The 2008 Beijing Olympics was a stunning show by the Chinese to the International community highlighting that when it comes to putting on a show the Chinese spare no expense. From the glitzy, phenomenal, opening ceremony to the beautiful purpose-built venues, Beijing did itself proud. Sure, there were some hiccups along the way with little girls being replaced by prettier, miming counterparts, Chinese Olympic judges developing a new points scoring system where only the Chinese athlete picked up points and not their opponent. But those are easily brushed under the big red carpet when looking back fondly at the 2008 Olympics. You wonder, just how-on-earth, London 2012 is supposed to follow that!

London has a great opportunity to have a party but also make it fun as well. There is no point in even attempting to keep-up-with-the-joneses attitude because London, never mind the UK could afford that extraordinary budget that Beijing was allowed to spend on throwing the Olympics. No, London has to think on a smaller more personal scale. If they win the hearts and minds of people by allowing the 2012 Olympics to come across as a fun filled games then, perhaps, London might climb out of Beijings shadow.

You just know that the opening ceremony will be different, with all that talent to pull from in London’s West End we’re bound to come up with a good singing and dancing number. Heck if all else fails we know we can just throw a few rock and pop artists in there, perhaps even call it Band Aid 4 and kill 2 birds with the one stone.

Here is London’s 2012 Olympic Video as used in Beijing’s closing Ceremony