Hugh Bonneville

As London's big moment looms ever closer, the Bafta-nominated Olympic-themed sitcom returns for a final run of three episodes. This curtain-raiser, entitled Catastrophisation, opens with 32 days to go until the Games. Newly divorced Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher (the excellent Hugh Bonneville) chairs his usual succession of interminable meetings, rammed with well-observed management-speak: "going forward", "win-win", "no-brainer" and other such babble. Lord Coe's on the phone, flapping about transport. Boris is worried about bikes. Everyone's obsessed with "sustainable post-Games legacy". Translation: desperately trying to flog the stadium to anyone who fancies it. Meanwhile, a delegation of American officials arrives to check security arrangements. As usual, Jessica Hynes as clueless branding consultant Siobhan Sharpe and Karl Theobald as incompetent infrastructure guru Graham Hitchins steal most of the laughs. Twenty Twelve's subtly satirical style is much gentler than The Thick of It or Veep but it does share one quality with those shows: as you're chuckling, there's also a creeping sense that somewhere this is all actually happening.

If the hoopla surrounding the London 2012 Olympics is beginning to grate, the perfect antidote is nestled in the BBC schedules. Twenty Twelve is a subtly-rendered comedy which pokes the mildest of fun at the London 2012 circus.

Starring Hugh Bonneville, the series follows the team responsible for delivering the Olympics, and includes some great turns from the cream of British comedy acting, including Spaced's Jessica Hynes' genius performance as a vacant PR girl and Peep Show's Olivia Coleman as Bonneville's intent and slightly creepy PA.

Despite the satirical edge, the characters on show make the whole thing seem unfeasibly realistic. This week, a pledge to merge the Olympics with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee resulted in the Frankenstein construction of the Jubilympics. The heinous idea, from Hynes' team of PR try-hards, received a reluctant thumbs-up from hapless Bonneville, constantly buffeted from pillar to post feeling the need to play "yes man", who travelled all the way to Clarence House, where it was duly vetoed. In the vein of satire hit The Thick Of It, it's perhaps more gentle without a foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker character, but nonetheless entertaining as it lurches towards what can only be its staggeringly inept finale.

Have you been watching ... Twenty Twelve?

BBC2's joyous Olympic mockumentary starring Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes has proved a Friday night comedy treat.

This episode of the lovingly detailed comedy of errors could almost have been written by cutting and pasting actual newspaper articles.

Because the latest hurdle for Ian Fletcher's Olympic Development Committee concerns the (still unresolved) post-Games future for the Olympic Stadium and the rival bids from West Ham and Spurs.

A football pitch with a running track around its perimeter? Who wouldn't want a white elephant like that?

What the cast bring to this series are the glimpses of barely concealed panic just behind their eyes and Sally Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is absolutely marvellous this week - toiling through the night to produce her report on the Spurs bid and their manager Harry Houdini.

The other major development this week is that super-PA Sally has abandoned ship, after Ian (Hugh Bonneville) failed to turn up at her house last week, and has been replaced by a sweet boy called Daniel.

Meanwhile, Ian and Siobhan (who is frankly too thick to panic) are off to Clarence House to thrash out ways the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics can pull together.

And that means a visit to the "Ideas Space" at Siobhan's PR company. Like Siobhan, it's a room which manages to be vacuous, loud and pretentious all at the same time.

We get a glimpse into the workings of unspeakable PR agency Perfect Curve when dead-eyed Siobhan (Jessica Hynes) gathers her team to brainstorm ideas. They come up with a terrific wheeze - combining the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with the Olympics. Result? The Jubilympics.

Back at the Olympic Deliverance Committee offices, Ian has an attentive male PA, and febrile head of sustainability Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is quietly in meltdown. There's a wonderful scene between Kay and Ian (Hugh Bonneville) after Kay has a moment of madness with a vitally important document.

Twenty Twelve delivers quiet chuckles rather than belly laughs, but that's not to underestimate the subtle humour that mostly hits the mark. Much of the wit lies in the small details: from the gruesome multi-coloured logo to the ubiquitous fold-up bikes that are fast becoming a visual running gag. There's much merriment to be had tonight from the Perfect Curve PR team, led by clueless head of brands Siobhan (a superb Jessica Hynes) and including a 'viral concept designer', called Carl Marx. Elsewhere, Hugh Bonneville's performance is as beautifully nuanced as ever, juggling 'sustainability', 'legacy' and - this week's catch word - 'inheritance'. 'Who knows what that shit is,' says Siobhan when told she has to come up with a concept to combine the three. Indeed.

Top of the agenda in this neatly played Olympics satire is what happens to the stadium after the last closing ceremony ribbon-twirler has turned the lights out. It's an issue that poor Hugh Bonneville must navigate in a meeting that involves random shout-outs of 'Hammers!' We also get to see inside the office of Perfect Curve, the moronic PR agency run by Jessica Hynes's brilliantly hideous Siobhan Sharpe. Their branding solution to link the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with the games? 'Jubilympics'.

Another episode of the "mockumentary" following the work of the Olympic Deliverance Commission that will leave viewers wondering just how fictional it actually is. Set early in 2011, it sees Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) trying to find the right buyer for the Olympic stadium. "It's crucial that the decision process is impartial and fair at every stage," he tells his colleagues. "At the same time, if being impartial and fair did end up favouring the West Ham bid, that would be no bad thing."

The Olympic Deliverance Committee, a bunch of people who do an awful lot of talking yet somehow never manage to say anything. Take half-witted PR flack (sorry, Head of Brand) Siobhan (superb Jessica Hynes), whose contributions to meetings begin and end with "I'm totally good with that" and who thinks Canterbury (as in the Archbishop of) is in Sussex.

As the row over the faith centre escalates, there are discussions about whether the Olympic Village laundry centre could be converted into a mosque to appease the Algerian team. Siobhan and Ian Fletcher (the great Hugh Bonneville) have a painfully funny on-site meeting with an exasperated architect at the end of his tether. It's another layer of tortuous bureaucracy as everyone strives for a "beacon of inclusiveness".

As the big games draw ever closer the Olympic Deliverance Team still can't avoid making mistakes at every opportunity. Hugh Bonneville stars in this cringe-filled "mockumentary" about those behind the production of the Olympics. They're faced with Algerian athletes demanding a Shared Belief Centre that faces Mecca - which has already been built and is facing the wrong way. The team consider swapping the centre with the laundry building, which already happens to face Mecca, but the Christians won't be happy unless the team brings in an architect.