,self - regarding,self - regulating,incestuous,and exerts far too powerful an influence on its audience whom it regards as a malleable amorphous mass who blindly pay out their licence fee in order to be patronised,ignored and have their intelligence insulted at regular intervals. Thus with "W1A"they may appear to be mocking their own excesses but in fact they are showing them off - demonstrating to us viewers that the organisation will always be an Oxbridge talking shop producing whatever it decides will be good for us and spending our money however it sees fit with no possibility of redress. Too many clever - clever people at the BBC may chortle at the in - jokes and applaud the "sporting" way celebrities appear as themselves(don't think Miss C.Vorderman should give up her day job - whatever it may be) but have failed to consider that this programme's predecessor,"2012", was centred on a specific once - in - a - lifetime event that for the previous two years had occupied the news media almost non - stop.It was very much of its time. The BBC's Olympic Legacy seems to consist of re - cycled scripts and hackneyed ideas,I'm afraid.