Twenty Twenty Six | Preview (BBC One)

Twenty Twenty Six is a new six-part series for BBC One and iPlayer, from the team behind the BAFTA and British Comedy award winning W1A and Twenty Twelve.

This year's football tournament will be the biggest ever. Hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico with 48 countries taking part and 16 venues thousands of miles apart across the whole of North America; what could possibly go wrong? Ian Fletcher is about to find out, as he joins the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team in Miami as its Director of Integrity. 

The BBC can reveal that firm W1A favourite, Hugh Skinner (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Fleabag) returns as Will Humphries. Across two series of W1A, Will graduated from hapless intern to the dizzy heights of Ian’s PA. Will is back, to his - alongside everyone else’s - great surprise, as eager as ever to personally assist Ian on delivering a seamless soccer competition. 

Also returning from both W1A and Twenty Twelve is David Tennant (Rivals, Thursday Murder Club) who will be narrating proceedings as the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team strive to oversee next year’s football tournament. 

Joining the series’ stellar line-up of already announced cast are Marli Siu (Everything I Know About Love, Alex Rider), Nicole Sadie Sawyerr (EastEnders, Casualty), Joe Hewetson (Too Much, Sex Education), and Erin Kellyman (Eleanor the Great, Blitz).

Episode 1: Ian Fletcher starts a new chapter in Miami as director of integrity for the Fifa World Cup, overseeing the biggest football event in the world. His first challenge is to lead the Oversight Team towards a decision on which cities should host the semi-final matches.

It’s hard enough to get the team to agree, and the fact that it’s also Miami Day on the day of the announcement, and that no-one knows what that is, only serves to complicate things. Meanwhile, the Social Media Team work on a new sustainability initiative based around human waste. The 'power of poop' may just be the solution everyone needs.

Episode 2: Ian and the team deal with a newly published report from the United Nations Health Agency which concludes that some key Twenty Twenty Six host cities may now be too hot to safely play football in due to global heating. The challenge is how to get ahead of the narrative so that the scheduled matches can still go ahead.

Meanwhile, Will is settling in to life at Oversight, and the Social Media Team figure that the only way to get a younger US audience interested in Twenty Twenty Six is to put a vibe under the whole idea of football by getting a major celebrity involved, if they can only find one.

Episode 3: It’s another morning at Oversight HQ, and the team have scheduled a virtual meeting with David Beckham to finalise arrangements for the announcement of the tournament ambassador. But it’s possible that Zurich has other ideas.

Sarah is to go on a Gen Z podcast that’s criticised the tournament’s carbon output. The Social Media Team take a new campaign idea out onto the streets, and Will masters the coffee machine. When the time comes for the ambassador announcement, the team suddenly find themselves with two ambassadors in the room at the same time and no plan.

Episode 4: Sarah’s slip of the tongue on Alicia Byrd’s podcast means that she’s now gone viral as the ‘wooden condoms girl’. The Oversight Team decide it would be a good idea if she does a live interview on one of the many network news shows clamouring to meet her.

But although Sarah agrees, she’s completely unprepared for the idea of millions of people watching her. Around the same time, rumours break on social media about a high-profile footballer, resulting in the team needing to draw up an official statement which everyone can agree on.

Episode 5: The Oversight Team face controversy around the tournament’s official new football when a conspiracy theorist claims it has suspect technology inside it.

Will accidentally inspires a social media campaign for Sarah’s latest sustainability initiative. But as the ball issue escalates to cause political fallout, it looks as if Sarah’s campaign will be over before it starts. Someone needs to give a statement to the press. And it turns out that someone is Ian.

Episode 6: With the start of the tournament weeks away, final plans for the opening ceremony need to be pinned down. But its Mexican creative director has had a rethink, and his new vision doesn’t include any reference to America at all, or indeed to soccer.

The lead events producer may or may not be close to a having a breakdown. Can Ian and the Oversight Team find a solution in time? Meanwhile, Ian finds himself starting to think about a future beyond Twenty Twenty Six and Miami. Will Sarah be part of that future?

Twenty Twenty Six (6x30) begins Wednesday 8th April at 9:30pm on BBC One.