Twenty Twelve Research

Main Product Analysis

Twenty TwelvePlotTwenty Twelve followed the fictional Olympic Deliverance Commission (ODC), the body tasked with making the London 2012 Summer Olympics happen. Spanning the series are persistent problems caused by construction errors, infrastructure problems and general failures, many of which are caused by the characters’ whose jobs it is to fix these problems. The main character, Ian Fletcher, spends every episode troubleshooting and crisis managing, a subplot of Ian going through the failure of his marriage whilst his PA, Sally, is falling in love with him.

Siobhan Sharpe of PR company ‘Perfect Curve’ provides some comic relief to the otherwise dry show, she is almost entirely clueless in every situation, providing meaningless answers to problems that have no actual value. The other supporting characters follow mostly the same pattern, they are mostly incompetent whilst also having to deal with a troubled home life.

BroadcastTwenty Twelve was produced by the BBC as an in-house production, originally for BBC Four for the first series then graduating to BBC Two for the second. It was later broadcast in Finland under the name ‘2012: Olympiaseikkailu’ and also in Portugal under the name ‘Dois Mil e Doze’.

Critical ResponseThe programme was well recieved; The Telegraph gave it 4.5 stars, calling it ‘sublime’, it went on in 2013 to win 2 BAFTAs for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for Olivia Colman and Best Situation Comedy. It also won Best Sitcom at the British Comedy Awards, Best Comedy/Entertainment at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and Best Comedy Performance from the Royal Television Society for Jessica Hynes.

Viewing FiguresThe viewing figures for the first series stayed fairly consistently at 400,000 viewers; the first episode with 417,000 and the last with 432,000. The second series, following the move to BBC Two, had much higher figures, the first episode with 1.2 million viewers, reaching a peak of 1.8 million in episode 6 and dropping to 1.78 million for the last episode, where the team get ready to deliver the games.

LegacyTwenty Twelve was later released on DVD. ‘Ian Fletcher’ found a new home at the BBC in the form of a sequel. Following the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games, he was appointed the BBC’s new ‘Head of Values’. The new series, W1A, follows mostly the same pattern of crisis management and characters that aren’t very sure of what they’re doing, nor how they should get to where they want to be. ‘Siobhan Sharpe’ also made her way across to W1A, in much the same role as in Twenty Twelve.

Twenty Twelve S2 E1 - Boycott Part One

This episode was the first of the second series, following the move to BBC Two, giving it a threefold boost in ratings from the first series, gaining 1.2 million viewers.

The opening titles re-introduce us to every character at the start of every episode, they are presented to us in a series of photographs being laid atop each other on a desk. One additional aspect that breaks it up is the pastry being eaten by one of the characters, as seen in a picture, then appears on the desk then being slowly eaten. Set to Nat King Cole’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”, an appropriate accompaniment as every episode involves the team ‘facing the music’ and being forced to deal with the fallout.

This episode opens with Ian Fletcher having a phone conversation with Boris Johnson’s team whilst riding, and then collapsing a folding bicycle. He uses a Latin phrase, a well known trademark of Boris Johnson, and also hurts his hand whilst collapsing the bicycle, this becomes a recurring feature. As Ian walks into the office and tries to enter the office with his pass failing to open the door, another recurring feature.

As Ian has the cuts on his hands sterilised by his PA, Sally and he enters a meeting, the visual style that remains through every episode is apparent. The camera is almost always handheld, usually at shoulder height, unless it’s made clear that there is a tripod to be used, for example, in the case of a news crew. There are a smattering of other tripod uses during long shots that would most likely be too shaky to take handheld and be distracting to the viewer, similarly for the establishing shots that are interspersed throughout the show to bridge across time and locations. The style is a higher production value version of fly-on-the-wall with shots often being taken through glass walls that include obstructions, this adds realism as an actual documentary would not be able to move anything in the office to get the right shot. The show contains masses of over-the-shoulder shots as the programme is very dialogue heavy, often having situations where there are only 2 people in the

scene. The majority of the other shots are medium shots taken well above the waist but still allowing for some of the location to be evident, particularly important when frequently moving between locations. Part of the documentary feel is added by the lack of any significant depth of field, there is some to be seen when there is significant distance between two characters but otherwise, there is not a great deal of visual subject separation from the surroundings.

However, there does not always need to be subject separation because most of the scenes take place in office sets. The ‘ODC’ office, shot on location on the 37th floor of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, comprises almost entirely of white, grey and glass which is not distracting. Other significant props are Ian Fletcher’s folding bike, somewhat condescending news reports and a paper mock-up of the Olympic park. In this particular episode, the eating of a banana whilst in a taxi with ‘Graham Hitchins’ would suggest that he is one.

The episodes are lit naturally, giving the impression that there is no designed lighting. When in offices, the impression of cold fluorescent lighting is given, whilst in other locations, the lighting follows the general colouration. The colours are generally neutral with a bias towards a warmer feel, there are not many variations on the mood through colour.

The sound comprises mostly of dialogue and sound bridges of upbeat big band music which keeps the mood light.

One of Twenty Twelve’s biggest strengths is in the excellent cast, Hugh Bonneville as ‘Ian Fletcher’ carries the series and its excellent script. His performance as the captain of a sinking ship, brings lines such as ‘problems are just solutions waiting to happen’ and his catchphrase ‘well that’s all good then’ are essentially meaningless and reinforce the theme of the ODC being a complete shambles. His PA, ‘Sally Owen’, played by the excellent Olivia Colman, reinforces Ian by being even more of a bumbling shambles that ultimately makes the Olympics happen. Head of Brand ‘Siobhan Sharpe’ played by Jessica Hynes, is a character that Twenty Twelve could not do without as she has no real awareness of what is going on, nor the ability to be original despite her working for a creative agency. Her trademark ‘so here’s the thing with this guys’, followed by stating the obvious, makes her ultimately useless and having to watch the other characters deal with her is part of the show’s charm. The other supporting characters, ‘Kay Hope’ with her catchphrase, ‘I really believe that’, ‘Nick Jowett’ as the down-to-earth Yorkshireman and his catchphrase ‘I don’t care who you are’, and ‘Graham Hitchins’ as the oddball Head of Infrastructure who ultimately doesn’t know anything despite not knowing that he doesn’t, all contribute essentially nothing productive towards organising the Olympics throughout all the episodes. One of the most important members of the cast is David Tennant and his excellent deadpan narration that mocks the ridiculousness of the situations, he binds the episodes together and fills in the gaps.