Last night the BBC concluded its live programming with a shamelessly patriotic montage featuring Blessed, Shakespeare, emotive choral music and the White Cliffs of Dover. It was a rally cry ahead of England’s crunch match with Slovenia today, and I loved it.
There is little I like more than a shameless montage. I know I shouldn’t. I know they are overblown, irrelevant and a bit silly, but they still fill me with a sense of anticipation and excitement. Even the current advert for a Danish lager featuring a string of sporting greats and a poignant image of Sir Bobby Robson moves me almost to tears. What a shame then the sense of communal euphoria is little more than a marketing pitch that the reality will never live up to.
England might win today. They might even win with pride, but they will never embody the spirit of St George. They can’t. Nobody even really knows who St George is, let alone the finer details of his character and temperament. It’s a concept that has been cobbled together using elements of our culture and history to encourage us to buy stuff when it comes to major international tournaments.
I still can’t resist it though and will be brimming with anticipation until 3pm today when the montages must stop and the harsh reality must begin. But who says this needs to be the case? I would be in full support of the BBC refusing to screen the match today in favour of a brazen 90-minute tableau of patriotic imagery and music – at least we’d all go home happy.
