Anna Rampton

Anna Rampton is a senior BBC executive circling the same corridors as Ian Fletcher, sharp-suited and sharper-tongued, fluent in the meaningless jargon of modern broadcasting. She wants status, control of the narrative, and to be seen making decisive decisions, even when nobody can say what those decisions actually are.

Sarah Parish plays her with a brisk, clipped confidence that turns every empty phrase into a small act of aggression, which is the whole joke of W1A's corporate world. Anna never needs to raise her voice to win a room; the writing lets her out-jargon everyone else, and Parish makes that supremacy look effortless and faintly terrifying.