I liked it, the surly artist rang some bells and the dim witted marketing bits. I think it's going to grow on me too. The bit about, everyone knows, then they die, was the best line..
Twenty Twelve - Series 1 Page 5
Still think it would have worked better if they'd got a less well known cast but some of it chimed.
Jessica Hynes could have been holding up a big sign that said "I'm acting" her performance was so transparent.
That aside I thought this was rather OK... but I kept thinking it is a pity Roy Mallard is a social pariah and not there to be the documentarian.
*edit* Oh yea, this belongs in the sitcom section!
Quote: MTpromises @ March 15 2011, 8:16 PM GMT*edit* Oh yea, this belongs in the sitcom section!
Agreed.
Very People Like Us, but quite fun.
Not sure about Seb Coe in the next episode. Non-actors playing themselves can often end badly.
Quote: chipolata @ March 15 2011, 10:40 PM GMTNot sure about Seb Coe in the next episode.
Really? There is no-one associated with the Olympics more deserving of having the piss unmercilessly ripped out of him, but having him play along would rather seem to draw the teeth of the satire.
"I hate Sebastian Coe!"
Quote: David Bussell @ March 16 2011, 8:07 AM GMT"I hate Sebastian Coe!"
I've met him and I have to agree.....
Plagiarism Row
Quote: MTpromises @ September 27 2010, 10:22 PM GMTThe concept certainly works; Aussie sitcom The Games is basically the same deal from the Sydney 2000 Olympics and is fairly funny.
Oh yeah
should have read the whole thread
Quote: David Bussell @ March 16 2011, 8:07 AM GMT"I hate Sebastian Coe!"
"you could make more money auctioning dogs"
Wasn't looking forward to this as the premise of an Olympics committee didn't seem a very promising setting for anything a lay person could identitfy with, unlike other mockumentaries set in an Office, Government or a hospital.
How wrong I was, the setting could really be any old quango and although I have no idea if the Olympics is being competently run or not, the fact that the real life clock broke down yesterday is uncanny timing.
It has the same writer as People Like Us which would explain David Tennant's Roy Mallard style narration.
Absolutely astonishing that the BBC can deny with a straight face the debt this series owes to John Clarke's Australian series "The Games". Particularly given the detail of the contact between Morton and John Clarke over "The Games" as detailed in the article posted earlier in the thread.
There were two series of "The Games", the second superior to the first. The first was less disciplined, improvised around pre-sketched out scenarios. The inspired moments - and there were many - tended to get lost amongst the superfluous. The second series was tighter, meaner and consistently inspired.
Still, it's one thing to borrow, another thing to equal what you're borrowing let alone improve on it. "The Games" dealt in fresh characters, invention and wit. Thus far, Morton is dealing in stereotypes.
Shame, really, on all counts.
Quote: italophile @ March 17 2011, 11:36 AM GMTAbsolutely astonishing that the BBC can deny with a straight face the debt this series owes to John Clarke's Australian series "The Games". Particularly given the detail of the contact between Morton and John Clarke over "The Games" as detailed in the article posted earlier in the thread.
There were two series of "The Games", the second superior to the first. The first was less disciplined, improvised around pre-sketched out scenarios. The inspired moments - and there were many - tended to get lost amongst the superfluous. The second series was tighter, meaner and consistently inspired.
Still, it's one thing to borrow, another thing to equal what you're borrowing let alone improve on it. "The Games" dealt in fresh characters, invention and wit. Thus far, Morton is dealing in stereotypes.
Shame, really, on all counts.
It's probably quite difficult for one show parodying the Olympics not to look like another show parodying the Olympics. I think this show is a money-spinner (ideas spinner?) on the 2012 Olympics, rather than attempting to steal another show's format. Certainly there also seems to be parallels with the radio show Think the Unthinkable but we could both be wrong.
Well, having seen "The Games" and the first ep of "Twenty Twelve", it's exactly the same format. The unfortunate aspect is Morton and Plowman's introduction to the format by "The Games" people. The standard defence for this sort of thing is, "Well, I'd (we'd) had the idea floating around for a long time". The evidence is that they hadn't.
The fundamental difference between the two, based on the first ep, is that it looks like Morton has gone with his essentially one-joke characters, the ones that will work a treat within the confines of a one-off ep of, say, "People Like Us". Whether they have the legs for a series is another matter.
The interpreter's pretty good.