³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Wow. Does John Morton remember the DVDs that John Clarke and Ross Stevenson gave him? They were copies of their hit Australian TV show - a mockumentary about inept officials getting ready for the Sydney Olympic Games?

I do hope they are getting some sort of credit for this idea. After all, their show pre-dates this one by 13 years.

This looks to be blatant intellectual property larceny. There will be hundreds of Australian ex-pats glued to this, and comparing it with "The Games" for directly lifted humour and themes, let alone the concept. There has already been a complaint via the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's sister organisation in Australia.

I really hope there isn't a storyline revolving around the 100m track being short (say around 92 or 93 metres) - then it would be a complete lift from the Australian series

IP theft from an Australian icon of comedy - good luck with that, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. There will certainly be a lot of helping hands in the discovery process.

Er, People Like Us predates The Games.

Sorry HeatherB1976 – according to IMDB The Games pre-dates People Like Us by one year (1998 to 1999).

The argument here is that Twenty Twelve is identical to The Games in concept and style. I’m sure that no exact plotlines may have been copied but that is not the point – if anyone is in any doubt I suggest they check out The Games.

John Clarke has claimed that negotiations were started with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ after GB was awarded the Olympics to produce our version of The Games. He also claims that John Morton was brought on board with view to being part of the writing team, and that he was given copies of The Games on DVD. If true surely some credit for creating or inspiring this series should go to John Clark and Ross Stevenson.

Personally I am really looking forward to tonight’s programme hoping it will be excellent. However, I am also a big fan of The Games having bought the DVD’s from ABC Australia last year, and feel due credit should be acknowledged. If not this comedy could leave a bitter taste.

FWIW People Like Us actually dates from 1995. It started on Radio 4 and ran for three series before transferring to television in 1999.

Anyway, on the face of it does sound like the concept of Twenty Twelve is *very* similar to The Games. And it's certainly something that seems to have riled a number of Aussies since it was highlighted on the ABC website - I was contacted by an Australian friend about it.

Ironically, I'd not heard of Twenty Twelve before he told me about it...

Here's John Clarke's take on Twenty Twelve's similarity to The Games, which was mentioned by a couple of people above:

I was about to write a comment agreeing with all of the above, when I realised that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is probably right. If Simon Cowell can sell X Factor as a separate format to Pop Idol, then I guess the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has no obligation to pay (money or hommage) to The Games.

Of course it's a little sad to compare the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's integrity to Cowell's, but not as sad as the realisation that the potential legal battle over what was said in the "many phone conferences, meetings and almost four years of email exchanges" between the parties, will probably scupper the opportunity for Clarke, Dawe and Riley to appear in Twenty Twelve accusing the London Olympics of being too similar to the Sydney Olympics.

Instead, we'll have to hope that the meeting to re-design that dodgy logo gets a cameo from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I spent a year in Aus from 2000-2001 and this show was the only thing worth watching on Aus TV...

I'd been posting messages for ages asking ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to buy the Games and show it here... then there would have been no need for this programme... but of course they had seen it but wanted to pretend they hadn't.

The Games was and remains the funniest thing I have seen out of Australia

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ shame on you - you usually get these kind of things right :-(

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

In light of the above comments re plagiarism, it is amusing to find that when I navigate to the area to view clips of the show, and click on the John Plowman interview, I get the message "Not available in your area". Does everyone in Australia get the same message? I'd love to hear "Jon Plowman, Executive Producer, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Comedy talks about the ideas behind new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Four comic documentary", and do a compare & contrast with John Clarke's take on the same subject. I've loved John Morton's other stuff for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. Perhaps you could add a clip of an interview with John?

If John Morton does give back the DVD's of John Clarke's "The Games", then I'd suggest that he takes the time to first wipe off all his fingerprints from all surfaces - DVDs and cases. Just in case.

Why not just cut out the middleman and broadcast re-runs of The Games?

Will Twenty Twelve have a hundred metres track that's not quite a hundred metres long?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Morton and Plowman really should be hanging their heads in shame. It is crystal clear having seen both the promotional materials, plus now the first episode, that Twenty Twelve owes much to The Games and its creators John Clarke and Ross Stevenson. The continued denials by Plowman et al do neither them nor the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ any credit, and the sooner proper acknowledgement is given the better it will be.

Soooooooo how about a response, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ?

Absolute shameful plagiarism by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ without any acknowledgment of the original Australian series for the 2000 Sydney Games. That was showcase comedy genius. If the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ had any scruples at all, it would give credit where credit is due instead of stealing other writers' original ideas.

What a rip off. What a silly thing to do. Did the Beeb really think that the creators of The Games wouldn't notice or wouldn't care? At the very least the creators of this 'new' show should admit that they 'lifted' the concept (and quite a bit else by the looks of things)from The Games and apologise for not crediting their sources. Currently the Beeb seems cheap, nasty and foolish as a result of their actions. An apology would go a long way to correcting this percpetion.

Just the worst show in the history of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

Should be pulled NOW.