BBC hoping for Olympic comedy success

Back left to right: Vincent Franklin, Hugh Bonneville, Olivia Colman, Karl Theobald. Front: Jessica Hynes, Amelia Bulmore

Staging the Olympic Games in London is a serious business but a new BBC comedy drama will bring some humour to the subject.

"Twenty Twelve" is a six-part series written and directed by People Like Us writer John Morton.

The cast includes Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, who played Cheryl in the Royle Family, Olivia Colman and Amelia Bullmore.

A BBC Four spokeswoman described the series as being "about the people paddling hard beneath the water to make the Olympics happen in London 2012".

Challenges faced by the team include:

• How to phase the traffic lights across London to get people from west to east

• What to do when protesters opposed to the siting of the equestrian events leave large quantities of horse dung on the doorstep

• What to do when the much-vaunted wind turbines won't turn because there's no wind.

The series is part of the new autumn/winter schedule unveiled by BBC Four.

Channel controller Richard Klein said: "From arts to performance, drama and comedy to social culture, history and science, there is programming here to satisfy the most curious and interested of minds, as well as one or two surprises for the fun of it."

More details about Twenty Twelve will be released later this year.