Twenty Twelve

2010s British tv comedy series

A "fly on the wall" documentary presenting the ups and downs (but mostly downs) of team organizing the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Ian Fletcher is put in charge of Olympic Deliverance Commission, a committee responsible for preparations for the 2012 London Olympics up to the point that the event actually takes happen. This means dealing with logistical challenges, PR, construction of the objects that will be used during Olympics, but also making sure they will be useful when sport events will end. Ian has team of people to help him, like Siobhan Sharpe in charge of PR, Graham Hitchins in charge of infrastructure, Fi Healey in charge of legacy and Nick Jowett in charge of contracts. On first glance it seems that the team has all of the bases covered, but one look behind the scenes is enough to realize that not all of the people involved in Olympic Deliverance Commission are fully in control of anything.

Twenty Twelve was made partly as satire on the bureaucracy around 2012 Olympic Games and partly as parody of the incompetent people that are getting involved into such government-funded committees. Just like in The Thick of It or Absolute Power we have here a reality in which PR is everything and the actual effort or the result doesn’t really matter. It’s the activity and the image created in media is the most important part, not the real results of that activity.

Although the idea was interesting, cast was good, the final effect was somehow disappointing - comparing to other such comedy series (The Think of It being the closest in style) Twenty Twelve was just not funny enough, not too involving and quite repetitive. For example the shenanigans of Siobhan and her weird ideas were good for an episode or two, but after a while they became just repetitive. Overall the satire was too subtle, the situations and characters were just too close to reality of British bureaucracy for Twenty Twelve to be successful.

Rating	4.4
Funny	3 / 10
Entertaining	3 / 5
Characters	2 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5