Against my better judgement I switched on the BBC iPlayer yesterday to look at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. I found it difficult to pause it and get on with some work. Eventually I watched the whole lot, excluding the march past from about Azerbaijan to Venezuela.
All of the things I was going to say about it have already become clichés in the coverage of the mainstream media (crazy, bizarre, mental, bonkers, very British etc.) The sketch with James Bond and the Queen was priceless. Having checked today, I am impressed that Her Majesty herself delivered the line "Good evening Mr Bond": to join in with such an irreverent send-up is, I would suggest, a mark of humility.
The show contained some stunning redundancy. Sir Simon Rattle, principal conductor of arguably the best orchestra in the world, the Berlin Philharmonic, had the London Symphony Orchestra rendering the Chariots of Fire theme - but all as a backdrop to a Mr Bean sketch.
The weird celebration of the NHS could be taken as a joke in itself and possibly was meant as such: it's hard to say. After all, the GOSH nurses were dressed up in old fashioned nursing outfits and the scene morphed into Peter Pan, Harry Potter and Mary Poppins.
Pondering the show this morning, I suddenly thought - "Ah! they didn't put anything in about our Christian history." Then I remembered that they did - at least in the sense of including some traditional hymns as part of the Island story. The only other omission I could think of was Dr Who. [UPDATE - I was wrong. Dr Who was referenced. See the combox.]
My grumpiness melted away further after Mass. Every youngster in the parish that I spoke to seemed to have tickets to several events. Two girls had tickets for prime seats for half a dozen venues because they are doing PE at GCSE. I'm really glad about that.
8 comments:
Sorry to be pedantic, but it was the London Symphony Orchestra with Mr Bean; The London Philharmonic recorded the national anthems for the deal ceremonies, I think.
The Doctor did make an appearance. It was very subtle but you could hear the Tardis during the tv/movie montage they were doing. This tumblr explains it better than I ever could.
http://xmarold.tumblr.com/post/28221398605/honestly-i-felt-that-the-inclusion-was-the?og=1&fb_action_ids=10102143034997533&fb_action_types=tumblr-feed%3Areblog&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
"Lady Di"(Princess Diana) was left out!
That's medal ceremonies - typing iPad tsh.
In what other country in the world would the Head of State aged 86 and having ruled for 60 years and having had amongst her Prime Ministers Churchill and Thatcher consent to send herself up in front of her people and join in the fun with her people ?
Humility yes. But also strong and secure in the affection of her own people.
No other Head of any other State would have dared.
Richard beat me to mentioning the TARDIS reference.
My wife said "where's Dr Who?" during that very montage, and I said "didn't you hear the TARDIS? You know, the landing noise?"
She didn't know what I meant so I attempted an impression of it. She just sort of looked at me like I was losing the plot.
Sigh.
Leutgeb - thanks for the correction. Post amended. (I had a bad feeling when I wrote that bit, wondering if I had got it right!)
Terry - Yes, I think you are spot on. I can't imagine any other Head of State having the guts to agree to that sequence.
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