I caught a bit of the opening ceremony tonight. That was impressive. Some lovely and effective bits of staging in there.

I especially liked the way the entire crowd seemed to be wearing white. This made the 35,000 audience part of the staging as lighting changes could make the entire stadium a different colour, including the grandstands.

I felt quite emotional seeing so many people looking so happy – my mask of world-weary cynicism drops when I am alone at home.

The parade of all the athletes was interesting as usual, although I am still not sure why it was accompanied by a medley of 80s hits. There is something affecting when you see the countries with a single competitor joining in, and you just can’t help thinking about Cool Runnings when you see the Ethiopian team. (Consisting of a single cross-country skier) Other surprising inclusions were teams or Iranian, Cameroonian and Bermudan winter sportsmen and a united Korean team. There was obviously some compromise going on, resulting in the flag being carried by a North and South Korean together.

Special awards for costumes have to go to Germany for most lairy tracksuits – I thought it was a special team from Basildon circa 1985 – and whoever it was that turned up as camp gangsters with pale blue scarves and wide-brimmed hats. It might have been Latvia. Somewhere near there in the alphabet anyway.

On reflection, there is no reason why a warm country can’t have good skaters. Even in cold countries I would think most people learn and practise in indoor skating rinks and any place could have one of them. No surprise to see a distinct lack of downhill skiers in the Dutch team though.

The most impressive feat of co-ordination had to be the animated ski-jumper made up from a couple of hundred people wearing different coloured robes. Just like that old British Airways advert with the globe, or the Halifax adverts where people form a giant X but done live. I bet the Halifax ad took more than a single take. When that bit finished you could almost feel the wave of relief coming from the performers.

The revelation of the evening was the Italian national anthem. It was sung by a very young girl, a nine-year-old I think, at the start and then the bands and choirs joined in towards the end, but what a beautiful piece of music. The commentator said it must one of the top 6 national anthems but I can’t remember ever hearing a better one from a purely musical point of view. I shall be rooting for Italy so I can hear it again.

One other bit I nearly forgot – the Ferrari F1 car. It was carried on in bits, assembled by a pit crew in about 3 seconds, and then drove off to perform doughnuts in the middle of the stage. These are expensive bits of kit. Has anyone ever been allowed to behave like a joy-rider in Sainsbury’s car park in one of them before? There must have been some serious competition to get that job!

The only negative point about it all was the sinking feeling I had when I could not help wondering how the hell we are going to put on this sort of show in 2012. These things usually represent the host nation’s cultural history and identity. How do you represent having a nice cup of tea through the medium of dance and son et lumiere? Will we have tableaux of us exploiting the Commonwealth countries while setting up the slave trade? A thousand morris dancers shaking their bells and using their sticks to create, not a 6-point star but a a gigantic set of Olympic rings?

Sometimes I worry that our opening ceremony will either be irredeemably naff or a technical disaster, but I should not really think that. We do have the imagination, creativity and skills to make a great spectacle – didn’t the Greeks draft in a load
of Brits to help their ceremonies in Athens?

Only a bit more than six years to go now – lets hope Wembley is finished by then.