Wasn't it all rather a let down?

I only saw half the Olympics closing ceremony last night, until about 10.15pm, and then I’m afraid I got bored and went to bed. I have recorded the rest, really just so I can see the Spice Girls (which is rather sad) but perhaps it was inevitable after the wonderful opening ceremony and the drama of the last fortnight that last night fell rather short of my expectations.

I’m sure if you were there on the night, as 80,000 spectators were, that it was easy to get swept up in it all and enjoy the atmosphere, and I must say that the lighting effects were spectacular. The firework pictures in the newspapers this morning also looked rather good, but fancy lights and sparklers alone do not, for me, make a good night out.

If anything, I thought that the content of the ‘show’ lacked imagination. Yet again Madness were wheeled out (literally in this case) as was Annie Lennox plus a number of other famous musical faces and others not so famous (who on earth was that Emilie girl who opened the whole thing with that dreary song?).

What about celebrating other things British – not just focusing on London and music but broadening the horizon and looking at other famous landmarks and other artistic and athletic endeavours? Anyone watching around the world would

a)    Have trouble making out what it was all about what with taxis covered in newspaper and low loaders and

b)    Have come to the conclusion that London was all there is about Britain

I am conscious that this is all sounding rather churlish, particularly as I couldn’t be arsed to sit up until almost midnight to see it through, because it has been such a fabulous fortnight with not one duff note. The organisation has been superb, the sport has been spectacular (and that is coming from someone who doesn’t really like sport and never reads the back pages of the newspaper), the venues are world beating and the conduct and camaraderie of the competitors without fault.

Just imagine if this had been a fortnight festival of football – we would have had drunken louts ‘singing’ in the street, fights, bad sportsmanship on the pitch and obscene amounts of money being thrown at players just to turn up. We’ve had none of that, and even the most arrogant and hyped of competitors such as Usain Bolt have behaved impeccably (talking of 100 metre runners – don’t those guys have attitude?!)

Perhaps it is slightly unkind to moan, because artistic success is very much a subjective thing. I bet there are lots of you out there that loved last night’s ceremony, so maybe I just have to accept that it wasn’t my thing but agree that actually it was professionally staged and very well done, especially considering that services were either given for free or provided by volunteers.

And now we have to gear up for the Paralympics, which has been cheapened already by the fact it is on Channel Four, the home of Big Brother and Ice Road Truckers, and not the BBC.  Somehow, annoying as Claire Balding was fawning over the swimmers last week, C4 just won’t have the same amount of class. And it will be most annoying to have the viewing broken up by oversized opera singers trying to persuade me to ‘Go compare ‘ or by those f*****g meerkats (I used to quite like meerkats, now I feel like exterminating every last one of them!). But we’ll have to see.

I can tell by friends’ posts on Facebook that most of them have been tremendously excited by the Olympic extravaganza but personally, despite the success of Team GB and the heroic performances we have seen from some over the past fortnight, I can’t wait for it all to be over.

So roll on 9^th September, when the Paralympics finish, and let’s all get life back to normal.