I’m reviewing the Olympics coverage, as basically there is not a whole else on telly at the mo for me to criticise or praise or pull apart! I must admit before all this sporting glory saturated our screens, I was a bit skeptical about the whole Olympic mass hysteria, which to be fair we have been reminded about for at least the last SEVEN YEARS, not helped of course by the sheer amount of Olympic tatt gracing every shelf in every shop in Britain (Olympic bow tie anyone?) But nearly two weeks in, I’m happy to confess that I’ve been drawn in good and proper.
The BBC have really pulled out all the stops this time. I mean, Eastenders has been shoved to BBC2 for starters, when has that happened in its 25+ year East-end history?!? I’m sure Peggy Mitchell would have had none of that toot. Even BBC Three has got in on the action. You can just imagine the head of the BBC telling the controller of BBC Three “sorry mate, Snog, Marry or Avoid is going to have to be moved off the schedules while we make way for a lot of sweaty men and women exerting themselves” The coverage is really wall to wall, and I find myself flicking from BBC1 to BBC1 HD (much better) and then back to BBC Three like a sport freak. I’m even more sad, cause I have a BBC Olympics app on my phone which is just BRILLIANT! I get to see and hear the latest glories and not so glorious moments and see what the team are up to. Although I do find myself getting quite impatient when they don’t update the app as quickly as I expect (see, I told you I had been sucked in.) Also, one of my only criticisims of the beeb, is that they could do with adding some more schedules with what’s coming up, especially as I’m easily confused by the amount of cycling races and heats there were, and most of the time I’m fickle and just want to see the medal races.
One of my favourite moments was when Clare Balding interviewed Bert le Clos, whose son Chad had just beaten the human fish (Michael Phelps) in the 200m butterfly to get gold. His father was animated, gesticulating wildly and just kept on saying “Un-be-lievable, look at my beautiful boy, he’s so handsome!” in an amazingly loud and gravelly South African accent. I think he also managed to sneak a naughty word in as well and then said “oh, is this live?” He’s a legend, doesn't matter about his son’s gold, I could watch this guy on You Tube again and again. Get him presenting something boring like cricket, that would soon spruce the commentary up.
The BBC has a real mix of presenters this time round, some good, and then others who just sound quite dim (sorry Mark Cavendish I’m talking about you in the Velodrome.) Anyway, they certainly have brought out of the sporting presenter cupboard a whole host of names, including the enthusiastic guy who used to present Blue Peter (who secretly wanted to don his lycra & join Beth Tweedle on the mat) and former Aussie gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe (who starts every sentence with ‘Look...’ and seems to be wearing Armani’s entire Spring/Summer range.) There was also a very animated sailing presenter who was a bit over amorous with Ben Ainsley following his gold medal win in the sailing, who practically looked like he wanted to jump in the boat with him and do a victory dance (which would have been both impractical and very dangerous given the size of the boat, or dingy or whatever watery folk call it.)
Most sports (especially all the horsey stuff) I don’t understand the rules of (apart from Tennis) but that hasn't taken away from my enjoyment. It has been a great Olympics and the BBC has done a spiffing job, almost wiping over the fiasco of the Jubilee cringe a minute commentary I’m sure they would rather forget. Plus it’s great to see so many gutsy performances from all of those competing, and wow Team GB are doing brilliantly. Anyway I saw Andy Murray actually SMILE for the first time ever as well. I just need Tom Daley to out-dive the Chinese now and that will be the golden cherry on the Olympic cupcake. Oh, and I admit I have bought the odd small item of Olympic memorabilia, but stopped myself at the Olympic tea cosy. I’m not that sportingly sad.
Final thought: Just how many Olympic events do Wills, Kate and Harry (playing gooseberry) get to go to?! They are everywhere, I mean everywhere!
You've got to tell us what Olympic memorabilia you bought now. Union jack tea-towel? Team GB track suit? Scary one-eyed mascot? Come on, share!
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