#180; Twenty Twelve’s Great Surprise

The main Twenty Twelve cast, who are most awesome.

Mock-umentary’s seem to have an easy ability to win me over. One of my favourite things is of course one of the most famous examples of this genre, This is Spinal Tap, and when I heard about Twenty Twelve on BBC4 it sounded quite interesting so I thought I’d give it a go. This was very much one of those accidentally stumble across it on the iPlayer type of situations and just giving it a random go and I’m very much pleased that I did, as it turned out to be a fabulous little series and one I very much enjoyed watching getting better as it went on.

The whole idea behind the show was watching the ‘Olympic Deliverance Committee’ prepare for the London 2012 Olympics, dealing with constant problems, delays, and meetings going nowhere that are so utterly British about how we prepare for things. What I enjoyed the most about the show I think was how subtle it was in how it created it’s comedy – the constant use of bullshit-speak you see from politicians and important people refusing to give a clear answer, Jessica Hynes absolutely hilarious role as the ‘Head of Brand’ PR person stealing pretty much any scene she took part in, and I think in general how much it showed Britain can just laugh at itself even as we prepare for this huge Olympic event. The show just absolutely ozzed everything that makes British humour so special and unique I thought and all for the better too.

I’ve already mentioned Jessica Hynes as the ignorant, image obsessed PR part of the team but it was her fantastic scene stealing ability as well as Hugh Bonneville’s role as the leader of the team that were the definite highlights constantly. Bonneville played Ian Fletcher, and his role of head of the Olympic Deliverance Committee saw him dealing with constant problems within the committee and preparations, whilst seemingly never actually answering questions from the camera despite constantly being asked. The two were the stand out characters of the show and Hynes in particular makes the show worth watching just for her hilarious ignorance. There were also cameos from the likes of Sebastien Coe who so famously has constantly been spreading the message of London 2012 and it was this kind of stuff that made it even more appealing, this ability even for the people actually preparing for the games to just poke a bit of fun at themselves.

The true Olympic Clock. Much better than the real one.

Obviously the show is quite a topical subject with London 2012 approaching so quickly (just over a year away now, bloody hell!) and with the subject constantly such a talked about area of the future of our country and our preparations for the games it just kind of made me think how bad we can be with these things. It’s not just a British thing I suppose, other countries have had plenty of delays in the past, but it just kind of made me laugh how many little things make it so brilliant to be British sometimes. The clock scene as depicted above in the photo saw the team bringing together the idea of a clock that doesn’t count down to London 2012 but also does count down to it (you’d have to see it to understand!) but of course instantly broke down as they launched it. What happened a few days after the broadcast of this episode? The actual Olympic clock broke down in real life. Love it!

Although the series has finished now (again, we go back to the whole issue of British TV shows only seemingly having 6 episodes a series – why?!) there’s already been an announcement of a second series which is fabulous news and news I’m well pleased with. It seemed to do quite well on BBC4 which pleases me, so bring on the second series. As far as I know the series is still available on the iPlayer and it’s worth a watch I reckon just to have a chance to sit back and have a laugh at ourselves for how melodramatic and brilliantly useless us British can be sometimes.

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