0:00:55 > 0:00:58I'd been presenting a radio show about London
0:00:58 > 0:01:01for nearly 20 years and when I first started presenting the show,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04people had a fairly negative image of London
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and I kept saying, "No, no, no. It's a fantastic place."
0:01:07 > 0:01:08And slowly, I saw it change around
0:01:08 > 0:01:11so that people started agreeing with me.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Till the point by about 2005 when there was kind of this consensus
0:01:15 > 0:01:18that this might be the greatest city in the world.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21We were seeing great architecture, we were seeing Grand Projets,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24We were getting new bridges, we were getting new galleries.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Our filmmakers were making great films, our bands were everywhere.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31There was an international sense that it was London's time.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33You could kind of feel it on the streets.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36There was a... a pride, an optimism.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Our economy was doing well.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Our government had abolished boom and bust,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42so we could bid for the Olympics
0:01:42 > 0:01:44with huge confidence that we could afford it.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48- TONY BLAIR:- Give us the chance
0:01:48 > 0:01:53to host the world's most important, special sporting event,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57here in the world's greatest capital city.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00I know we won't let them down.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05First of all, the President...
0:02:13 > 0:02:17The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing
0:02:17 > 0:02:22that the Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012
0:02:22 > 0:02:24are awarded
0:02:24 > 0:02:26to the city of London!
0:02:26 > 0:02:29CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:02:32 > 0:02:35I was actually in Trafalgar Square,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38so I witnessed the euphoria
0:02:38 > 0:02:43coming out of the centre of London, and it really was amazing.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46The thing that I seem to have seen more times than anything else
0:02:46 > 0:02:49is me and Kelly Holmes jumping up and down, hugging each other.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53We just exploded and the whole of Trafalgar Square exploded.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56EDDIE IZZARD: So, we're setting up a British Olympics
0:02:56 > 0:02:59where each and every event is a British event,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01like the British 100 metres.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04"Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse me. I think I was here first."
0:03:04 > 0:03:06LAUGHTER
0:03:06 > 0:03:08We should win that.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13I'm the supervisor at Aldgate. We've just had a big explosion.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16There appears to be something ahead of the train in the track.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20There was just a very loud bang. There was smoke everywhere.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Four bombs detonated on the London transport system,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25causing chaos and confusion.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29But as the full scale of the tragedy began to emerge,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32suspicions turned to terrorism.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44A friend of mine was killed in the bombings
0:03:44 > 0:03:47and so I remember the day that we won the Olympics very well.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It was Jen Nicholson, who was killed on the Edgware Road train,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53and her mum was the vicar
0:03:53 > 0:03:56who said that she couldn't forgive the bombers,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59therefore she was being hypocritical and resigned from the church.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07There are sporting events and it was great excitement around that,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09but it's not something which is as important
0:04:09 > 0:04:11as people losing their lives,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14and so the Olympics just disappeared out of all thoughts.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21The bombings the day after the bid was an immediate corrective
0:04:21 > 0:04:24to anyone who felt a kind of rosiness, you know,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28a glow that everything was fine in London.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Everything isn't fine.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41The reason the 7/7 bombings were so dreadful
0:04:41 > 0:04:45is that London was attacked by British people.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Two weeks after that, there was another series of bombings.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Although they weren't successful, they implied
0:04:51 > 0:04:54that there were a very large number of people
0:04:54 > 0:04:57out there in Britain who were ready to mount attacks.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Police in London have admitted that the man shot dead
0:05:03 > 0:05:07at an underground station on Friday had no connection
0:05:07 > 0:05:09with the series of attempted bomb attacks
0:05:09 > 0:05:11across the capital on Thursday.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14It's emerged that he was a 27-year-old Brazilian -
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Jean Charles De Menezes.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18He was working in London as an electrician.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23The jury have clearly said that the police lied,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25that Jean was completely innocent
0:05:25 > 0:05:28and that from the moment Jean entered Stockwell Tube Station,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31he was doomed to be shot dead without warning.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42If you had to choose one figure
0:05:42 > 0:05:46and symbolise what the Olympics can express,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49you would choose Jesse Owens, who went to Berlin in 1936
0:05:49 > 0:05:54and made a mockery of Adolf Hitler's theories of ethnicity.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:06:15 > 0:06:19The particular part of East London, of sort of Stratford,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24the Lea Valley, I don't even really quite know what to call it.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26The Olympic site.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29This part of London, I think, to many Londoners was a mystery.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33So the idea that you could build some great Olympic Citadel there
0:06:33 > 0:06:35was quite fascinating,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39cos it was a bit like someone had found a new continent.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41For all I know, there may be forms of life there
0:06:41 > 0:06:43that had never been seen by mankind.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45It was industrial London when we had industries.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Traditionally, it was smelly London because of the prevailing winds,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51so rich people lived in the west
0:06:51 > 0:06:53because it smelt terrible in the east.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55When you think of old London,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58you think of somewhere east of the city
0:06:58 > 0:07:02because that is the mythical dark soul of London.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Governments very rarely get a chance to have a multi-billion regeneration
0:07:31 > 0:07:35of one of the poorest areas in their capital city.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40This event, this one event is going
0:07:40 > 0:07:43to change the shape of that area of London forever.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I hope they make a difference to the East End of London.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52I hope when they've gone, when the Games are finished,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57that they're left with something that they can keep and they can use.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00I've got no interest in the sport aspect at all.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04I'm more interested in what it's going to do for the economy.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08A lot of the businesses that provide jobs for ordinary people,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10you know, like warehousing jobs and similar,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14that's all going to be affected cos it's going to be built on.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The sporting legacy most important for me is really recognising
0:08:18 > 0:08:21that getting more young people
0:08:21 > 0:08:23into sport is not just a good sports policy,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26it's a good education policy, it's a good health policy,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29it's actually a great policy for social inclusion.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33That is one of the strongest parts of this legacy.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39If you took sport away from the East End of London,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43you'd have gang wars and street wars and things like that, you know.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46You either kick a ball or punch someone on the nose.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48There's no horse riding, there's no golf,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51there's none of these luxurious sports.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54There's nothing my boxers have never won.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56They've all won everything,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58from the little schoolboy 11-year-old
0:08:58 > 0:09:01to the Olympic gold medallist.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04You put a kid on a bag, you say,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07"Go and hit the bag, son," or, "Go and hit the ball,"
0:09:07 > 0:09:08and you just watch.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Within half-a-minute, you know that that kid's got a talent,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15and you're born with that, you know.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18There ain't too many Muhammad Alis about.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23Oh, he danced all right.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27He had everything. Balance and timing and distance.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29He was a perfect example,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and I'm sure that the world followed him, you know.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34"I wanna be like him."
0:09:35 > 0:09:36BELL RINGS
0:09:36 > 0:09:39APPLAUSE
0:09:46 > 0:09:49FIONA BRUCE: The cost of the 2012 London Olympics
0:09:49 > 0:09:53could be nearly three times the original estimate of £3.4 billion.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57The spiralling costs have prompted calls for a radical rethink.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01These sums are beyond all reason.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04You're going to be burgling the charities,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07burgling the heritage, burgling the arts, burgling sport to pay for them.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09It's quite wrong.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12You can't tell people that's a sensible way of spending money.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Over the top.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Well over the top. They want more money now.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21They should have had this worked out properly, really, in my eyes
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Where's the money going, who's the money for? That's what I want to know.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Some fat cat's getting it, aren't they?
0:10:30 > 0:10:33I'm for it, but at the same time, I teach social housing.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36I know there is a massive credit crunch
0:10:36 > 0:10:39and there are people suffering that don't have anywhere to live.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43There's housing benefit cuts, lack of housing, lack of jobs.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Then again, you've got to have a bit of joy in life
0:10:46 > 0:10:49and a bit of celebration. I don't see any harm in that.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56China's moment at the centre of the world stage has finally arrived.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Thousands of homes made way for 37 competition venues
0:11:00 > 0:11:03and millions of people were relocated.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Some things that are not so good have happened on the way
0:11:07 > 0:11:10to building this thing but I don't think it's anything like the scale
0:11:10 > 0:11:12on which that happened in Beijing
0:11:12 > 0:11:14when nobody could utter a squeak of protest.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27We saw the Chinese government flexing its muscles
0:11:27 > 0:11:31in a very impressive, rather intimidating way.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35They built fantastic facilities but it wasn't really built for the Chinese people.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39It was built to show the world this is what we can do, this is what we are going to be in the future.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58The work credit is derived from a Latin word, "credo,"
0:11:58 > 0:12:02which actually means belief or trust.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05This is a crisis not just of credit. It is a crisis of trust.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Just before the markets opened,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09the Chancellor was doing a round of television interviews
0:12:09 > 0:12:13explaining how he'd just committed vast sums of taxpayers' money.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Up to 50 billion to inject capital into banks,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19250 billion to underwrite their debts
0:12:19 > 0:12:22and a further 200 billion in short-term loans.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29I think it's capitalism eating its own arsehole.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31It's just gone a bit to the end.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35You can only eat so much into something like that.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38I had quite a job persuading my Cabinet colleagues that
0:12:38 > 0:12:40we should bid for the Olympics.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43I think that the faint hearts, as I regarded them at the time,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47might have prevailed had they known that in five years,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50we were going to be heading for a downturn.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54I wish we hadn't been lied to and I'm sure we were.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57The original estimate, I don't think anybody with any sense ever believed
0:12:57 > 0:13:01it was going to be possible to restrict it to that.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Both the times that London's held the Games in the past
0:13:11 > 0:13:13have been emergency Games.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16The 1948 Olympics, which are now known as the Austerity Games,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18were a comparatively small-scale affair.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23The athletes were treated as if they'd just turned up to a village sports day
0:13:23 > 0:13:25and very successful it was.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29So it showed that something could be done in difficult circumstances and
0:13:29 > 0:13:34of course, that sprang to mind when the global economic crisis occurred.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40As it turns out, they seem not to have taken that option
0:13:40 > 0:13:43but they've spent the money anyway.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50I make this promise to everyone in Britain.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53You will not be left on your own in this.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56We are doing this as a government because we have to.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59This government will not cut the deficit
0:13:59 > 0:14:02in a way that hurts those we most need to help,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06in a way that divides our country or in a way that undermines
0:14:06 > 0:14:11the spirit and the ethos of our vital public services.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15When they did close the youth centres, they didn't even alert the young people
0:14:15 > 0:14:17so it was like one day the youth centre was there
0:14:17 > 0:14:20and then the next it was gone. It is a sad story,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22the cuts are affecting young people a lot
0:14:22 > 0:14:24but the government doesn't realise what they are doing to us.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26Everybody used to go to youth clubs.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It's not like they made youth clubs but no one used to go.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32People used to go to youth clubs every day. Now look.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35We walk down the streets and we are getting pulled over by police.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37There's nothing here for us, like.
0:14:37 > 0:14:38I think it's going to be swarming.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41I think people are going to be trying to find things to do.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44People want jobs and that's going to be frustrating.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47You've got a lot of people out here. There will be riots.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50There will be riots.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53I play hockey. I'm captain of my team and I just think
0:14:53 > 0:14:57sports should be actually drilled into kids from a young age.
0:14:57 > 0:14:58Most European cities do it
0:14:58 > 0:15:01and their crime rates go down because the kids are doing something else
0:15:01 > 0:15:05than going out and messing around with alcohol and drugs and stuff.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10The L word is the difficult one, the legacy.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14Of course, London went very heavy on this idea that the Games
0:15:14 > 0:15:18would inspire a new generation, not only in the UK but around the world.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22The difficulty is how do you get hundreds of thousands of kids
0:15:22 > 0:15:27getting involved in sport that they wouldn't necessarily have got involved in?
0:15:27 > 0:15:30There's only so much you can do. You can only open the doors
0:15:30 > 0:15:33and of course the difficulty we have is that just when
0:15:33 > 0:15:36we're wanting to have all these doors open to swimming pools,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41sports centres etc, local authorities are closing them.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43The timing couldn't be any worse.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Sport in the community could not be any lower down the pecking order
0:15:46 > 0:15:49at a time when it should be right at the very top.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51That's a political reality.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Coe and Ovett was a wonderful yin and yang rivalry.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09They were the same nationality, but that was about all in common.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11One of them won a race the other should have won
0:16:11 > 0:16:13and the other got his revenge by winning the race
0:16:13 > 0:16:16that the rival was expected to win.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Their names will forever be entwined.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You want a kind of signature feat, something that happens
0:17:06 > 0:17:11that people will forever identify with the Games of 2012
0:17:11 > 0:17:13as they did with Jesse Owens in Berlin,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Ali in Rome, Bolt in Beijing.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Just something that recalibrates people's expectations
0:17:19 > 0:17:21of what is possible.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26For me, I think the greatest, most beautiful and most resonant
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Olympic moment of them all is watching Tommie Smith and John Carlos
0:17:30 > 0:17:33who came first and third in the 200 metres.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36These two black athletes raise their hands
0:17:36 > 0:17:38and they do the black power salute.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46I do remember seeing it live and realising even then
0:17:46 > 0:17:49as a nine-year-old boy that this was something pretty special.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Suddenly, the Olympics was for the poor, the dispossessed,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55the disenfranchised.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05When I returned to the UK having been abroad for three years,
0:18:05 > 0:18:07it did seem a rather different country.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12Poorer, particularly outside London. More paranoid, more anti-immigrant.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15We've had the MPs' expenses scandal which convinced us
0:18:15 > 0:18:18that most MPs were crooked.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20We've had the phone hacking scandal
0:18:20 > 0:18:24which suggested that many newspapers were corrupt and immoral.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27There have been a series of events in this country
0:18:27 > 0:18:30which have undermined and poisoned British people's views
0:18:30 > 0:18:32of established institutions.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41The police have too much power and they are using that power.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44My old man didn't pull out no gun, no nothing.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46They shot him for no reason.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Listen, at war, you lose some, you win some.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51This is war right now on the streets.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53As you can see, it's war for our young people.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Give us a tomorrow. Given the kids a tomorrow.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56There's no tomorrow.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59I escaped on her back through the corridor
0:18:59 > 0:19:03and locked myself into the kitchen because there is a fire door.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06I thought they can't break that easily.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I could hear them breaking everything and it was terrifying.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15She is working hard to make her business work and then you lot
0:19:15 > 0:19:16want to go and burn it up, for what?
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Just to say that you're warring and you're a bad man?
0:19:19 > 0:19:22This is about a man who got shot in Tottenham.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24This ain't about having fun in a riot and busting up the place.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Get it real, black people. Get real! Do it for a cause.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31If we are fighting for a cause, let's fight for a cause!
0:19:31 > 0:19:35- You lot piss me the- BLEEP- off and I'm ashamed to be a Hackney person.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38We're not all gathering together and fighting for a cause,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41were running down Foot Locker and stealing shoes.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47My youngest daughter, who's eight,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50she just... I don't think she's got over it yet.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53The party shop at Clapham Junction was burnt down
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and her question was, "Why would anyone bomb a party shop?
0:19:57 > 0:20:00"Were they having a party? What was going on?"
0:20:00 > 0:20:01You can't explain that.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23These crowds were organising themselves using social networking.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Why weren't the police on Twitter, on Facebook,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30on BlackBerry messaging, getting one step ahead of the crowd?
0:20:30 > 0:20:33They're happy to let Tottenham High Road burn
0:20:33 > 0:20:36because there's nothing there worth saving in their view,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39not worth the trouble. Had that been Ladbroke Grove
0:20:39 > 0:20:41or the King's Road or Sloane Street,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44they'd have been there in a flash.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49I got really impressed.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52I got impressed not for the riots.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56I got impressed by the reaction of Londoners.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58That's shown to London and to England
0:20:58 > 0:21:00that there is a massive social problem
0:21:00 > 0:21:04and the fact that loads of people here didn't accept that,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08I think is a sign of blindness.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11A lot of people have this image that this is a peaceable city
0:21:11 > 0:21:13and usually it is.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16But actually, historically if you look back,
0:21:16 > 0:21:17the London mob is always there.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21In present times we can go through the poll tax riots,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24the Brixton riots, the Tottenham riots.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27The London mob is always there.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30It's almost a force which when certain pressures are applied,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32will erupt.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34But it's the first riot that good old lefties like me
0:21:34 > 0:21:38have not been able to wholeheartedly think was right,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41because it was materialistic.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43These things happen in massive cities.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46They don't happen very often.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50There's always a short-term reason for it and I think come the Olympics
0:21:50 > 0:21:53everything is going to go smoothly and swimmingly
0:21:53 > 0:21:56and I think everyone will be behind the event.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Have you ever seen anyone more confident on a four-inch beam?
0:22:22 > 0:22:2610 she's got! Nadia Comaneci.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38There is a double-edged sword with London.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41It kind of gets you down a bit and then you go away and think,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44I can't really leave it. London is so rich culturally
0:22:44 > 0:22:46in terms of what you've got access to.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49It makes a part of who you are
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and I want my kids to enjoy that as well.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56It's a little bit risky, a little bit woah, a little bit way.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59As you walk down here, you get different looks from kids.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04Is he going to come over and mug me or is he going to ask me the time or where a shop is?
0:23:04 > 0:23:08You never know what's around the corner, do you, in London.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10You see so much. Turn the corner, there's something new.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15There's an alleyway, a courtyard, something going on, something you haven't seen before.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19I walk and cycle, that's my main ways of getting around London.
0:23:19 > 0:23:20I find it a very beautiful city.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23I think the diversity of styles of architecture
0:23:23 > 0:23:27and of all the different people that live here make it just a constant treat.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31I'm from the countryside originally so living here
0:23:31 > 0:23:35in such a multicultural city has been an amazing experience.
0:23:35 > 0:23:41It's a tough city but once you get the key, it's just yours, I think.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48London is a more unequal, more troubled city than it was
0:23:48 > 0:23:52since the bankers inflicted their crisis on the rest of us.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Probably in greater need of a party to lift its spirits.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57It's a wonderful city for rich people.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01You can see that in the transformation of Canary Wharf
0:24:01 > 0:24:05or the wealth that you see being spent by the hedge fund managers in Mayfair.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09It is a fantastic city for young creative people.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12There's a vibrancy and an edge to it you don't really find anywhere,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16not in such density, anywhere else in the world.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20I just decided to come here for six months and now it's five years.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24I think it's the capital of the contemporary arts, London, now.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26I can sell paintings, I can live.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32I don't make a lot of money now but still people buy from emergent artists.
0:24:32 > 0:24:33I'm excited.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37I will watch it on TV but I want to be just walking in the area
0:24:37 > 0:24:40and seeing the people from the world. I believe in people.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43I like to talk, I like to know the story.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46One of the things that London does
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and I hope it's one of the things London continues to do
0:24:49 > 0:24:53but I'm worried, is London is and always has been cheek by jowl.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Rich and poor don't necessarily live in different neighbourhoods.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Black and white don't live in different neighbourhoods.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Muslim and Christian aren't separated by a divide.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04They're literally next door to each other.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07We have all sorts of things to thank for that, at least partly the Luftwaffe.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11I live in a street of million pound houses and council flats.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14When the million pound houses got bombed, they built council flats.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16You're forced to have that kind of mix
0:25:16 > 0:25:19and that's true across London.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21I'm really excited.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24I'm going to be sitting in Victoria Park in Hackney
0:25:24 > 0:25:27when I don't have tickets to the event and I'm going to sit in that park
0:25:27 > 0:25:30with a picnic, with a wine or beer,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32and I'm going to be watching everything.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35But I'd rather hang out with lots of local Londoners
0:25:35 > 0:25:38or people who call London their home.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40I think it would be an extra dimension to it.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46I don't think I'm going to be around here during the Games.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I think I'm going to avoid London, to be honest.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52It does have a really good transport system but it's busy now!
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Imagine thousands and thousands and thousands of people
0:25:56 > 0:26:01trying to get into a bus or a tube. You're not going to go anywhere.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06As a city, I don't think we are a big enough community sometimes.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09We don't come together for a lot so I'm hoping the London Olympics gives London a chance
0:26:09 > 0:26:14for everyone to pick a sport, all come together, support Great Britain as a whole
0:26:14 > 0:26:16and having it in London just brings that community together
0:26:16 > 0:26:19which I think is what we need, especially after everything
0:26:19 > 0:26:23that happened over the last few years since we've got the bid.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48London is not the happy-go-lucky Cool Britannia city that it was
0:26:48 > 0:26:51when we got the Olympics.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54It is perhaps a slightly more reticent city than it was
0:26:54 > 0:26:59for all sorts of reasons. The bombs, the riots.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03We've had the biggest economic collapse since the 1930s.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07Lifetimes of stuff has happened since that joyous, screaming day
0:27:07 > 0:27:11in Trafalgar Square, but it's still London.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15It probably is still the greatest city in the world.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd