the leading man is my tpye

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The finest comedy show since the 1997 first series of i'm Alan Partridge. Similar to Partridge you can watch this show again and again and see things you missed first time around. Magnificent casting with my vote as the best of the lot going to the NO Nonsense head of contracts Yorkshire bloke Nick Jowett played by the wonderful Vincent Franklin. All the cast play the parts very well very well indeed and there are a few cameos thrown in for good measure.For anyone who hasn't seen it please watch it you will NOT be disappointed. I believer Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes are reprising their roles in the follow up about the BBC. I wonder whether that will work without the rest of the cat of twenty twelve.. We shall see.........

By the same writer as the wonderful "People Like Us," the shows are riproaringly funny and daringly satirical without being the least bit nasty. Recommended for everyone, whether interested in the Olympics or not. The humor is deadpan; you have to listen and look closely. You have simultaneously the experience of being trapped in a very familiar world and the sense that the camera and narrator give you some breathing room from it. The characters are recognizable types and yet individuals; their actions deplorable and yet forgivable. Characters with extremely limited screen time make indelible impressions, and even characters with no screen time at all. Real people are invoked and sometimes appear (e.g., Sebastian Coe); the sets and location shots also give a documentary feel. Two generations of Americans have gotten a enormous kick out of watching a few episodes and look forward to seeing the rest. Everything is done impeccably---in contrast to the fiction!

The first episode was criticised by the TV critics of two British newspapers for lacking jokes. That rather seems to miss the point. I found it far funnier than they seem to have done, and often it is the small, almost insignificant points which are so telling: the casting of peripheral characters is masterly and hints at the essence of Twenty Twelve. This is not in the first instance a comedy but satire which sends up mercilessly the attitudes, dishonesty and outright nonsensical babble of recent times. But it is done in such a straight-faced manner than perhaps some miss its nuances. My favourite character is the utterly vacuous air-headed Siobhan Sharpe, on secondment from the PR company Perfect Curve as the Olympic deliverance committee's Head of Brand, but that is just a personal choice and it would be unfair to single her out. I have met all the characters portrayed in real life and, oddly, they are not at all exaggerated. With luck - and the Games being just over a year away - this one will run and run.

Having not seen the Aussie "The Games" that this is supposed to strongly resemble I don't have anything really to compare it to other than The Office (US and UK both). I don't think it's quite as funny as I expected but not all that dull either. It was amusing to see all the dancing around sensibilities, especially with the "countdown" clock silliness, and it was nice to see Olivia Colman in this, I liked her a lot in "Rev.". All in all I was entertained by the first episode but I hope for better as the episodes progress. I would hope there were a lot of inside jokes that Londoners would get better than myself on the other side of the pond. I can't help but wonder if this might not have been funnier to follow around the actual people involved in carrying this off and showing that during the games. If they have time to watch this I hope they are suitably amused.