--- title: "Twenty Twelve" year: 2011 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/twenty-twelve" fi1m_id: "twenty-twelve" imdb_id: "tt1861225" tmdb_id: 38210 wikidata_id: "Q4094968" fi1m_score: 77 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-07T16:20:46.853049+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T16:20:47.741419+00:00" region: "FI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Twenty Twelve (2011) Created by John Morton · 30m · Comedy, Sport ## Identity Twenty Twelve - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/twenty-twelve - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** twenty-twelve - **IMDb ID:** tt1861225 - **TMDB ID:** 38210 - **Wikidata ID:** Q4094968 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1861225/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/38210, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4094968 **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* The Olympic preparations are in hand, provided nobody asks what any of the words mean > John Morton’s *Twenty Twelve* is a good workplace comedy with an exact ear for people talking themselves away from a decision. Its forgiving view of the committee helps the performances, but sometimes softens the jokes. ## Synopsis An Olympic organising committee faces a succession of crises while its members try to agree what they are doing and how to describe it. Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), Sally Owen (Olivia Colman) and Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) are among those caught up in the work. Practical decisions compete with public relations language, and the difference between legacy and sustainability becomes a matter for debate. With the committee responsible for Olympic preparations, even establishing what a problem means can take attention away from solving it. ## Review *Twenty Twelve* has a subject well suited to dry comedy: the committee charged with Olympic preparations. There is important work to do, which makes every discussion about how to discuss it a little more exasperating. We recommend it for the dialogue and the cast, with one reservation: the people responsible are often let off rather easily. It is good company, though anyone hoping for a sustained attack on institutional incompetence should lower their expectations. As writer and director, John Morton is interested in the capable person having a bad professional day. This is a useful choice for a workplace comedy, where making everyone hopeless can soon become tiresome. Here, competing responsibilities and the difficulty of agreeing on terms are enough to occupy intelligent people unproductively. The dialogue makes those discussions recognisable without requiring any specialist interest in sport. Jessica Hynes, as Siobhan Sharpe, is particularly good at making public relations language sound convincing until we try to work out what it means. The confidence matters: hesitation would suggest that she can hear the problem herself. We keep waiting for a usable answer, and the language keeps providing another reason to continue the conversation. Her baffling PR-speak is the clearest example of how carefully the programme listens to professional language. The debate about legacy and sustainability is a particularly well-chosen piece of bureaucracy. We laughed because the care spent distinguishing the terms is so recognisable: people can turn choosing the right word into an obstacle to doing anything. The joke has room for a real disagreement, which makes it sharper than a simple complaint about jargon. Each position can sound reasonable, and the discussion can still be absurd. Hugh Bonneville as Ian Fletcher and Olivia Colman as Sally Owen help keep the committee’s difficulties worth caring about. The ensemble gives us people worth spending time with, rather than a procession of incompetents introduced solely to delay the next decision. This matters in a series built around an organising committee: contempt would soon make another crisis hard to care about. David Tennant’s narration is part of that restraint: the joke is funnier when the voice describing the committee does not sound astonished by it. The cost of that generosity is a certain mildness. The writing sometimes seems satisfied that we have recognised a familiar evasion, when recognition alone does not supply much of a laugh. John Morton has a fine ear for the sentence that explains nothing; he is less consistently ruthless about the consequences of speaking that way. For a comedy about an organisation with so much to get done, it can leave us surprisingly untroubled by the failure to make progress. The 30-minute running time suits this level of irritation. We would start with an episode rather than treating the series as a long sitting; repeated evasions are easier to enjoy in small doses. There is enough wit here to make us want another encounter with the committee, though not necessarily straight away. If the day has already contained one meeting too many, we would leave it for another evening. *Fi1m score 77, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Twenty Twelve worth watching?** *Twenty Twelve* is worth watching for its precise workplace dialogue and strong ensemble; we score it 77 and recommend it to anyone who enjoys dry comedy about meetings that achieve little. No interest in sport is required, though its forgiving treatment of the committee makes it gentler than we would like, and the evasions work better one episode at a time. **How long is Twenty Twelve, and what is it rated?** *Twenty Twelve* has episodes of about 30m. It is a comedy and sport series. **Where can I watch Twenty Twelve in Finland?** *Twenty Twelve* is not on any streaming or rental service in Finland at the moment. It is available in 6 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Twenty Twelve compare to Yes Minister?** *Twenty Twelve* is the gentler workplace comedy, while we recommend [*Yes Minister*](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister) as the sharper satire, turning government business into verbal contests nobody admits are happening. Both reward an ear for evasive language, but the Olympic committee’s muddles suit viewers who want warmth towards the people involved; the minister and his managing mandarin offer more pointed comedy about power. **What should I watch after Twenty Twelve?** After *Twenty Twelve*, try [*Yes Minister*](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister) (1980, Fi1m 89): Patient verbal traps turn routine government business into contests nobody admits are happening. Then [*Parks and Recreation*](https://film.one/tv/parks-and-recreation) (2009, Fi1m 83): A warmer workplace comedy about public service, shared frustrations and stubborn professional optimism; and [*PlayTime*](https://film.one/film/playtime) (1967, Fi1m 88): For the visual equivalent: carefully organised modern spaces making ordinary human behaviour difficult. ### Reviews we read (3) - **The AV Club**, Erik Adams (A-; B): Adams finds both episodes effective at showing the commission’s capable members as fallible, human people. He especially praises the legacy-versus-sustainability debate as a sharp source of bureaucratic satire. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/twenty-twelve-boycott-part-2-clarence-house-1798173482) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (75/100, inferred): Lowry finds the series clever, consistently fun, and wry, despite few laugh-out-loud moments. He especially praises its dry humor about the absurd crises facing an Olympic organizing committee. [Read](https://variety.com/2012/tv/reviews/twenty-twelve-1117947801/) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (35/100, inferred): Wollaston finds the episode mildly entertaining but says its satire is too gentle and not funny enough. He praises the cast and dialogue, especially Jessica Hynes’s performance and baffling PR-speak. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/14/twenty-twelve-tv-review) ## Details - **Created by:** John Morton - **Creator:** John Morton - **Director:** John Morton - **Writer:** John Morton - **Producer:** Catherine Gosling Fuller, Paul Schlesinger - **Cast:** Hugh Bonneville as Ian Fletcher; Olivia Colman as Sally Owen; Jessica Hynes as Siobhan Sharpe; Amelia Bullmore as Kay Hope; Karl Theobald as Graham Hitchens; Vincent Franklin as Nick Jowett; Morven Christie as Fi Healey; Samuel Barnett as Daniel Stroud - **Runtime:** 30m - **Release (Finland):** 14 March 2011 - **Genres:** Comedy, Sport - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVcz6bi90Y ## Where to watch in Finland Not streaming, renting or buying in Finland at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Games* (1998): Another Olympic committee discovers how much work can disappear into a discussion. - *Yes Minister* (1980), Fi1m 89: Patient verbal traps turn routine government business into contests nobody admits are happening. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister.md) - *Parks and Recreation* (2009), Fi1m 83: A warmer workplace comedy about public service, shared frustrations and stubborn professional optimism. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/parks-and-recreation.md) - *The Death of a Bureaucrat* (1966): A Cuban comedy whose bureaucratic obstacles cause considerably more than professional embarrassment. - *PlayTime* (1967), Fi1m 88: For the visual equivalent: carefully organised modern spaces making ordinary human behaviour difficult. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/playtime.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/twenty-twelve