Nelson & His World

I would be interested to know what the members think of Lord Nelson's new hat.


http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/ ... town.html#

It definitely appeals to my sense of fun - so it get's my vote.

I couldn't help wondering how they got it up there??!!

In the early days of the statue cleaning etc. was done by putting metal bands round the column and attaching ladders. I don't think H&S would think much of that nowadays.

In recent years it has always required full-blown scaffolding. They certainly wouldn't manage that overnight!

But the answer seems to be on the BBC News website - Lord Nelson's hat was winched 169ft in the air and put on his head by a crane.

Still a bit hard to see how it was fitted so perfectly but they obviously found a way.

So double

MB

It looks great, and a nice piece of fun for the Olympics.

It's a pity though that Nelson didn't get even a mention in Danny Boyle's opening extravaganza for the Games! As a matter of fact, I thought the performance rather devoid of most of British history, which is what I thought it was supposed about, and which could have been alluded to – if only for a few minutes. After all, quite a lot happened before the Industrial Revolution, which still has some resonance and made Great Britain what it is today. Perhaps though, Mr Boyle hadn't heard of that, or wanted to avoid mentioning wars or conflict? With British history that's rather difficult!

I note that he did make brief allusion to the First World War, with men in period uniform and poppies, but what about the Second World War? I would have thought that the far more important conflict, and he could perhaps have used part of Churchill's speeches, searchlights, and the sound of air raid sirens. Other than war however, what about such things as the Magna Carta, Parliamentary democracy, the Great Reform Bill, and advances in the legal profession, all things of which we should justly be proud, and many of which have been subsequently adopted in other countries?

Yes, reference was made to the NHS, but I think this segment was too long – and certainly (for me) far too much time was spent on the history of rock and pop, which in reality has only been on the historical scene for a very short time, when compared to the long march of British history! Perhaps the younger amongst us wouldn't agree?

So, it was interesting, but I believe it could have been better. Anybody else any thoughts?

Shh, whatever you do, don't mention the empire... Oops, look at all those flags!

(Whisper) I wasn't going to, but I agree many of the flags sort of gave it away – some of which I didn't even know!

The hat I find a little... tacky? But if it draws attention to Nelson, that can only be a good thing I guess! (Not that it can really be seen clearly from the ground, but still!)

I enjoyed the opening ceremony, I thought the industrial revolution bit was excellent, especially the percussion which I found spine-tingling, but there really could/should have been more history represented before that - admittedly much of the history of Britain is based around warfare, but there are other figures that could have been represented, for example Henry VIII is pretty recognisable and well-known! I do feel that Nelson and Victory could have been represented in some way without a focus on the war itself, I think an opportunity for something quite epic was missed. And I agree that the tv and musical history bit was far too long, it seems a shame that pop culture should resonate more than more important (and interesting!) parts of British history.

I was thinking, as the parade was going by, that perhaps the Queen could have been looking down thinking "Used to own you... and you... yep, and you... you, too..."

I see there was a Trafalgar Square/Nelson's Column fence on the Show Jumping Course at Greenwich. Complete with at least one "Landseer lion".

Sorry I can't spot a decent image of it on the internet at the moment.

MB

Just watched Mary King (5th place) being interviewed and she said that the bronze lion on the course had frightened her horse!

MB

Or perhaps she slept through most of it – jumping out of a helicopter is no mean feat at her age!

Thanks for your interesting views and comments. When I saw Nelson's and the other statues stylised hats, I thought it was a real bit of British tongue-in-cheek fun... and a 'capital' way to raise money for the London Mayor's charity.

I missed Nelson's new hat and I think it was a fun way to celebrate the Olympics. Somehow I can imagine Nelson approving this. I did however see the Nelson's Column fence and thought it very beautiful but I'm not exactly impartial...

As for the opening ceremony, there's time and money constraints so a lot has to be left out. As much as I would have liked to see Nelson represented in some way I guess Danny Boyle chose to represent the moment in history that not only changed Britain but the whole world forever. Something British but that anyone in the world could relate to, although I doubt that a lot of people outside Britain would recognize Brunel.


At first I also thought the same, what about Britain's finest hour? Was this just a case of "don't mention the war"? But in the spirit of the ceremony it made sense, this was perhaps the moment when the world finally lost its innocence and was a fitting tribute to the Lost Generation.
My only complaint about the ceremony would be the British music segment, just because it seemed scenically poor.

Sadly, I missed the opening ceremony because of another family crisis. Are there any plans for a DVD - does anyone know? Ian's hero Brunel was there but not our Nelson! Maybe I won't bother.

Anna,

Well, Kenneth Branagh was there, if that's who you mean!

Quite honestly though, you didn't miss much, and it was a bit like a rotten apple – good in parts! To my mind there was far too much pop music. I watched it on SVT 1 play on the computer, which of course meant that one could use the 'fast forward' button!

Ditto the closing ceremony, although that was a bit better. I did enjoy Eric Idle singing that song from the Life of Brian! The spice girls were quite good too and the closing speeches, but again too much pop.

If they do bring out a DVD, I won't be buying it!

Yep there is a dvd on the way

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news ... boyle.html

Even if you don't watch all of it, definitely watch the industrial revolution section (or even just look it up on youtube, there's bound to be a clip on there somewhere). It was amazing, and the powerful percussion music gave me goosebumps. It's worth watching for that if nothing else.

The imagery of Nelson's Column made an appearance a few times during the games and the advertising around it, so it really is a shame they didn't add Nelson into the montage somewhere.

IMHO The closing ceremony was a travesty, celebrating the fashion industry, super-models, gangster rap, bling, and all that is the antithesis of the Olympic ideal - and without any of the redeeming creativity of the extraordinarily bizarre opening ceremony. But at least they found some ancient rockers that aren't quite senile!