Twenty Twelve

Twenty Twelve

This was comedy gold from start to finish. I would of course caveat that by saying that to really understand it you needed to be a Gamesmaker or other employee at the 2012 games.

Either way it was Not entirely unintelligible for those that weren't.

This is perhaps a near perfect mockumentary and as the show progressed the situations really morphed into farce, it was brilliant.

The timing and casting was award winning and this continues with W1A. I think maybe GCHQ would be a good next step lol

Having not seen the Aussie "The Games" that this is supposed to strongly resemble I don't have anything really to compare it to other than The Office (US and UK both). I don't think it's quite as funny as I expected but not all that dull either. It was amusing to see all the dancing around sensibilities, especially with the "countdown" clock silliness, and it was nice to see Olivia Colman in this, I liked her a lot in "Rev.". All in all I was entertained by the first episode but I hope for better as the episodes progress. I would hope there were a lot of inside jokes that Londoners would get better than myself on the other side of the pond. I can't help but wonder if this might not have been funnier to follow around the actual people involved in carrying this off and showing that during the games. If they have time to watch this I hope they are suitably amused.

I cannot give the single reason that makes this series is so perfect . Sharply observed narration by David Tennant is superb and each of the actors were superbly cast . Understated stereotypes all contributed in perfect measure to execute this really witty script . The ending with Hugh Bonneville and Olivia Colman is the best ending I have ever seen, bar one (Blackadder). Please give this a watch ! So that's all good.....

Anyone tuning into this show hoping it to be a match for W1A, forget it. This has none of the wonderful casting of W1A, missing essential components Hugh Skinner's Will and David Westhead's profane under-the-breath pronouncements that spoke for us, the audience. The rapid fire idiocy around the table is stilted, having none of the hilarity of its successor. But all is not lost. Hugh Bonneville is as expected, wonderful, although his character is much more refined in W1A, here more abrupt and a bit mean. And Olivia Coleman is wonderful as always.

The first episode was criticised by the TV critics of two British newspapers for lacking jokes. That rather seems to miss the point. I found it far funnier than they seem to have done, and often it is the small, almost insignificant points which are so telling: the casting of peripheral characters is masterly and hints at the essence of Twenty Twelve. This is not in the first instance a comedy but satire which sends up mercilessly the attitudes, dishonesty and outright nonsensical babble of recent times. But it is done in such a straight-faced manner than perhaps some miss its nuances. My favourite character is the utterly vacuous air-headed Siobhan Sharpe, on secondment from the PR company Perfect Curve as the Olympic deliverance committee's Head of Brand, but that is just a personal choice and it would be unfair to single her out. I have met all the characters portrayed in real life and, oddly, they are not at all exaggerated. With luck - and the Games being just over a year away - this one will run and run.