If you’re away in Oz for the London 2012 Olympics and are worried that you will miss at opening ceremony and the games, then never fear.
In Australia, C9 and Fox will be the main broadcasters of the Olympics, although due to the time differences, most broadcasts will be late at night or in the early hours.
However, it’s an event not to be missed, even if it means being a zombie at work the next day. The opening ceremony of the London Olympics 2012 promises to be bigger and better than anything before (although Sydney 12 years ago does still take some beating).
With 37 rehearsals before the big night, artistic director Danny Boyle has hired 10,000 volunteers, cast and crew to ensure the opening night is a smash hit. The London 2012 Ceremonies Team has produced 23,000 costumes, including sewing 24,570 buttons onto the costumes for one of the sequences of the opening ceremony.
One thing we’re unsure of here at BBM is the set, which will represent a traditional and idyllic view of the British countryside. Erm…
The whole of the field of play in the stadium will be transformed into rolling British countryside, complete with meadows, fields and rivers, and featuring families taking picnics, sport being played on the village green and farmers tilling the soil whilst real farmyard animals graze – including 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 9 geese, 70 sheep, and 3 sheep dogs.
Sounds more like a Hollywood movie than the actual British countryside, which usually has queues of cars behind 20mph tractors, rogue cows in the road, and generally smells of animal shit. However, that said, it should be quite a spectacle.
Danny Boyle said: “The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be.”
When the games roll around, you’ll have a good excuse to get out to your local pub and cheer your country and favourite sports star to gold.
London Olympics 2012 Ceremonies Stats & Facts:
• The London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony is titled ‘Isles of Wonder’, inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
• The worldwide broadcast of the ceremony will commence at 21:00 (BST) on 27 July.
• The ceremony is predicted to be viewed live by a worldwide TV audience of over a billion people.
• The Ceremony will open with the ringing of the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world, produced by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, measuring two metres tall by three metres wide and weighing 23 tonnes.
• 12,956 props, over 100 times more than a West End musical
