What Went Wrong With The Olympics?
- Radio sitcom
- BBC Radio 4
- 2010
- 4 episodes (1 series)
Spoof documentary set in 2014, looking back at the fiasco that WAS the London Olympics. Written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Stars Kevin Eldon, Adrian Scarborough, Dan Tetsell, Vicki Pepperdine, Brian Perkins and Lewis Macleod
Press clippings
Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, co-writers of What Went Wrong with the Olympics?, could have done with more real-life couldn't-make-it-up stuff to fuel their satire set in 2014 which looks back on the catastrophe that was the 2013 (geddit?) London Games. I say satire, but it's just comedy, strictly speaking: satire demands a certain accuracy underpinning the laughs, but this was crucially undermined by the fact that, in the real world, 2012 preparations are bang on schedule and bang on budget.
There were some good laughs (I liked the sports minister questioning the legacy value of the Coliseum, since it was no longer used for sea battles), but for the show to succeed, the organisers of the bona fide Olympics need to be making a mess of things. So far, they're not. You definitely couldn't make that up.
Chris Maume, The Independent, 7th November 2010What Went Wrong With the Olympics? - review
The Radio 4 schedule at the moment is an even split between documentary and spoof documentary.
Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 28th October 2010