Airdate: Twenty-Twelve
Australian viewers will get their first look at the show the creators of ABC's The Games claimed was ripped-off by the BBC.
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Australian viewers will get their first look at the BBC comedy Twenty-Twelve next month -the show that the creators of ABC’s The Games (1998) claimed was a rip-off of their format.
Games writers John Clarke and Ross Stevenson confirmed Kath and Kim producer Rick McKenna pitched a British version of their show to Twenty Twelve’s producer Jon Plowman five years ago when he was head of comedy at the BBC. DVDs of the show were given to writer John Morton (People Like Us).
Writing on ABC website The Drum, they noted: “After many phone conferences, meetings and almost four years of email exchanges, Mr. Morton and Mr. Plowman have now apparently made a satirical series for the BBC about the organising committee of the London Olympics without our participation or permission.”
However, the BBC denies anything untoward took place.
Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, Olivia Colman and Amelia Bullmore star in this six-part comedy drama about the people paddling hard beneath the water to make the Olympics happen in London in 2012.
Filmed in a documentary style, Twenty Twelve deals with such hot topics as how to phase the traffic lights across London to get people from west to east; who to sell the Taekwondo hall to after the event; what to do when protesters leave large quantities of horse dung on the doorstep in protest at the siting of the equestrian events, and how to cope with sportsmen who want to help but are just too dull.
Mondays at 9:00pm, from June 11 on UK TV.
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- Tagged with The Games, Twenty Twelve
4 Responses
Did we ever get a reason for the quiet demise of The Games: London Calling?
I was advised it was a creative decision, not Nine’s.
They’re not seriously airing this in Oz are they, after The Games fiasco?
I saw a couple of episodes of this whilst travelling earlier this year. Very funny indeed.