Only a few more days to go in the Olympics and I’ve just discovered the BBC’s mockumentary Twenty Twelve on Itunes. It stars Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey’s Lord Grantham) as the head of the “Olympic Deliverance Commission” responsible for preparing London for the 2012 games.
It’s kind of a hoot. Narrated by Doctor Who’s David Tennant and also featuring Olivia Colman from Peep Show.
The show sparks a couple of questions.
I’ve never before encountered this usage of the term “deliverance.” Is it something that is well known in the Olympics or other large event jargon?
One of the ongoing jokes is a struggle over the use of the terminology “legacy” instead of “sustainability.” I understand that one of the characters is very picky about this, but I don’t quite get the underlying issue. I know what “sustainability” is in modern large-enterprise parlance, but I don’t really know what they mean by “legacy” – is it something that the Olympics has traditionally used? And why would it be replaced by “sustainability”?