With less than 5 weeks to go, the Olympics Deliverance Committee have got their work cut out… ordering the right coffees.
There was an enormous lot of ground covered in this, the first of the final three episodes of Twenty Twelve, a show that has quickly gained national treasure status.
The Olympics Deliverance Committee are gearing up for a final sprint
As the committee assembled for a last jump for glory prior to the games, the sustainability of the East London stadium, post-event, was the biggest priority and, it seemed, the biggest unresolved problem. “Where are we up to with this?” asked Ian Fletcher, a furrowed-brow Hugh Bonneville. Silence, and mutters of agreement all round. “It’s not a rhetorical question,” he added hopefully.
Against the backdrop of the approaching Olympiad was Ian Fletcher’s divorce, which meant more evidence of Bonneville’s mastery of the one-sided phone-call, and that thing people do when they’re on the phone, of pacing aimlessly to and fro in a confined space.
Ian Fletcher gets to grips with the Met's concerns over starter pistols
Meanwhile, his colleague Kay (the exquisitely expressive Amelia Bullmore) got the far more glamorous end of the gig, an outward-bound expedition to bring new partners on board. She got as far as the Dagenham and Redbridge Football Club… and from there the dizzy heights of the Walthamstow Dog Track.
Back in the office, and it was time to meet with the Met’s senior officers, preoccupied with impending catastrophisation levels, and the arrest of a man convicted of converting Olympics starter pistols into… well, it became increasingly unclear, with the not-very-well placed use of a beeper, to preserve… security? an ongoing court-case? not sure, really.
And elsewhere, a PR company, with viral concept designer Karl Marx, proved that this team, and this series, really can spread its tentacles as far as it likes in terms of all and everything in London connecting in some way to the Games. As ‘Barney’ explained, all roads lead to Stratford…
... until a wayward starter pistol has the last word
All this, and yet, somehow, there was still time for a lunch date between Ian and Fi. Ian, freshly post-divorce, was palpably nervous dipping his bread into the olive oil, and deliberating on the niceties of wine versus water, before they both ordered one and decided it was “a free country”. Brilliant. And then there was Sally with the flowers, gearing up for a Tim-and-Dawn type ending in the final reel. Doubly brilliant.
With the end of the Games only a month away now, one of the things I’m already preparing to miss is Twenty Twelve. And if The Deliverance Committee can make the preparations look so slick and seamless – Fletcher being shot by a wayward starter gun notwithstanding – we can only hope that Lord Seb’s office is similarly unruffled…
Twenty Twelve continues on BBC2. Some pics of the gang in action below...
