Olympics: Off-Topic Request: Please thank our troops at the Olympics (SCOOP IT! BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH) Scooped by T Poulson

There's a great site - SCOOP IT! BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH that ran this little article about the troops guarding the Olympics.

By T. Poulson

In the UK, 18,000 of our troops are guarding the Olympics. There weren't supposed to be that many, but there was a SNAFU and they are picking up the slack. They are AMAZING. Some of them are just back from Afghanistan and are missing seeing their families. Many are staying in tents and sleeping on campbeds.

Now, they aren't complaining, but, if you happen to see them, please give them a big 'thank you'.

This is a very personal request. See that picture above? Well, that fit bloke at the front is *my big brother*. I am bursting with pride for him and the incredible job that *all* of our armed forces are doing to make the Olympics as fun and safe as they can be.

Apologies for the interruption, but thank you. Now, back to your normal 'Benedict Cumberbatch' service......T. Poulson


http://www.scoop.it/t/benedict-cumberbatch

Twenty Twelve: Jessica Hynes, actress The low-down on today's newsworthy names LIAM O'BRIEN THURSDAY 26 JULY 2012 (THE INDEPENDENT)

Here's the thing…

Twenty Twelve, the BBC's hugely popular send-up of the chaos behind the scenes of the London Olympics, has come to an end. Whether Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) and his doe-eyed PA (Olivia Colman) will get together, we may never know, and the bitter battles between Sustainability and Legacy look like they will never be resolved. But the show's real star was the clueless "Head of Brand", Siobhan Sharpe, played by Jessica Hynes.

Totally.

So what's next for Hynes?

Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger, a Christmas film with David Tennant.

READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/page-3-profile-jessica-hynes-actress-7978823.html

KATE MIDDLETON AND PRINCE WILLIAM BAG FRONT ROW SEATS AT THE OLYMPICS! By Eleanor Young - Tuesday 24 July 2012 (MARIE CLAIRE)

As official Ambassadors of the London 2012 Olympics, the lucky Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have bagged the best seats in the house for some of the most hotly-anticipated sporting events.

According to officials, William and Kate, together with Prince Harry, will cheer on cousin Zara Phillips in the equestrian events, with Prince William also scheduled to attend Team GB football at Wembley, Tennis at Wimbledon and Athletics, including the men’s 100m final.

Meanwhile, Kate Middleton will reportedly watch the swimming, sailing, diving and hockey, and Prince Harry the Beach Volleyball on Horse Guards Parade.

One royal aide told the Telegraph: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry have been tremendously excited about the Olympics for a long time and want to throw themselves in to the Games and help out as much as they can.

'They will be out and about for much of the two weeks, but as well as watching the sports and meeting many of the athletes and visiting dignitaries, they hope to meet a whole cross-section of people, from volunteers to cooks in the Olympic village, who will make the Games a success.'

Another insider added Kate Middleton is 'especially pleased she can watch the women’s hockey team because she has trained with them.'

READ MORE: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/537363/kate-middleton-and-prince-william-bag-front-row-seats-at-the-olympics.html#index=1

Hugh Bonneville and co on the return of the London 2012 mockumentary "It's a critique of social incompetence, but all the scripts have their roots in credibility" Written By Alison Kervin 12:50 PM, 10 July 2012 (RADIO TIMES)

"If you get bandwidth on this, you’ve got maple syrup on your waffle at the get-go,” says Siobhan Sharpe, Head of Brand for the London 2012 Olympics. She runs her hands through her hair, smiles to herself, and looks over at her colleagues as if she’s just said something profound and life-changing. They look back at her as if she’s stark raving mad. The truth is that no one ever understands what Sharpe’s talking about. It’s hard to imagine she understands what she’s talking about herself.

I’m on the set of BBC2’s award-winning comedy Twenty Twelve, which returns for a three-part special this month, leading up to the Games. The mockumentary-style sitcom owes its success to clever, well-observed scripts by John Morton that blend the utterly insane with the entirely believable, and a cast who portray beautifully the madness and potential jeopardy involved in organising a major event.

Indeed, so close to the truth about Locog (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) has the show come that it has been suggested that writer/director John Morton has a mole in the committee feeding him true stories. The show even had a storyline about the Olympic clock breaking down, just as the real Olympic clock broke down.


“No. Honestly, it’s all made up,” says Morton. “The clock thing was luck! I’m flattered that people think I might have guys inside feeding me lines, because presumably that means they think the show is realistic… but I don’t… not at all.”

The first three episodes of the show were screened to Locog at a breakfast meeting in a London hotel. “I assured them that I didn’t have spies in the camp and that I have gone out of my way to make sure that the characters aren’t based on real people. I’ve created titles that don’t exist, like Head of Deliverance. Everything is to one side of the real world. The show isn’t about the Olympic Games, it's about human beings trying to interact and make things happen.”


READ MORE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-07-10/twenty-twelve---hugh-bonneville-and-co-on-the-return-of-the-london-2012-mockumentary

London 2012 Olympics: 100 days celebrations were just another example of life painfully imitating BBC art Seldom has the vapidity of PR-speak been so exquisitely skewered as in the BBC’s Olympics mockumentary, Twenty Twelve.By Oliver Brown8:40AM BST 26 Apr 201 (TELEGRAPH)

Head of brand Siobhan Sharpe’s notion of a 'Jubilympics’ — conflating the Games with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee — is staggeringly inane and yet contains an alarming ring of truth.

For the phrase 'symphony of inspiration’, wheeled out to mark London’s 100-days-to-go staging post in real life, has the fingerprints of Sharpe and her 'Perfect Curve’ spoof agency all over it.

Sadly, we must wait until the eve of London 2012 to see a third series on the antics of Ian Fletcher, played with a beautiful careworn nuance by Hugh Bonneville, and his ominously-titled Olympics Deliverance Commission.

For the second tranche of four episodes, brought to a comic peak last week by rapper Mini Steppah’s 'Get It On’ song about sexual health in the Olympic village, reinforced the sense that this programme performed a valuable public service.

While it lacked the caustic bile of The Thick of It, it sought at least to redress the glaring irony deficiency at the heart of Games bureaucracy.

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9227082/London-2012-Olympics-100-days-celebrations-were-just-another-example-of-life-painfully-imitating-BBC-art.html

Hugh Bonneville to Star in BBC America's TWENTY TWELVE, Premiering 6/30 (TALK TV WORLD)

As BBC AMERICA warms up for the London Olympics, the actors and creators of some of Britain's most iconic comedies come together for a new comedy, TWENTY TWELVE, premiering in the US in June as part of BBC AMERICA's Saturday night comedy block the Ministry of Laughs.




Starring Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Jessica Hynes (Spaced), Olivia Colman (Peep Show), Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge), Vincent Franklin (The Thick of It), and Karl Theobald (Green Wing) and narrated by David Tennant (The Spies of Warsaw, Doctor Who) - the documentary style comedy follows the team responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth: the London Olympics.

Twenty Twelve premieres Saturday, June 30 as part of the Ministry of Laughs. From executive producer Jon Plowman (The Office, Extras, Absolutely Fabulous) and writer John Morton (People Like Us), Twenty Twelve (12 x 30) is a BBC production, distributed by BBC Worldwide and has been acquired by BBC AMERICA. 

Read more:

Clive Owens to host Laureus World Sports Awards (Inside the Games)

By Tom Degun at Westminster in London
February 5 - Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning actor Clive Owen (pictured) is to host the 2012 Laureus World Sports Awards, the international sporting calendar's most premier honours event, in Central Hall, here tomorrow evening, it has been announced.

The 47-year-old from Coventry, who has starred in numerous Hollywood blockbusters including Sin City, Children of Men, Inside Man and King Arthur, takes over the role from American actor Kevin Spacey who successfully hosted the 2009 and 2010 Laureus World Sports Awards, both of which took place at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

The glittering event takes place just under six months before the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games.

A number of sporting icons are set to be attendance.

"I think the Laureus World Sports Awards coming to London is just a fabulous occasion.," said Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012 who is a member of the Laureus Academy.

"Laureus is a global organisation and it is absolutely right that we showcase the work we are doing in as many big cities as we possibly can, but of course having the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London in the same year makes a fabulous synergy."

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, fresh from his astonishing Australian Open against Rafael Nadal last month, will be favourite for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award.

He faces a shortlist of sprinter Usain Bolt, cyclist Cadel Evans, footballer Lionel Messi, basketball player Dirk Nowitzki and Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel.

Read more:  http://www.insidethegames.biz/latest/15774-clive-owen-to-host-2012-laureus-world-sports-awards