Boyle and the Beeb Kickstart the Inspiration

Britain’s brilliant Olympians will certainly inspire a generation of athletes – but the creative and media talent who delivered the performances to our living rooms have also provided inspiration and wonder.

This week has seen the triumphant homecomings of Team GB’s sporting wizards, medals glinting in the summery spells. A remarkable aspect of the success of the home Olympics is that many of our athletes, not to mention some of the sports they excel at, were far from well known before the Games. The athletes’ success is down to a tapestry of talent, inspiration, support, funding and hours and countless hours of running, throwing, jumping and face-punching. But their heroic reception required a lens to sear their achievements into the collective consciousness – and that was a creative media triumph.

It would be ridiculous to claim that there was little interest in the Olympics before the opening ceremony. Backlogged ticket booking websites, public guards of honour stretching 8,000 miles along the torch relay route and 70,000 volunteers threw that hammer out of the stadium. But no amount of anticipation or enthusiasm would have guaranteed the Games’ success had they not connected with the public. Let’s not forget that a cloud accompanied the build-up – accusations of overzealous branding enforcement, security personnel issues, disgruntlement at the Games Lanes and athletes getting lost all spring to mind. And not everyone shared the enthusiasm for track’n’field’n’velodrome’n’lake’n’sea’n’pool’n’stuff – or the price to the public purse.

Failure was definitely a possibility, and there was nothing the athletes could do about it. It was down to the media lens to twist into focus and prove the doubters wrong. The fact that the pre-Olympic jitters now seem quaint tells us how the story unfolded.

Boyle’s Lore

Die-hard Olympophobes started to feel a disturbance in the force on the evening of 27 July, when Isles of Wonder elevated Danny Boyle from lowly Oscar-winning director to national treasure in a blast furnace of emotion, wit, history and heroism. He and his cast of thousands walked onto Grouse Street with a big yellow lollipop marked “STOP. LOOK. LISTEN.” And we did.

Over several hours the world saw Britain transformed from a folklorish idyll to an industrial powerhouse as it became a modern nation. War understandably made a cameo appearance but we picked up the history lesson in 1945 with the NHS, Empire Windrush and the current chapter of the Team GB story. While some weren’t comfortable with the seemingly political nature of the event, a feeling of euphoria, recognition and comfort was willingly absorbed by a stunned majority.

And to those who said that the actual Queen would never jump out of a helicopter with James Bond to grace the ceremony with her presence, we said— Oh, come on … Who’d have even considered this happening? Apart from Boyle’s masterful invention and organisation of the spectacular show, the BBC must receive a bronze medal for their coverage; they were heavily involved with proceedings from an early stage, and it shows. It was the result of thousands of collective years of broadcasting and production, and was pretty much flawlessly executed.

BBC on the Podium

So the ceremony was a triumph; no doubt about it. Now onto the Games. How would they fare in media terms? Once again we’re back to the BBC, and once again, any critics had their arguments blown out of the water by Auntie’s pocket battleship.

First of all, there was the access. There were more platforms than the time that Slade were spotted playing Super Mario Bros at Piccadilly Station. Mobile, radio, TV, HD and online coverage were all-embracing, and they even broadcast certain events on 3DTV, which equates to a whole dimension for each 3DTV owner.

The sparkling jewel was the online offering. It gave us everything we could get on TV plus a wealth of information and recaps from every event. Broadcast TV would inevitably focus on the British interests plus the thrill of one or two global icons such as Usain Bolt, but online everybody could hear the tennis screams. Anything that was happening in any venue was viewable on the BBC’s Olympic page, and the catch-up and schedule services were intuitive and comprehensive.

The back-end had profiles of every athlete and there was an ingenious database application that allowed viewing of data by nation, date, competitor and event, with medal tables, results, news and timetables available in grid or list views. Some real hard work and testing had gone into this, and it was worth every click. The BBC’s online Olympic coverage will probably become a benchmark of how to cover such events in the future.

A  Generation Inspired

So we had a gloom-busting opening ceremony and pitch-perfect multi-platform coverage. All that remained was for our Olympians to deliver – and that can be measured in golden post boxes.

Throughout London 2012, we were reminded of the strapline: “Inspire a generation”. The sentiment was chiefly aimed at tomorrow’s athletic superstars, and in that sense it might have worked. But look to the wondrous, stylish, entertaining opening ceremony and the technically proficient, polished and usable BBC Olympics online presence and it’s not hard to imagine some of the inspired generation ending up in the creative and media industries. Let’s hope they give it a try. There will always be dressage to fall back on.

Charlie Hankers