Twenty Twelve (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Twenty Twelve is a BBC comedy series written and directed by John Morton
. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes and Amelia Bullmore, the programme is a spoof on-location documentary (or mockumentary
) following the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics
in London
. It was first broadcast on UK television station BBC Four
in March 2011 to coincide with the 500 day countdown to the opening ceremony.
Before transmission, it was reported in the media that the series had been accused of being a copy of The Games, a similar Australian sitcom about the 2000 Sydney Games, which was denied by the BBC. Twenty Twelve series gained mainly positive reviews from critics and a second series was announced on 15 April 2011.
Meanwhile, Siobham Sharpe is the excitable, but ultimately clueless Head of Brand through her PR company "Perfect Curve". The rest of the committee find her ideas and enthusiastic attitude tiresome, particularly Nick Jowett, Head of Contracts, a blunt Yorkshireman who generally opposes the committee's ideas without making alternative suggestions.
Elsewhere on the committee, Kay Hope, Head of Sustainability, is in charge of sorting out what will happen to the buildings, stadiums and other Olympic venues after the games, but is emphatically not in charge of the games' legacy, which she considers a separate task. She continually mentions that she is a single mother after a bitter divorce, and is paranoid about her public image. Finally, Head of Infrastructure Graham Hitchens gives the impression that he knows everything about the London transport and traffic systems, but evidently does not.
stated "Perhaps it just needs some time to settle. Though it was very funny in parts, the first episode of Twenty Twelve suggests that the series, like the actual cost of the Olympics, might hit slightly wide of its ample target." Likewise, Sam Wollaston in The Guardian
suggested that due to the participation of people from the Olympic committee it was "on song": "Biting satire this isn't. It's nibbling satire, delivered by Garra Rufa fish...The Thick of It
is a lot more entertaining...I don't think that politicians were removing their shoes, rolling up their trousers and queuing up for cameos in The Thick of It. Brian Viner, writing in The Independent
was more impressed by Coe's cameo; "There is surely no other country in the world that would laugh at itself in this way, even persuading the vast project's principal mover-and-shaker, in our case the Rt Hon Lord Coe KBE, to participate in the joke". He went on to commend the series "...I was hooked anyway, by the mischief in John Morton's script and the beautifully nuanced performances of, in particular, Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes".
It was widely commented upon in the press that the day after the broadcast of the first episode, which features problems with the 1000 days countdown clock, the real life clock in Trafalgar Square
broke just after it had been launched by Lord Coe and London mayor Boris Johnson
the day before.
Brian Viner, reviewing the series as a whole stated the series was "always amusing and sporadically very funny...It's hard to think of a spoof documentary that has been more fortuitously timed than Twenty Twelve."
A media report in The Age
highlighted that Rick McKenna, producer of Kath & Kim
, approached Jon Plowman
when he was BBC comedy head in 2006 with a concept to create a version in the lead up to the London 2012 Games. Jon Plowman then introduced Rick McKenna to John Morton as a potential writer for the show. John Clarke
and Ross Stevenson
, the creators and writers of The Games, also said they haven't seen Twenty Twelve, but that it is "very clear where [the BBC] got the format".
John Morton (writer)
John Morton is a British writer and director for television and radio, perhaps best known as the creator of People Like Us, which starred Chris Langham. which starred Chris Langham as the series as the hapless documentary maker Roy Mallard...
. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes and Amelia Bullmore, the programme is a spoof on-location documentary (or mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
) following the organisation of the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was first broadcast on UK television station BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
in March 2011 to coincide with the 500 day countdown to the opening ceremony.
Before transmission, it was reported in the media that the series had been accused of being a copy of The Games, a similar Australian sitcom about the 2000 Sydney Games, which was denied by the BBC. Twenty Twelve series gained mainly positive reviews from critics and a second series was announced on 15 April 2011.
Cast
- Hugh BonnevilleHugh BonnevilleHugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...
plays Ian Fletcher, Head of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission - Amelia BullmoreAmelia BullmoreAmelia Bullmore is an English actress and writer. She was born in London and studied drama at the University of Manchester. Bullmore started working as an actor but turned to writing in 1995...
plays Kay Hope, Head of Sustainability - Olivia ColmanOlivia ColmanOlivia Colman is an English actress, best known for her supporting roles in various comedy shows, such as Sophie Chapman in Peep Show and Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and has appeared in radio, television and theatre.-Personal life:Colman...
plays Sally Owen, Ian Fletcher's personal assistant - Vincent FranklinVincent FranklinVincent Franklin is an English actor best known for his roles in comedy television programmes. Recent roles included PR guru Stewart Pearson in The Thick of It and blunt manager Nick Jowitt in Twenty Twelve. He has appeared in a number of feature films including Vera Drake and the 2006 films...
plays Nick Jowett, Head of Contracts - Jessica Hynes plays Siobhan Sharpe, Head of Brand
- Karl TheobaldKarl TheobaldKarl Theobald is an English comedian and actor, best known as Dr. Martin Dear in Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing, and for his physical comedy style....
plays Graham Hitchins, Head of Infrastructure
Plot
The series follows the trials of the Olympic Delivery Committee, the executive body tasked by Sebastian Coe to organise the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Over the series, the Committee have to overcome logistical difficulties, production errors, infrastructure problems and troublesome contributors. The main character is Ian Fletcher, the Head of Deliverance, who is in overall charge of the Committee, and is generally efficient but often has to clean-up a PR disaster after the other committee members make a mistake. A running thread in series one are the hints that his marriage to a high-flying lawyer is breaking down, which comes to a head in episode six. It is evident that his PA Sally is in love with him, although this remains unspoken.Meanwhile, Siobham Sharpe is the excitable, but ultimately clueless Head of Brand through her PR company "Perfect Curve". The rest of the committee find her ideas and enthusiastic attitude tiresome, particularly Nick Jowett, Head of Contracts, a blunt Yorkshireman who generally opposes the committee's ideas without making alternative suggestions.
Elsewhere on the committee, Kay Hope, Head of Sustainability, is in charge of sorting out what will happen to the buildings, stadiums and other Olympic venues after the games, but is emphatically not in charge of the games' legacy, which she considers a separate task. She continually mentions that she is a single mother after a bitter divorce, and is paranoid about her public image. Finally, Head of Infrastructure Graham Hitchens gives the impression that he knows everything about the London transport and traffic systems, but evidently does not.
Episodes
| Episode | Original airdate | Overnight viewers (mil)/share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Episode 1 | 14 March 2011 | 417,000 |
| PR consultant Siobhan Sharpe is preparing to unveil a countdown clock in front of Tate Modern Tate Modern Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year... . However, her boss Ian Fletcher is not impressed. Kay Hope struggles to find a post-games use for the Taekwondo Taekwondo Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"... area. Meanwhile, Graham Hitchins is planning a new traffic management system, which he decides to test on the day of the clock unveiling. |
||
| Episode 2 | 21 March 2011 | 474,000 |
| The deliverance committee take a group of delegates to meet lord Sebastian Coe at the London Olympic Park Olympic Stadium (London) The London Olympic Stadium will be the centrepiece of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The stadium is located at Marshgate Lane in Stratford in the Lower Lea Valley and has capacity for the Games of approximately 80,000 making it temporarily the third largest stadium in Britain behind... . However, the traffic and a bus driver who doesn't know London conspire against them. Olympic organiser Sebastian Coe makes a cameo appearance as himself in this episode. |
||
| Episode 3 | 28 March 2011 | 420,000 |
| After the discovery of Roman remains near the aquatics centre, the building plans need to be modified at the last minute. Meanwhile, Siobhan Sharpe wants the 2012 games to have their own audio logo. | ||
| Episode 4 | 4 April 2011 | 419,000 |
| Former Olympic athlete Dave Wellbeck tours schools as Brand Ambassador for "Raising the Bar", a campaign to get young people interested in the Olympic games. But his lack of charisma has the opposite effect and Ian Fletcher and Siobhan Sharpe are unsure on how to proceed. | ||
| Episode 5 | 11 April 2011 | 389,000 |
| For the post of Curator of the Cultural Olympiad three applicants are being interviewed. Meanwhile, Sebastian Coe suggested that the Olympic Deliverance Commission team consider entering the London Marathon. | ||
| Episode 6 | 18 April 2011 | 432,000 |
| The Commission's plans for the equestrian centre annoy famous film director Tony Ward (Tim McInnerny Tim McInnerny Tim McInnerny is an English actor. He is known for his role as Percy in Blackadder and Blackadder II, and as Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth... ), who dumps a pile of horse manure in front of the ODC's offices. Ian Fletcher decides to challenge him face-to-face on a Radio 4 Today Programme interview. |
||
Critical reviews
Reviews for episode 1 were mixed, commenting that it was milder in its satire than they expected; Ed Cumming in The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
stated "Perhaps it just needs some time to settle. Though it was very funny in parts, the first episode of Twenty Twelve suggests that the series, like the actual cost of the Olympics, might hit slightly wide of its ample target." Likewise, Sam Wollaston in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
suggested that due to the participation of people from the Olympic committee it was "on song": "Biting satire this isn't. It's nibbling satire, delivered by Garra Rufa fish...The Thick of It
The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
is a lot more entertaining...I don't think that politicians were removing their shoes, rolling up their trousers and queuing up for cameos in The Thick of It. Brian Viner, writing in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
was more impressed by Coe's cameo; "There is surely no other country in the world that would laugh at itself in this way, even persuading the vast project's principal mover-and-shaker, in our case the Rt Hon Lord Coe KBE, to participate in the joke". He went on to commend the series "...I was hooked anyway, by the mischief in John Morton's script and the beautifully nuanced performances of, in particular, Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes".
It was widely commented upon in the press that the day after the broadcast of the first episode, which features problems with the 1000 days countdown clock, the real life clock in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
broke just after it had been launched by Lord Coe and London mayor Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
the day before.
Brian Viner, reviewing the series as a whole stated the series was "always amusing and sporadically very funny...It's hard to think of a spoof documentary that has been more fortuitously timed than Twenty Twelve."
Plagiarism accusation
It has been criticised as bearing a strong resemblance to the Australian mockumentary series The Games, a similar series set before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The BBC denied claims of plagiarism. "It is a very different show, the only similarities between them are that they are both set around the Olympics," a corporation source said.A media report in The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
highlighted that Rick McKenna, producer of Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...
, approached Jon Plowman
Jon Plowman
Jon Plowman has been a producer at the BBC since 1980, when he produced Russell Harty's chat show Harty...
when he was BBC comedy head in 2006 with a concept to create a version in the lead up to the London 2012 Games. Jon Plowman then introduced Rick McKenna to John Morton as a potential writer for the show. John Clarke
John Clarke (satirist)
John Morrison Clarke is a New Zealand-born Australian comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s...
and Ross Stevenson
Ross Stevenson (Radio)
Ross Stevenson, real name Ross Campbell, is a radio presenter on Melbourne radio. Breakfast with Ross Stevenson & John Burns on radio station 3AW is one of Australia's most successful radio shows...
, the creators and writers of The Games, also said they haven't seen Twenty Twelve, but that it is "very clear where [the BBC] got the format".