For a reason that was never quite made clear, the opening ceremony followed the theme of science, discovery and invention, making way into literature, in a narrative that wasn’t quite as easy to follow as in the preceding one, though the template of moving from the industrial revolution to the NHS to kids bedtime stories of the first was reflected in this ceremony’s hodge-podge of randomly connected ideas not entirely connected to the idea of the Olympics.
There were several elements that transferred over, from the stereotypical obsession with umbrellas, to the eccentricity to the mind- and bum- numbingly long athlete walk on. But it was very much a truncated opening ceremony, running an hour over its allotted time but feeling less spectacular as the first, though it did have a lower budget. The event kicked off at eight pm with half an hour off waffle from the presenters in the channel four studio, with Jon Snow in particular looking like he’d only just woken up to present the show and looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, laid back in his chair and stumbling over his speech. At least he was regularly interrupted by adverts, Channel 4 obviously cramming them in before the ceremony started proper to run the main event without too many advert breaks… well, at least that was my theory, which was disproven by the regular advert breaks. Even ITV in its big events doesn’t do that much advertising. Obviously, the commercials are C4’s bread and butter but their reliance on them during the coverage was more like a foot-long Subway with extra cheese. And their coverage at the start was dogged by clashing sound that rendered the early Rihanna remix uncomfortable to listen to.
The ceremony opened with a welcome appearance from Professor Steven Hawking before the theme really kicked out, randomly represented by a wheelchair athlete atop a giant rotating apple (to represent Isaac Newton), an equally large book of human rights, and a huge representation of the decisively un-huge Higgs Boson particle, that famous, er, Swiss discovery. We also got an, admittedly impressive, representation of the big bang and Sir Ian Mckellan hamming it up as Prospero from the Tempest, another throwback to the other opening ceremony, and the arrival of the Queen in a more traditional way than being Daniel Craig’s parachute buddy.
With the eccentric first half an hour over, we came to the parade of athletes which was, though slightly less formal than the first with athletes waving banners and such like, still as boring and dragged out as ever, with only the thoughts of potential world war breaking out in the ad breaks as Channel 4 cut away to Direct Line and Sainsbury’s commercials instead of showing the walk-on of the Chinese team, which several other countries losing out on an appearance in favour of someone important sponsorship messages.
At least there was plenty more after the two hours of that particular bit of tedium with some impressive choreography and wire work from lots of athletes and dancers, though still smattered with moments of head-scratching eccentricity with a whole section on the power of books and reading – with books flapping like seagulls – and the whole audience simultaneously taking bites out of an apple each. A close-up of the crowd showed some people happily munching away whilst others looked on bemused. We also got a huge recreation of the famous Alison Lapper artwork, Paralympic Philip Craven bigging it up for Bolton like a wannabe Northern gangster, and several oaths, with later accompaniment from an on-form Beverley Knight singing ‘I Am What I Am’, an unusual song to choose beyond the title’s reflections on society’s preconceptions about disability when it’s more commonly adopted as an anthem for the gay community (making an awkward connection between homosexuality and disability which I don’t think was intended and obviously not connected), and a song that was dragged out for a good ten minutes with verses repeated well beyond their lifespan, but Knight held it all together perfectly.
We also got an impressive firework display and some great spectacle from the mock-moon and the half-globe that lifted up mid-way through the show.
Overall, the opening ceremony wasn’t as amazing as the Olympics one, mainly down to the lack of music in my opinion, but it was well done with the smaller budget, with the wire work and athletics very impressive. The theme of the show was a little puzzling at times and there were several awkward moments, none the least the questionable Ian Dury track “Spasticus Autisticus” which, without much context, could be seen as, you know, a tad offensive, but it was a good visual spectacle with the boat scene a particular highlight, but it also suffered from the athlete walk-on which, coming after only half-an-hour of opening ceremony, was even less welcome the second time around due to less viewer reward before it, and some dodgy timing decisions and commentary from Channel 4, but thankfully not to Trevor Nelson standards.
There was a lot of nice touches, though, with the songs accompanied by a BSL interpreter, the lead work by Nicola Miles-Wildin as Miranda, and some dancing by Flawless, so overall not a bad show but without the reach – and, of course, the budget – of the atmospheric and touching Olympic opening ceremony. Considering that much of the cast was made up of disabled actors, actresses and dancers, the work involved was every bit as impressive as the earlier opening ceremony with what was achieved.
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