Olympic Gold

The BBC seems to have sole coverage rights to the Olympic games in London in the year of 2012.  The opening few minutes alone, of the "Olympic Countdown," made me proud to be British, it's the first time the games have been here since 1948, the year of the "austerity games," and a time when this was a very different world.

There are VT clips of Olympians from the past and these are some of the names which I remember vividly; Daley Thomson, Nadia Comaneci, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Matthew Pinsent, Kelly Holmes, Olga Korbut, Michael Phelps, Steve Redgrave, Michael Johnson, all of them providing Olympic moments, moments in history, quite incredible.

Danny Boyle, film director and creator and director of the opening of the Olympic Games 2012.  Lancashire born and bred, he hails from about an hour up the road, what an honour to be trusted with this task, the Northern lad should be proud.

The first glimpse we get to signal that the greatest show on earth is about to begin, are the Red Arrows trailing red white and blue smoke in their wake.  World class precision flying, and just stunning to watch.

Seven years ago it was announced that London would be the host city of the Olympic Games 2012, I suppose that living outside of London, it didn't seem quite real, the country is in a mess, the majority of people in this country, the bread and butter workers are struggling, it feels like our heads have been bowed for such a long time with worry and drudgery, we have hardly dare look up for an age.  But tonight at last, it feels tangible, the Olympic Games are actually here, and so is the rest of the world, finally, something bright, brilliant and hopeful enough to lift our heads up for.

During the countdown, Gary Linaker and the lovely Sue Barker interview Steve Redgrave, Michael Johnson and Mr John McEnroe, the L'enfant terrible of tennis is just... don't hate me, such a gentleman and professional broadcaster!  I love it when he is here to cover Wimbledon and I love that he is here for this amazing event and is so excited at the prospect. 

The opening ceremony is literally a work of art.  I truly hope that the rest of the world "gets" Mr Boyle's vision, as a friend put it, his words not mine, "stunning, I was genuinely filled with national pride."  Ditto.

For me, it was towards the end of the opening ceremony, when the young athletes of the future took turns of running around the Olympic Stadium with the torch, they did a lap of honour, arriving before the former Olympians who had nominated them for the honour.  The former Olympians symbolically handed each young athlete an unlit torch infront of 240 Olympic medal winners which included Jayne Torvil and Christopher Dean.  The one lit torch lit each of the others, they each then bowed before an unfurled mass of, what looked to me like, long stemmed, steel lilies and placed the flame near each flower.  The flames leapt into each of the flowers beside them until a circle of flame was visible, then another inner circle and another, then, each stem rose up slowly, high into the air, the like of which I have never seen before.  As each stem reached it's destination, an aerial view looked deep into the mass flame, and it was beautiful.  I only wish that we could have had a camera on Danny Boyle as his masterpiece was brought to life.

Let the Games, begin.