I’ve had a problem with patriotism all of my adult life. I spent my teenage years living in Malaysia, and so grew up knowing that there are plenty of people in the world (including my history teacher) who see Britain as anything but great. Often with good reason: over centuries, we have behaved in a dreadful way in many countries, including our own “home nations” of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Now that I’ve lived here for over 30 years, I am very fond of the UK and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, despite the weather! I love our music, literature and countryside, and many, many of my compatriots. And I am right behind British athletes (come on Mo!), cyclists and swimmers. But I haven’t agreed that St George’s day should be a national holiday, I don’t think that “British is best” and I am horrified that our honours still use the word “Empire”. I believe that we have a whole lot more accountability to face up to and that we really need to find a new, modern concept of Britishness.
On Wednesday, when I had the incredible privilege of being at the rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony to the Olympic Games. I realised that Danny Boyle had created something which offers just this. I haven’t been able to say much about it until now, and isn’t that wonderful in itself: more than 120,000 people were asked to “save the surprise” and we all did. Not, I think, because of a sense of duty as much as a desire for everyone else to have that wonderful surprise, to enjoy the actual ceremony as much as possible.
I’m an Eng. Lit. girl and I was delighted that some of my heroes, Shakespeare, Milton and Blake, were showcased. I loved the fact that rural England, and its ordinary people, were celebrated, and then in the most graphic way we saw how that idyll was torn up to make way for industrialisation. I didn’t understand most of the telly references (because of my non-English teenagehood I suspect) but I loved the music, right up to the point where it got all hip hop and lost me. And what can I say about the incredible lighting of the cauldron (of course I didn’t see that bit on Wednesday) except that it was yet another surprise, and a wonderful one at that? Like the chimneys and so much else, the cauldron itself was spectacular, but what got me more than anything was the way the veteran Olympians passed the flames to the young athletes and hugged them. Hugging – as part of a British ceremony! Who ever heard of such a thing? I mean, a handshake is seen as quite informal here, isn’t it? Well, I say, bring it on! Let’s have more hugging in Britain!
And then the amazing, ordinary yet extraordinary people carrying the Olympic flag. As my mother said, “He would have got Mother Teresa there if she was still alive”. Celebrating the incredible achievements of ordinary human beings. And isn’t that what the Olympics is about?
As the lights said, “this is for everyone” and that was my first impression when I was there. Ordinary British people. Hard working, energetic and very funny. Caring and eccentric. For the people and full of emotion. Where was the pomp and circumstance, stiff-upper-lips and Britannia Rules the Waves? Nowhere to be seen. Good.
And one more point to make today – I will be blogging more on the Olympics in the days to come – a lot of people have said there was so much going on that you couldn’t catch it all. Well, having seen it both live and on telly, I agree, but I also think that this is part of it. A show so huge that no individual can manage to get all of it in one go, or even several goes. For me, that’s part of the point of it. Energy and magnitude, showing that, as a whole, we can achieve more than any individual can conceive of. Someone else called it “shambolic”. I disagree: very busy, very varied, yes, but everyone knew exactly what they were doing and it all worked like clockwork, just a whole lot of clockwork! And what’s more, it was real; real life, real people, real experiences.
So thank you, Danny Boyle, for showing me the Britain that I can be proud to belong to, and, I hope, for showing us all that the old image is in the past, giving us an up to date, real present and energising our hopes for the future. Let’s hope Britain will never be the same again.
Great Harriet!
Having been to the Monday rehearsal, and watched on tv last night, you have hit the nail on the head!
Very British, showing the good British bits, and I love the element of inclusive celebration, and you are right about the hugging!
To me, The Queen looked as if she was in a bad mood, no huggin with her I suspect, but a good show all round!
I have been writing a lot too about the Games, and am looking forward to writing a lot more, although like you, fitting it in may me a problem as I am already making use of the BBCs extra 24 channels!
Cheers, Gordon
Thanks Gordon! I am thinking that the only way to watch all the Olympics I want to and get anything else done at all in the next three weeks will be to buy three more TVs and give up sleep.
Funny, I found the bit with hiphop music and such quite annoying – and so did my 17 year old son. I did however love the idea behind the story of the young couple and the honour to the man behind the internet.
Britain certainly has a lot to be proud of and it also has some things to be ashamed of just like many nations. Wasn’t it amazing to see when parade of nations happened – how many of those nations broke free from English rule – including the USA?
I think that Boyle did a great job – it was definitely unique and honored Britain – the cheers from the crowd when Great Britain’s’ athletes entered the stadium was memorable – something that made you all proud.
I thought the hiphop was okay but could have done without the Arctic Monkeys (not sure what the relevance of that song was). However, that is just one tiny detail in a brilliant show. It was indeed a wonderful surprise…. not sickly ‘Isn’t Britain great’ but some honesty (e.g. as you mention, Harriet, about how the industrial revolution had a negative, as well as positive, impact on our country.
I think that the display might have been difficult to follow without commentary (if you are British) and the rest of the world might therefore have found it harder, but I think as a piece of art it works.
Yes, quite a few people have said it would be difficult to follow if you’re not British, and there were some parts I didn’t understand, but then if it was another country’s opening ceremony, would we have expected to understand it? I imagine the BBC would have procured notes so they could explain it all to us and we would have learned a lot about that country. Isn’t that what will have happened all over the world? I like the Arctic Monkeys so was very happy to see them rather than a boy band or more hip hop! And now they are setting yesterday’s highlights to “Bet you look good on the dance floor” and I think it works.