Twenty Twelve (TV)

 

(2011- 2012)
Created, Written, and Directed by John Morton
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Amanda Bullmore, Olivia Colman, Jessica Hynes, Vincent Franklin, Karl Theobald, David Tennant
IMDB Entry

The mockumentary formula had established its place in television, with shows like The Office being big hits.  The British have taken it up, too, and one surprising example is Twenty Twelve, based around the 2012 London Olympics.

The show centers on the Olympic Deliverance Commission (ODC), a bureaucratic morass with vague roles and no clear goals. Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) is the Head of Deliverance and presides over a group of incompetents who work hard but don't really accomplish anything.  Siobhan Sharpe* (Jessica Hynes) is Head of Brand, responsible for publicity; Graham Hitchens (Karl Theobald), Head of Infrastructure; Nick Jowett (Vincent Franklin), Head of Contracts, and Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore), Head of Sustainability. As you can see, those titles are nebulously vague. Sally Owen (Olivia Colman) is Ian's personal assistant, about the only competent one in the group. David Tennant narrates the events.

Ian tries to make the group's plans come to fruition, but, of course, they don't.  Not as pure fiascos, but in minor failures due to bad planning based upon assumptions that never come off. The comedy is understated, with humor that you can easily miss until you think about it.  For instance, a character hires a coach, only to complain "What's the point of hiring a coach if they tell you what to do?"

Most notable is Siobhan, whose main role is to sit in meetings and say "cool" four times a minute while never putting down her phone. When forced to give advice, she hems and haws and then comes up with the most banal reply possible, though she raves about other people's ideas.  

Sally is quite competent, but mostly because she clearly has a crush on Ian, who is oblivious to it all.  Graham has no idea what he's doing and often agrees to something only to immediately ask about the most obvious point. Nick is the only one who understands how silly the plans are, but his cynicism is ignored. 

The show is subtle.  In one episode, Kay wants to celebrate sustainability with a ceremony that she suddenly comes up with at the last minute. They was to plant an acorn to symbolize it, but forget to bring one and use an acorn shaped candy. When its all over, you notice that one of the participants has a smear of chocolate on her clothes.

The show ran while the Olympics were being organized and won several BAFTA awards. There are some jokes that don't travel well, most notably when they talk about obscure British celebrities, but more than enough to make it a delight.

Creator John Morton also ran a couple of sequel series with Bonneville -- W1A, where Ian starts working for the BBC, and Twenty Twenty-Six, where he's involved in organizing the 2026 World Cup.

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*She isn't.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

 

(2012-2015)
Created by Deb Cox, Fiona Eagger
Starring Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Ashleigh Cummings, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Richard Bligh
IMDB Entry

Last week, I mentioned Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries as a show similar to Mrs. Bradley Mysteries. I realized I hadn't talked about Miss Fisher and it's time to fix that.

Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) is a private detective, working out of Melbourne, Australia in the 1920s. Phryne is a very 21st century woman in the wrong time -- free spirited (especially sexually) and unconcerned with how she is supposed to behave. Jack Robinson (Nathan Page), a police detective, works with her, often frustrated by her blithe attitude to the cases. Dot Williams (Ashleigh Cummings) is Phryne's assistant, a straitlaced devout Catholic who is scandalized by her free-thinking attitude. Constable Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) is Robinson's assistant, while Tobias Butler (Richard Bligh) is Phryne's butler.

As is the way for this type of show, the mystery, while complicated, takes second fiddle to the characters.  Phryne Fisher  is a delight, a modern woman who has no problem dealing with murders and doesn't care if she shocks people with her attitudes.  Essie Davis is wonderful in the role.

The other characters do pale in comparison.  The show develops a romance between Phryne and Jack Robinson, but it's a bit low key as Jack has trouble dealing with her attitudes.  Dot and Hugh are another couple, which leads to various subplots.

The show ran three seasons, with a movie after the third. There was talk of more, but nothing came of it, though a spin-off Miss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries showed the adventures of her niece in the 1960s.

Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (TV)

 (1998-2000)
Written by Simon Booker, Gwyneth Hughes, Julie Rutterford from a novel series by Gladys Mitchell
Starring  Diana Rigg, Neil Dudgeon, Peter Davison
IMDB Entry

The British are great with mystery TV shows. In addition to PBS's Passport service, I like looking on Hoopla (you can borrow my novel, The Cadaver Princess, from there) and spotted something I hadn't heard about: Mrs. Bradley Mysteries.  Now Hoopla is not great at giving credits, but it was the type of thing I usually like, so I began to watch.  

Partly through the first scene, I stared at the screen and asked myself, "Is that Diana Rigg?"

It was. And her chauffeur/Watson was played by Neil Dudgeon, the second Inspector Barnaby from Midsomer Murders.   Further along, we found Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, in the recurring part of police Inspector Christmas.  The first episode also had David Tennant (Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors) as one of the suspects.

So you could see four of the icons of BBC television in the show.

Set in the roaring twenties, Mrs. Adela Bradley (Diana Rigg) is a wealthy widow who dabbles in solving mysteries, riding in a Rolls Royce with her chauffeur George (Neil Dudgeon). Mrs. Bradley is a someone scandalous author, her major work a marriage manual for young couples and she has a very advanced attitude toward sex. She had a dry and sardonic way of looking at things, even speaking directly to the camera from time to time.*

George does a lot of the dirty work for Mrs. Bradley, ferreting out evidence and being the muscle when needed. Also, Davison as Inspector Christmas is an outlier in this genre, a cop who welcomes the help from the amateur crime solver.

The mystery are pretty routine for the genre, but these sort of shows aren't about the mystery; they're about the personality of the characters and this has plenty of delights in that area. It was originally a movie, and four episodes were filmed after that, but no more. Rigg didn't need to star in episodic TV, so nothing else was produced.  

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*If you are familiar with the original Miss Fisher Mysteries, you'll see she's a precursor.

The Franchise (TV)

 (2024)
Created by Joe Brown
Starring Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Isaac Powell, Richard E. Grant, Daniel Bruhl

As you might expect from reading my blog, I like movies. And I also like TV shows and movies about moviemaking. I also like satire, so I was delighted to discover The Franchise.

The film is about the production of a blockbuster superhero film, Tecto: Eye of the Storm. It focuses on Daniel Kumar (Himesh Patel), an assistant director who tries to handle the madness and egos.  His assistant Dag Nwaeze (Lolly Adefope) is new to the business and has a sardonic look at the process.

And there's plenty to be sardonic about. The lead actor, Adam Rudolph (Billy Magnussen) is very insecure and has a need to prove himself. It's not helped that Peter Fairchild (Richard E. Grant), a theater actor who grouses about how it's slumming and who also takes every opportunity to belittle Adam. Director Eric Bouchard (Daniel Bruhl) is an Auteur who keeps asking for rewrites and keeps mulling over the best way to portray the oddball things that are part of the film.

The production heads are not much better. Anita (Aya Cash) is the new producer and is also Daniel's ex. The big boss is Pat Shannon (Darren Goldstein), who changes directives and ideas all over the place. Steph (Jessica Hynes) is script supervisor, a job she is manifestly unequipped to handle.

There's a lot to like about this. First of all, the movie they're making is terminally goofy. One of the weapons is the Invisible Jackhammer. In order to give a female character a stronger role, she is given the "Stick of Maximum Potency," which Adam finds threatening to his ego. There is a cameo of another hero from the franchise called "the Gurgler." China asks for product placement for one of their tractors.

I did love a scene where Adam asks Steph to write some jokes for him and it's shown that she is unable to write anything at all.

The show only ran for one season, but it was chock full of plenty to laugh about.