Twenty Twelve

As the big games draw ever closer the Olympic Deliverance Team still can't avoid making mistakes at every opportunity. Hugh Bonneville stars in this cringe-filled "mockumentary" about those behind the production of the Olympics. They're faced with Algerian athletes demanding a Shared Belief Centre that faces Mecca - which has already been built and is facing the wrong way. The team consider swapping the centre with the laundry building, which already happens to face Mecca, but the Christians won't be happy unless the team brings in an architect.

Tonight, the Olympic Deliverance team are forced to come up with a strategy that reconciles the apparently irreconcilable demands of the Muslims and the French. The Algerians are demanding a Shared Belief Centre that faces Mecca, while the French are threatening to pull out of the Games if a separate mosque is constructed. Clever, if not exactly original: the Sydney Olympics were preceded by a similar Australian comedy, The Games. That proved to be an anti-jinx, as the 2000 Games were lauded as an organisational success. Will Twenty Twelve do the same for London?

The weekend's viewing: Twenty Twelve, Fri, BBC2

If we didn't have the Olympics, we wouldn't have John Morton's Twenty Twelve, a mock-documentary about a fictional Olympic Deliverance Committee. It didn't make a huge amount of noise when it originally came out on BBC4, but aficionados will already know it's one of the funniest things on television.

The first series of Twenty Twelve ([z]BBC2[]/z]), which went out on BBC4 last year, was underwhelming; "nibbling satire", I think I said - rather brilliantly, if I may say so - rather than biting satire. The fact that real Olympic overlord Seb Coe was happy to take part is not a good sign (and he appears here again). I doubt he'd agree to be in The Thick of It. Its transfer to BBC2 hasn't changed things much: it hasn't become more off-message or less gentle. But ]Jessica Hynes, who plays the hopeless head of brands, is still fabulous. And the final scene, a disastrous video conference with the Algerian representative, is wonderful. Literally LOL.

Boris Johnson wanted a cameo on Twenty Twelve

London mayor Boris Johnson wanted a cameo in Twenty Twelve, says Hugh Bonneville.

Twenty Twelve saw the games drown in corporate bulls***

Twenty Twelve saw the London 2012 team drown in corporate bulls***, in what may well be, for all we know, a case of art imitating life.

Back tonight for a new run is BBC2's sitcom Twenty Twelve (10pm), about the hapless bunch charged with the task of organising this year's Olympics.

Hugh Bonneville resumes his role as the chairman, dealing in this first episode with a threatened boycott by the Algerians, angry that the Olympic Village's so-called Shared Belief Centre doesn't face Mecca.

Other stars include Olivia Colman and Jessica Hynes.

Delivering the Olympics is a job so insanely complicated, it should be beyond the remit of any mere mortal.

And the British Olympic Deliverance Committee is back to prove once again just how very fallible and human they can be.

Winner of the Best TV Sitcom in the British Comedy Awards, John Morton's mockumentary has finally been released from the scheduling ghetto of BBC4 and promoted to BBC2 for two new series before the real thing kicks off in July.

This week Algeria is threatening to boycott the Games because the all-purpose prayer centre in the Olympic Village doesn't have any of its walls facing Mecca.

For head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) it's just one more PR nightmare to add to the towering pile of other PR nightmares in his in-tray that he really doesn't need.

Having just separated from his wife, he's also about to move into a new flat - which is a chance for his quietly superhuman PA Sally (Olivia Colman) to prove just how invaluable she can be.

Sally is secretly in love with Ian, of course. Just check out the look of pure jealously that flickers across her face for the briefest instant as an attractive new girl joins the team as Head Of Legacy.

Head of Sustainability Sally Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is not pleased to learn she'll be sharing an office either.

But she's not bothered about the Algerians.

Her only care is that 2012 will go down as the games that changed the way people dry their hands.

The first series, on BBC4, initially felt like a thin, sub-The Office comedy of embarrassment. But after a couple of repeat runs it emerged as something rather warm, and perky enough to transfer to BBC2.

Everyone on the hapless, chaotic Olympic Deliverance Committee, headed by the well-meaning but inept Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville, who, like the rest of the cast, downplays brilliantly), is still mired in doublespeak. But the Games are looming and the Algerians are threatening a boycott because the "Shared Belief Centre" doesn't face Mecca. Worse, there's a problem with the hand dryers.

And Ian's faithful secretary, "Not a problem" Sally (that comedy marvel Olivia Colman), is still hopelessly, wordlessly, in love with him. But iron enters Sally's soul when she spots a rival.

The characters are instantly recognisable. The dilemmas are just about plausible. And the jargon is grimly familiar. The only trouble with this scrupulously well observed, impeccably cast mock-doc is that truth can be stranger than fiction. Tensions are rising at the Olympic Deliverance Committee, which this week sails into the choppy waters of 'Multi-culturality' when it becomes apparent that the Shared Belief Centre doesn't face Mecca. The Algerian team threatens to pull out, creating a dilemma for Hugh Bonneville's Ian Fletcher, whose mantra of 'it's all good' feels increasingly inappropriate. The satire is still on the soft side, but the Olympics themselves aren't so much the target as the pervasive advance of management-speak and mystifyingly monickered suits across almost any industry you could care to name.