As the Olympic Games start, it’s time to say a sad farewell to Twenty Twelve

With the rising tension on the build up to the ODC handing over to the live team, are there going to be any last minute glitches? And will Ian and Sally finally get together?

Well, as the excitement of the Olympics builds to a crescendo, we bid a sad goodbye to the fictional Olympic Deliverance Committee in Twenty Twelve with the quirky characters, palpable rivalry and high levels of incompetence throughout every move they made. I shall miss each and every one of these characters but I think I will miss Siobhan Sharpe most of all. Never has such rubbish come from the mouth of one person in such a short space of time, she was beyond sublime when it came to stalling for time or trying to bluff her way out of a conversation and for that Jessica Hynes and the writers surely deserve some sort of medal too. Hugh Bonneville was also wonderful in this show and I have taken it upon myself to keep alive the memory of his character by regularly quoting “So basically it’s all good” whenever I can fit it into conversation.

The last episode saw the ODC in the big push to get all loose ends tied up before handing over to the live team. Graham is involved in what seems to be a lively debate between the organisers of the opening ceremony and the Ministry of Defence, as worries of the ceremony fireworks setting off the ground to air missiles has grown out of control. Eventually the team come to the conclusion that the fireworks should be created virtually, although how that would work in real life remains to be seen, but we are left to merely ponder how they made this work which I actually quite liked.

Along with arrangements for the bell ringing going awry and somehow turning into some sort of talent competition with Aled Jones dragged in courtesy of Siobhan, and the fact that Kay has somehow miscalculated leading to problems with the electric cars; everyone is wondering what they are going to do after the handover. After all, the handover signals the end of their jobs – there were a variety of things happening for the team after the game. Kay was going to go for a walk and eat cake, Fi had decided to go to Miami to stay with a guy she barely knew and as for Ian, he had vaguely talked about going to a little village somewhere and just relaxing for a while which led Sally into overdrive finding him somewhere nice to stay.

So what became of Ian and Sally? Did Ian declare his undying love at the end of the episode? Did Sally finally get up the nerve to tell him how she felt? In fact, what happened was what always happened – Sally burbled on and said “not a problem” a lot and Ian started a conversation only to be cut off midway through, leaving us viewers to make up our own minds whether he and Sally got together. In some ways this was a perfect ending as now I can craft my own storyline of what happened afterwards but others may feel a little cheated but it’s basically all good right?

The handover went ahead and as Seb had been called away suddenly, Ian was left to give the parting speech and it was an emotional one, leaving some members of the team surprisingly sad. They raised a glass and prepared to watch the great games go ahead and, that is what I shall do. So I bid a fond farewell to the fictional ODC with a tear in my eye and let the real games begin.