Olympic opening ceremony
Watching at the moment. I can see why Danny didn't want any commentary. What a load of twaddle and inanity coming from all three of them! Really spoiling it. Okay did need a little in place of a program of events, but still really bad.
Ceremony better than I expected though. Really liked the rings, Churchill statue during Bond sketch was well cheesy though. Did laugh at Rowen Atkinson.
By the way why are the announcements being made in French first? [Update - because apparently it's traditional; something the commentators who were being paid to inform us failed to inform us about despite whittering on about things we could quite clearly see]
Typing this while the countries do their walk, commentators wibbling on. "I don't want to spoil the surprise but those copper kettles will play a part later" so you've just spoiled the surprise you twonk.
Well someone in the back office has earned their keep in the "locate some facts about every country" department.
Okay more commentary from Trevor Nelson seriously I'm just holding my head in my hands every time I hear him trying to interject some fact.
[Update - Oh yeah]
Ceremony better than I expected though. Really liked the rings, Churchill statue during Bond sketch was well cheesy though. Did laugh at Rowen Atkinson.
By the way why are the announcements being made in French first? [Update - because apparently it's traditional; something the commentators who were being paid to inform us failed to inform us about despite whittering on about things we could quite clearly see]
Typing this while the countries do their walk, commentators wibbling on. "I don't want to spoil the surprise but those copper kettles will play a part later" so you've just spoiled the surprise you twonk.
Well someone in the back office has earned their keep in the "locate some facts about every country" department.
Okay more commentary from Trevor Nelson seriously I'm just holding my head in my hands every time I hear him trying to interject some fact.
[Update - Oh yeah]
4 comments:
My take on it: A brief history of England, as envisioned by a man who's dropped a bit too much acid.
I didn't watch. But when I logged on to Facebook the next morning, all that anybody was talking about was this. Comments included:
“The Queen! The actual Queen!”
“Forget that. The actual Craig Daniel!”
“Pink Floyd to finish it all. Classy.”
“Voldemort killed by Mary Poppins!”
At this point, I can only imagine what must have been in there.
“So basically, we're saying that the NHS gives small children nightmares?”
Not only small children, my friend…
And then my mum forced me to watch the whole thing. I can only imagine what the hell the rest of the world must think of us at this point. The whole concept of a Tolkien middle-earth [which, I remind you, never actually existed] and then the celebration of the Industrial Revolution… This is all ancient history. It harks back to a day when Great Britain was actually great. A day which is sadly long-gone. And no amount of pictures of chavs sexting each other will change that.
Really, most of this just made me cringe in embarrassment.
Given the international audience recognisably British themes were required - cricket, the Queen, Bond, Mr Bean, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones etc. It was a good journey through history that slightly fell at the end until the cauldron was lit.
Three minor blemishes - 1) did no one consider that when the helicopter came in it would be dark; therefore switching to the interior view where it was still daylight outside was off.
2) the jump in film quality between the outside segments of the house and the inside segments reminded me of the Monty Python office sketch.
3) How did he text her that he'd found her phone
Okay not to be the complete grump the cauldron was excellent; the molten rings forged in the industrial revolution - c'est magnifique; the children's NHS section - wonderful.
On the whole I didn't think it was that bad. Hell at least Boris didn't turn up to waffle.
The flaming rings was good. The cauldron at the end was likewise impressive. I'm drastically less impressed by everything inbetween.
And the video segments while they rearrange the stage were just tedious.
It could have been much worse. But that's hardly high acclaim. ;-)
The big question though is - was it memorable and for the right reasons.
I think so. I think the rings and cauldron will be referred to in future Olympics in the same way everyone was discussing the Beijing one now.
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