That’s the only description I can muster for the magnificent presentation of the Opening Ceremony of the British 2012 London Olympics – a superb portrayal of our very own sense of Britishness.
Britain’s pastoral heritage portrayed at the London 2012 Olympics
I wonder whether the thousands of excited international visitors in the audience fully understood the sheep reference and its relationship to the British and its laws! As an island nation, the extensive permanent grassland, moorland, and woodland pastures enabled relatively large numbers of animals to be kept, encouraging the development of pastoral farming in the 13th century. Just one century later, sheep farming had emerged as a cornerstone of foreign trade and national policy through wool exports to Europe. Common law, a pillar of the British legal system, stems from the rights of tenants and others to graze their livestock on the Lord of the Manor’s or public land known as a “commons“, which gave rise to the term “commoner“. The House of Commons was traditionally composed of commoners. So although it may seem frivolous to portray Great Britain through its pastoral heritage, sheep truly did play an instrumental role in shaping British society from the 13th century through to the Industrial Revolution.
We are truly a melting pot of nations and influences when you consider the progressive integration of cultures over the last two millennia – the Romans (Italians), the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes (Germans), the Vikings (Danes), the Normans (French, descendents from the Vikings!) and more recently the post-war colonial integration of Pakistanis and Indians. It’s this mix that gives us our sense of humour and self-derision. After all that history of invasion, we tend not to get too excited about things and just get on with life, come rain or shine.
Mary Poppins at the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony
And as if it needed proving, Mary Poppins preceded the Queen and James Bond in their respective heavenly descents into the magnificent stadium. What a good “sport” the Queen was to agree to such an “escapade” and what a joy to receive her welcoming tribute to the Opening of the Games.
The Queen parachutes in style to open the London 2012 Olympics
The 2012 Olympic celebration is vastly different from the one I experienced with my family in Munich in 1972. My memories of that event are just as fond, even though we witnessed at first hand the horror of the terrorism that was to develop over the following decades.
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