As his thrilling new novel goes behind the scenes on the London Video games, Jeffrey Archer reveals the dramatic incidents that would have humiliated the UK
Fireworks herald the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Video games in 2012 (Picture: PA Wire/Press Affiliation)
What do you bear in mind most in regards to the London 2012 Olympics? Is it that the British may nonetheless organise a world occasion involving 204 international locations from Algeria to Zimbabwe, competing in 39 disciplines as numerous as Greco-Roman wrestling to archery? Or was it that the Video games had been considered by an astonishing 3.64 billion individuals who watched in awe and admiration at Britain’s potential to stage the best present on earth.
Or maybe you recall the Queen being “pushed out of a helicopter” by James Bond and touchdown safely within the royal field nicely in time to open the Video games. Or Mo Farah successful the 5,000 metres gold, including to his 10,000 metres triumph earlier within the week. Or Usain Bolt crossing the ending line to win the 100 metres gold medal in a brand new Olympic file of 9.63 seconds (breaking the 20mph pace restrict).
Much less doubtless, maybe, you felt a way of reduction when the Olympics formally closed on August 12, with no main incidents or safety breaches that might have made the Video games memorable, for all of the incorrect causes. All of us took it as a right that the Video games had been protected and safe.
This was not by likelihood however slightly the results of an enormous and sophisticated safety operation. Behind the polished efficiency that was celebrated world wide, dozens of main and minor incidents threatened to derail the Video games on a day by day – and even hourly – foundation. For instance, there have been the minor incidents that the press selected to disregard, or relegate to under the fold on web page seven.
Embarrassingly, when the North Korean girls’s soccer workforce performed Colombia at Hampden Park in Glasgow, the display screen got here up displaying the South Korean flag and performed the South Korean nationwide anthem. The North Koreans had been understandably utterly livid – it practically was an disagreeable diplomatic incident – however Seb Coe issued a private apology on behalf of the Olympic Committee and saved the day. Luckily North Korea gained the match 2-0 and all was forgotten. However some threats went approach past a minor diplomatic incident.
Whereas writing the eight novels in my William Warwick sequence, I’ve been suggested by two former Metropolitan Cops who act as my researchers – Chief Superintendent John Sutherland, who was head of the homicide squad, and Detective Sergeant Michelle Roycroft, who labored within the arts and antiques division.
They each examine and double examine the information, and don’t permit me a lot latitude every time my creativeness runs wild. They’ve additionally been accountable for supplying an skilled particularly fields, relying on what topic I chosen for the following guide, be it homicide, drug trafficking, artwork fraud, royal safety or an try to steal the crown jewels (Traitors Gate).
Nonetheless, once I determined that Finish Recreation, the ultimate guide within the William Warwick sequence, can be set towards the backdrop of the London 2012 Olympics, I already thought I knew who my skilled can be. I turned to my previous buddy and colleague within the Home of Lords, Sebastian Coe, to advise me.
The next week I travelled to Monaco to go to him at his workplace (he’s president of World Athletics), within the hope he would regale me with tales of Olympic near-misses.
To be truthful, it was Seb who informed me in regards to the North Korean incident, and the position he had performed in mollifying the injured occasion. However he additionally recommended that I ought to contact Commander Bob Broadhurst OBE QPM (Ret) who was accountable for safety for the London Video games – so Seb assured me he knew the place all of the our bodies had been buried
John Sutherland contacted Commander Broadhurst within the hope he would possibly provide me with some inside info nobody knew about and to my shock and delight he got here up with 13 incidents. What the commander proceeded to disclose took me without warning.
These had been well-kept secrets and techniques that the general public, and even Seb Coe, had been utterly unaware of. Secrets and techniques that, as soon as revealed, would completely alter the way you recall these two wonderful weeks, as there have been moments once we had been actually seconds away from worldwide humiliation. On the evening of the opening ceremony, because the world watched the Queen and the lighting of the Olympic flame, a possible catastrophe was constructing on the streets of London. Lots of of cyclists had been gathering to mount a authorized protest.
The Queen and 007 in London 2012 opening scenes watched by billions world wide (Picture: London 2012)
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The opening ceremony that was so broadly praised – and rightly so – was inside minutes of being cancelled. And in the course of the subsequent 4 weeks, there have been a number of incidents, two particularly, that would have ensured the London Video games ended not in triumph, however in ignominy.
The cyclists’ plan, nicely thought out and nicely rehearsed, was to ensure the Queen was held up for lengthy sufficient to spoil the opening ceremony. Had they succeeded the press would have had a area day. Think about for a second: the Queen jumps out of a aircraft with James Bond and is rarely seen once more. You’ll be able to write your individual headlines.
And if that wasn’t sufficient, on the identical evening Commander Bob Broadhurst needed to face the specter of a cyber-attack which might have put the stadium lights out for 4 hours, with a billion and a half tv viewers world wide watching a clean display screen whereas a 100,000 spectators within the stadium would have been left in whole darkness, panicking in 51 completely different languages.
As soon as once more think about the headlines within the nationwide papers the following morning. As Bob jogged my memory, a profitable safety operation has no headlines and no heroes, nevertheless it’s outstanding how shut we got here.
Armed with all this inside info, I sat down to jot down the ultimate guide within the William Warwick sequence, placing Commander William Warwick accountable for safety for the London Video games, and all 13 incidents revealed by Commander Broadhurst (and
additionally written about in his glorious guide Panic Slowly, which is but to be revealed) come to life in Finish Recreation.
Nonetheless, I added one other 9 of my very own – so it’s as much as the reader to resolve which 13 truly occurred and which 9 are nothing greater than a figment of my creativeness. I’ve requested a number of early readers to try to guess – and up to now nobody has scored 22 out of twenty-two, together with Seb Coe (19)!
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Finish Recreation is the final within the William Warwick sequence – however as he bows out, William faces his largest problem ever. As do readers… if even Seb Coe can’t work out which of the incidents are true and that are false, I doubt if anybody will. However I hope individuals can have quite a lot of enjoyable speculating which practically derailed the best present on earth… you possibly can resolve.
- Finish Recreation by Jeffrey Archer (HarperCollins, £22) is revealed right now. Purchase it right here
Jeffrey Archer’s new novel, Finish Recreation, is out right now [Sept 23] (Picture: HarperCollins)
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