Ah, London

(This is a week or so late but, hey, I've been busy. I'm hoping to be blogging more often than I have been recently for the forseeable.)

Being as cynical as the next grumpy Englishman, I was expecting very little from the Olympic opening ceremony. My admiration for Danny Boyle was the only ray of light in a Stygian darkness of political showboating, Stalinist corporate sponsorship and potentially tragicomic mismanagement.

I watched it last night and, blow me down, it was ruddy marvellous. The hand of the director was evident throughout in the spot-on cultural references, the mingling of tradition and modernity and of course the music.

My highlights, in no particular order;

1) Kes! Gregory's Girl! Boyle's own Trainspotting, the cheeky monkey.
2) The whole NHS sequence, which almost seemed like a direct " flip you, melonfarmer" to the comments of diplomacy's Mitt Romney. Just about everyone in the UK loves the healthcare system, and it was wonderful to see it given such prominence.
3) The fact that the Brookside lesbian kiss was broadcast live on Saudi TV. I expect it caused more shock than the man-on-ape moment from the same montage.
4) The overhead shot of the Thames accompanied by the Eastenders drum intro. In fact any little joke that required explanation to the non-UK audience made me chuckle. Never overly intrusive but deftly done.
5) Once insurrectionary music being embraced as celebrations of Englishness - the Pistols, the Clash, Frankie. Bringing it right up to date there were even a couple of moments provided by a band I shall euphemistically refer to as F Buttons.

Absolutely ludicrous, irreverently funny and very, very British. It made me feel privileged to be a Pom.

Nearly forgot, there was also one of the finest speeches in all of Shakespeare, the last couplet of which makes me feel more than a little weepy; 

Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open, and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked,

I cried to dream again.