Saturday, July 28, 2012

Team GB are Go!

You kinda knew it would be about this today didn't you? It would be easy to say it was great, it would be even easier to say it was an expensive party that we paid for but wasn't invited to, instead I'm going to take a different approach. If you was organising it where would you start, after all it's only the third Olympics we have hosted since 1908 and in an age of bailouts, double dips and typical British critique it's a tough call.

It's a bit like how long is a piece of string, you have a stadium, thousands of people and a two and a half hour slot to entertain the world. Worrying isn't it? Admittedly there was things missing, the Red Arrows, Shakespeare ( apart from a quick quote ) and Basil Fawlty but watching disconnected from British society it was quite a spectacle.

Imagine pitching an idea to the Olympic committee along the lines of "Right, I want to cover the stadium in 7500 square metres of grass, corn and livestock creating Glastonbury Tor and have a thousand people doing rural things only to shoo them all away using Kenneth Branagh dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Next I want to replace them with a synchronised team of industrialists from beneath a tree that flies who raise massive smoking chimneys from the stadium floor to the beat of deaf classical percussionist Evelyn Glennieave before a river of molten metal fills the stadium and forges the Olympic rings which arrive smoking and sparking from the sky to produce the Olympic symbol that unites the world. Oh, and make sure we have a million watt sound system to deliver it all. I'm not finished though, clear them all away to the music of a signing choir of children singing the national anthem and open to celebrate Great Ormond Street Hospital, classic British literature and a way of life that most of the civilised world is envious of. I'd like to bring in a typical house and take the audience through three decades of music. Throw in James Bond and the Queen, JK Rowling, Dizzee Rascal, Mike Oldfield, Muhammed Ali, Mr Bean, The Arctic Monkeys, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Paul McCartney. OK that last was was a mistake. Lol.

I can imagine being on the committee and thinking WTF? after Danny Boyle delivered this pitch. We are missing the point though, it's not about all that, it's not even about the money, although I know it could have been spent elsewhere, it's all about Great Britain. GREAT Britain. It's something we have forgotten about. The whole opening ceremony showcased everything that is great about our heritage, something we share with Scotland, Northern Island and Wales.

An Isles of Wonder show it really was and as an advert for the UK it did its job admirably, with an audience of four billion did we really want a shoddy show?

Go Team GB!

Paul McCartney was still a mistake though, I'll give you that.

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