This is quite hilarious, possibly because it is not far from the truth.
I note the low score but maybe the British have become so used to dreck (or their education system has been declining for so long) that they do not quite understand the witty dialogue.
There is a possibility that the characters in this are more intelligent than most of the people working on the Olympics.
Bring on season two!
agreed, this show is hilarious and a breath of fresh air! its a shame a season is so short..
shareI bet the real committee has had their offices swept for bugs and cameras!
HA HA HA!
All of the characters are completely incompetent. I understand that's kind of the point of the show but if the real Olympic DELIVERY staff are like this, then the Games definitely would not happen. This really annoys me and is just not funny. I feel the same about "The Office". I have no doubt that the real staff are considerably MORE intellingent than this lot.
sharePersonally felt a bit let down by the lack of "bite" in the satire: it was too tame. The final episode of the second series fell particularly flat.
shareOnce worked in an office - this *beep* is so true - thats why i dont work in an office anymore - sure - tottaly - good call.
shareIs Siobhan Sharpe character's accent for real in real life london? Can a brit tell me this? Its like a combo of valley girl california and english accent. Its hilarious but would be funnier if it were real.
shareThe short answer is...probably.
In the past the accent for the media and city was an Oxford accent which the US knows and loves.
Due to over twenty years of liberal guilt on upper class accents, many do not use that accent anymore, the problem being that it has been replaced by "Estuary" which is the ugliest accent known to mankind.
Now they use any accent they feel is OK which can be Oxford tempered by Valley which they hear on US programmes.
Thus you have her very odd, stilted accent backed up by garbage sentences which you normally hear at Universal or Warners.
Joss Stone does that accent very well.
What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
A Carrot.
I regret to say, Marty, that Siobhan's accent is absolutely spot on - and your analysis of its origin/composition exactly right.
The depressing truth is that there is scarcely a person left in London under the age of 30 (40??) who is capable of uttering a sentence, let alone a paragraph that is not composed of a minimum 10-15% of the word "like". I don't mind when it is just used as a filler/pause-for-thought (akin to the previous generations' "um.." and "er.."). But in true valley-girl style, it is now universally used as a qualification of almost every adjective, and most nouns and verbs ("He was, like, really angry", "She was, like, the boss", "We were, like, going to a party"); and worse still, as the precursor to abandoning the struggle to find a descriptive word altogether - as in "I was, like [makes sad face]".
Even more pathetically, huge numbers of intelligent and well-educated people from middle-to-upper class backgrounds affect the style in order to show how cool and connected with "real people" they are. What is a bit of a joke to educated people in the States has become 'de rigeur' in England.
Back on topic, I consider the show absolutely brilliant and extremely funny - and like all quality work, with good actors becoming ever more immersed in their real characters, has got even better in the second series. Inevitably, some of the humour is particular to those familiar with the prototypes and references, and may be a little 'lost in translation'.