Twenty Twelve

The finest comedy show since the 1997 first series of i'm Alan Partridge. Similar to Partridge you can watch this show again and again and see things you missed first time around. Magnificent casting with my vote as the best of the lot going to the NO Nonsense head of contracts Yorkshire bloke Nick Jowett played by the wonderful Vincent Franklin. All the cast play the parts very well very well indeed and there are a few cameos thrown in for good measure.For anyone who hasn't seen it please watch it you will NOT be disappointed. I believer Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes are reprising their roles in the follow up about the BBC. I wonder whether that will work without the rest of the cat of twenty twelve.. We shall see.........

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.

Written and directed by John Morton we have BBC series Twenty Twelve, spoofing the preparation for the London Olympic games in that year. All shot mockumentary style we follow Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), Head of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission, his team as they count down 1000 days to opening ceremony, and of course all the fiascos and hilarities that entails. The format is a fairly standard The Office type, with talking heads, cringe, and general incompetency, but its done quite well, and the writing and performances are genuinely great. Also starring Olivia Colman as Ian's assistant, as well as a list of familiar BBC comedic faces, the show is short and sweet at only two 6-episode seasons, with its airing of course having an actual deadline as the real-life games came to fruition. While the show is quite literally dated in its references, much of the humour doesn't derive from pop culture at the time, so the jokes all hold up, even now. The series would also eventually lead to a personal favourite and pseudo-sequel W1A, with many recurring cast and characters. If you've seen W1A and liked it certainly check this one out, and if you like this type of series generally, I'd recommend.

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.

I received the boxed set edition of this "spoof" series as a birthday gift and am pleased to say that this is one collection that won't sit on the shelf unwatched. It's a droll, if not laugh- out-loud comedy satirising the doings and undoings of the team set up to ensure the smooth operation of the then impending London Olympic Games of 2012.

Peopled by just-exaggerated-enough characters all too believable in their ineptitude, it gently mocks their blundering officiousness with fly-on-the-wall scrutiny, pieces to camera and occasional interaction with them by an unseen interviewer. Heading the team is the bumptious Ian Fletcher, played by Hugh Bonneville, the archetypal 24-7 workaholic, whose private life is foundering under the strain, while carrying an Olympic-size torch for him is his super-efficient P.A. Sally, forever plying him with massive portions of fast food, played in best scene-stealing fashion by Olivia Colman.

Of the remainder, Jessica Hynes as Siobhan Sharpe, the domineering on-the-go "Head Of Brand", with her catchphrases "Cool" and "This is the thing" and Karl Theobald as the crisp-munching but out-to-lunch Head of Logistics are particularly funny while for added realism, real life bigwigs Lord "Seb" Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnston are happy to put in cameo appearances too.

The format of Ian arriving for the daily hot-air group-meeting does grate a little after a few episodes while some of the supporting characters lack definition but I think the humour improves when the scenarios are opened out, for example the crazy coach-trip with the Brazilian Olympic delegation or the unveiling of the bizarre backward-counting Olympic Clock complete with its artistically-temperamental creator. The actors cope very well with the demands of their supposedly off-the-cuff, overlapping dialogue although as the DVD-extra cast interviews make clear, not a single line is improvised.

All in all, I think this fresh take on the "mockumentary" concept is a winner, not quite gold-medal standard, but certainly on the podium somewhere.