Amelia Bullmore

As for last night Sally (Olivia Colman), personal assistant to Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), head of deliverance at the Olympic Deliverance Commission in the always amusing and sporadically very funny Twenty Twelve, I yearned for the happy ending that she herself seemed to yearn for, a meaningful clinch with her boss. Alas, the final episode didn't yield the romantic encounter it had promised, despite Sally continuing to show much more devotion to Ian than he got at home from his needy, nagging, pixellated wife.

It's hard to think of a spoof documentary that has been more fortuitously timed than Twenty Twelve. The first episode poked fun at the Olympic countdown clock, and within less than a day the real clock had malfunctioned. Since then, there's been no end of argy-bargy concerning the future use of the Olympic stadium, with the decision to hand it to West Ham United robustly challenged by Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient. Oh, and marathon man David Bedford has resigned, citing general ineptitude. So it has taken only a very small leap of the imagination into the fictional world of the ODC, whose head of sustainability (Amelia Bullmore) was last night confronted by a man from the London Wildlife Stag Beetle Outreach Project, worried that clearing an area of tree stumps would wreak devastation among his beloved beetles.

Similarly outraged was Tony Ward (Tim McInnerny), a volatile film-maker aghast at the deployment of Greenwich Park for the equestrian events, and the probable daily invasion of "20,000 pubescent girls from second-rate public schools in Surrey with dreadful aspirational mothers". To demonstrate his opposition, Ward had a large pile of horse manure dumped outside the ODC offices, which Fletcher agreed to deal with to "keep it from Seb".

I don't think that's another example of art and life colliding, but it easily could be. Indeed, Ward and Roberts finally came face to face in the Today programme studio, where they were asked a succinct question by James Naughtie, just about the only truly unlikely turn of events in the entire half-hour.

This mockumentary is now half-way through its run, so we can now get a good idea of what it's truly like. My overall conclusion is thus - it's good, but not great.

There's a big problem with any mockumentary which can be summed up in two words: The Office. As soon as any new series comes up it's almost naturally compared with it, and because The Office was so prolific any similar show is cast in its shadow. People instantly say it is not original. In the case of Twenty Twelve, it's not just critics saying it, but the Australians claiming it's copying their sitcom The Games.

There are some problems with the show anyway, though. Just little things, but (for example) how come one of the main characters was not included in last week's episode? Some of the jokes are rather unsurprising, too, especially during the Ian Fletcher routine which felt so, so predictable.

There were some high points however. The highlight of last night's episode was Amelia Bullmore trying desperately to do a video blog which she kept messing up - though that's probably because, as a former media student, I know what it's like. I constantly kept fluffing my lines like Bullmore did, so I know that things like this do happen. It all ties into that fear of public speaking that most of us have, and it's a really clever observational piece.

Ex-athlete Dave Wellbeck is chosen as an ambassador to inspire young people about the forthcoming Olympic games, but despite his conscientious and loyal approach he has about as much charisma as a sweaty sports sock and fails to engage his ideals. This spoof about the preparations for the London 2012 Olympics only quietly mocks the games but it has its moments, and tonight's centre around Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore) as she tries to defend the Olympic park wind turbine. "We need to make sustainability visible. If we lose that, then just what is 2012 about?" "Well, sport, and stuff like archery," comes the reply.

It should be simple. A delegation from Rio de Janeiro is in town and the Olympic Deliverance Commission has to greet them at their Mayfair hotel then coach them out east to the London 2012 site for lunch with Sebastian Coe. Unfortunately, the driver is more familiar with Nottingham, and satire steers into farce as the coach plunges twice into the Blackwall Tunnel before bombing up the M11. As this ODC odyssey unfolds, team boss Ian (Hugh Bonneville) remains resolutely tactful and tactical, while a no-nonsense Portuguese interpreter (Karina Fernandez) translates Ian and co's diversionary flannel as she sees fit. Perhaps funniest of all is Head of Sustainability Kay Hope (superb Amelia Bullmore), who has to field irate calls from the school of her scissor-happy son: "He's a very imaginative boy. You are aware of that?" Kudos, too, to Coe, whose cameo lends the whole show credibility.

As the Olympic clock tick tocks its way down to the big event, this new comedy couldn't be more timely. This six partner stars Jessica Hynes, Hugh Bonneville, Amelia Bullmore and Olivia Colman who form the team who have to troubleshoot their way to the opening ceremony. Some of the challenges they face may seem utterly unconnected to watching Sir Chris Hoy bombing round on his fancy BMX, but if there isn't enough wind to move the wind turbines or properly phased traffic lights, the whole event would be a disaster. Written by and directed by People Like Us writer John Morton, we expect it may not be as traumatic as the real Olympics in a year's time.

When London's countdown clock to the Olympics ­malfunctioned last week, it was an uncanny rerun of the first episode of this cruelly observed docu-spoof.

The second episode finds London's Olympic Deliverance committee stuck on a bus with a delegation from Brazil and things are still refusing to run like clockwork. They're heading for a meeting with Sebastian Coe at the Olympic Park - or then again, possibly not, thanks to the wonders of satnav and bus drivers with only the vaguest grasp of London geography.

Leading a brilliant cast is Hugh Bonneville as the ­ultra-calm Head Of ­Deliverance - a master at "managing expectations" and staying positive at all costs.

We're also loving Amelia Bullmore (Head of ­Sustainability), waffling ­meaninglessly about how "Sustainability is not legacy", as well as Jessica Hynes]s shinily robotic Head of Brand and Karl Theobald's panic-stricken Head of Infrastructure.

The narration by David Tennant is as warmly soothing as a foot rub and the job titles alone are enough to make you smile.

The only downside in this perfect comedy of cock-ups is the BBC has been accused of ripping off 1998 Australian ­mockumentary The Games, about inept officials ­planning for the Sydney Games.

The BBC strenuously denies it, but the producers of The Games claim to have had talks with the BBC's head of comedy about a British equivalent, and actually loaned the writer of this one a DVD of their own show. So has the Beeb been a very bad sport?

Deliciously skewering everyone from marketing creatives and PRs to web designers, John Morton's mockumentary (narrated by David Tennant) about the "Olympic Deliverance" team preparing for 2012 appears both painful and probable. It is the characterisation that is so sharp and knowing, while the execution is all the better for its subtlety.

Heading the team is the exasperated Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), who frequently despairs in his hapless staff. Aside from the bluff Nick Jowett (Vincent Franklin), who is prone to uttering, "I don't care who you are. I'm sorry, I'm from Yorkshire and I'm not having it", Fletcher is painted as the only one with a glimmer of competence. An early crisis is that the 2012 countdown clock has been designed by a curmudgeonly British artist, who refuses to explain how it works, or admit that it is flawed. It was commissioned by Head of Brand, Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes), a firm believer in "adspeak", who is often framed as clueless. Her suggestions for national heroes to be Olympic torch-bearers include Bruce Forsyth and Gok Wan, and she confuses the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy with the Welsh singer Duffy. Meanwhile, her colleague Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore), Head of Sustainability, wonders if the taekwondo hall might make a good donkey sanctuary once the Games themselves are finished.

When this comedy series began it went out late. It still fooled gullible souls like me into thinking it really was a phone-in and not an exquisite parody of one. Host Gary Bellamy is played by Rhys Thomas, the voices of all those nutters, fanatics, drunks and po-faced poshies come from Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Day, Lucy Montgomery and Felix Dexter. And very funny they are, probably because they are not a million miles away from the real people who call Radio 5 Live's real-life late-night hosts Tony Livesey and Stephen Nolan.

A one-off special edition of the spoof phone-in show, an eve of Budget salute to all the things we don't know and can't grasp about what's happened to the economy and why having a balance in the bank is suddenly a bad thing. Presented, as ever, by the utterly witless 'Gary Bellamy' (Rhys Thomas) with the only too believable callers played by Paul Whitehouse, Amelia Bullmore, Felix Dexter and co, with special guest Mark Gatiss. Word is that this show is about to transfer to television. Ah well, that'll be another one gone to where the big money grows.