Twenty Twelve (BBC Two), the pitch-perfect Bafta-nominated mockumentary set in the fictional offices of the Olympic Deliverance Committee, serves as a sort of pressure release valve for that anxiety, a very British invitation to laugh off the underlying dread that the Games might flop, even as the big moment approaches. It imagines a scenario in which the organisers are a bunch of jargon-spouting, dunderheaded, squabbling, inefficient, unprofessional – yet sympathetic – nincompoops; less a nest of vipers than a squadron of sloths.
Last night’s episode, the first in a final run of three, began with the long-suffering Head of Deliverance, Ian Fletcher (Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville), calling his ragtag team to a breakfast meeting. “There are still a lot of things to get through if July 27th is to happen, on time, as planned,” intoned David Tennant's unwaveringly deadpan voice-over. Fletcher, his Play-Doh features squashed into a mask of concern, looked like he was going to be sick.
Ordered by the boss to “get ahead of the Games”, his staff duly went charging off down various blind alleys. Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore), Head of Sustainability, could be found trying to convince the owner of Dagenham and Redbridge Football Club to take on the post-games lease of the giant Olympic stadium as an attempt to secure “exactly the kind of sustainably inclusive shared future we all want to see going forward”. The football guy pulled a face, then cut through the officialese. “At some point,” he said, “you’ve got to ask yourself, have we got a bloody great turkey on our hands?”
READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9390330/Twenty-Twelve-BBC-Two-review.html
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