Part 1 Olympics 2012: 50 Greatest Moments

-Gabby!

-Hi, Greg. Are you excited?

-Yes. So excited. What for?

-The show, dummy. The one we're going to present now.

-What show is that?

-You haven't got a clue, have you?

-No idea.

-OK.

-We're doing a show on our incredible summer.

-Oh! Sorry. I'm being stupid.

Diamond Jubilee. Queen on the throne, amazing celebration.

No, no, no, Greg. The Olympics.

I'm going to take you on a journey

of the top 50 Olympic moments part one.

Fine, brilliant.

We'll be seeing the most awe-inspiring, incredible moments from London 2012, 50 to 21.

Brilliant but when will I find out about the top 20?

Oh, that's part two, don't worry about that, we'll be doing 20 to 1.

20 to 1. What time will that...?

Don't worry about that. Let's go, we've got a great show. Come on.

Probably one of the best summers I've ever had in my life, man.

We were so excited.

What a lovely, overbearing, cuddly uncle Steve Redgrave is.

There they go.

Who won? Let's look at the screen.

They said, "Do you want to carry the flag?" I was like, "Why not?"

The guy gets to hang out with Richard Branson

and win a ton of gold medals. Do me a favour.

Bolt is a bad man.

-He looks a bit like Zorro.

-I watched it in my pyjamas.

They could have stood on their head for two hours

and I probably would have been into it.

-Clare Balding came up with the Mobot.

-I invented the Mobot!

Although technically the Village People did.

By week two, we were going, "What? You got a silver?

"All right. Doesn't matter."

It was a history-making moment in the Games.

A year to be British, really, wasn't it?

It was that one moment that I dreamed about for so long.

Just the best feeling ever.

And for our first taste of Olympic heaven we're going right back

to the beginning where it all began.

-What? Ancient Greece?

-No, Greg. The Opening Ceremony.

-Phew.

-Yep.

It was a chance for the nation to project itself, be bold,

and say, "Hello, world, here we are. We're British and we're proud."

So what would artistic supremo Danny Boyle come up with?

Oh...yeah.

Mmm. Mr Bean.

-Nice sofa, by the way.

-Cheers.

-Understated. Gold.

-Gold.

It was one of the best moments of the Opening Ceremony for me, because

as a kid, myself and my family used to watch Mr Bean religiously.

Seeing him appear in that Opening Ceremony was

such a brilliant moment.

MUSIC: "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis

That was hilarious. I mean, he was... He's so clever.

He's huge in America.

It was something quite amazing.

I didn't get to see much. It was nice, though.

I'm a massive Mr Bean fan. That guy is so big abroad.

For like the five minutes that he was on, like,

Boris Johnson wasn't the dopiest guy in the stadium.

And you could see on Twitter people going, "This is all right!

"Oh, this is actually quite good, like!"

Of course it was going to be good!

MUSIC: "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis

LAUGHTER

FART

Once the applause for the opening ceremony had died down

and competition started, the British public wanted medals.

Michael Jamieson's totally unexpected silver in the pool

earns him a place at 49.

Some people we expect to win, or we hope

and see them as being gold medallists at the Olympic Games.

But then when someone can step up

and be able to produce a performance where they go,

"No, no, I'm really happy that I was able to achieve this result as well,

"this was great."

Michael Jamieson from Glasgow and Great Britain

is coming back at the world champion in 5.

Honestly, I mean, it was such a good swim.

And there was a moment or two

when you thought he might actually win gold,

and he just came back so strongly.

Jamieson in 4.

Gyurta in 5, it's going to be Gyurta, I think.

Gyurta wins the gold. It's a fantastic silver medal

for Great Britain.

I think he's a really impressive guy.

-Impressive, huh?

-Very. What type of swimming was that again?

-Breaststroke.

-HE SNIGGERS

-Really?!

-Well, you know.

OK. Now we've established your level of humour,

you're really going to enjoy this next clip.

-What, is it boobs?

-No. People falling over and stuff.

-Oh! Even better!

Bring it on.

Oh!

She's going to be devastated.

That's a bad one.

Oh, gosh. Oh, that's come down, now we're hoping he's all right.

And that's a ridiculous foul.

Elbow to the throat, that's going to hurt anybody.

He also got a knee middle stump.

Bad crash!

If one rider goes down, they all come down.

Just like a bunch of skittles.

Oh, and that was a great shame.

-No, that's gone horribly wrong. I hope she's all right.

-Ouch!

But at number 48 is another pole vaulter. This one went snap.

I was there for the pole vaulter. That was an extraordinary thing.

Borges of Cuba. We saw how well his woman team-mate did.

Oh, my God!

Oh, OK. I could absolutely kill myself on this.

If you're designing a piece of sporting equipment,

surely number one on the list is it has to be able

to complete the sport without snapping in three places.

Oh, dear me.

He's Cuban, you know. They don't travel first class.

Can you imagine the charges on a low-cost airline,

how much that cost? He's looked after it all the way round.

He's got round the carousel without breaking!

And the first time he uses it...!

Gee whizz.

Parents can be embarrassing at the best of times, but can you imagine

being an Olympic athlete and having your mum present you with a medal?

Oh, Mum!

I suppose one of the more surreal moments of the Olympics was

our eventing team, who won silver, which included Zara Phillips,

were presented with their medals by the Princess Royal,

who obviously is Zara's mother.

There aren't many people at an Olympic Games who are going to have

their medal presented to them by their mother.

Yes, how good to see.

I wouldn't mind getting a medal off my mum.

Getting it off my grandma would be weird.

She's a very old-fashioned West Indian lady.

"Take it, boy, take it, take it.

"If you mess up, me taking it back."

I love Zara. She is so down to earth,

she's so funny. She works so hard.

And God, she's good.

Zara Phillips has produced the goods.

The only medal I think

my mum would be able to award me is for lasagne.

But I'll take that.

She sounds like a glamour model, she won four golds,

and her nickname is The Missile.

If Michael Phelps was a woman, he'd be Missy Franklin.

You know what I mean.

Ever since I came out of the womb I have been like in love with water.

Everyone comes out of the womb ready to swim. You've just been in liquid.

# Holla! #

She is as mad as a box of frogs.

She's six foot one, she is completely nuts,

but she knows how to swim.

The world record is 2 minutes 4.81, it was Kirsty Coventry's,

now it's Missy Franklin's. Look at that.

Very impressive from a great young lady.

I just don't know why the Americans can't go by their usual name.

Missy the Missile.

OK, Greg. What two things do you think you would get

if you won an Olympic gold in the javelin?

The mother of all drugs tests, and probably a sore shoulder from that...

Quite a force, isn't it?

Terrible technique.

After winning gold, Keshorn Walcott

from Trinidad and Tobago got the most bizarre gifts.

What did they give him?

-A wife?

-A million dollars?

It's going to be something nuts. Out of the ordinary, innit?

Two wives?

It's already got an "and" in the name.

Did they just put his name in Trinidad and Tobago and Walcott?

HE LAUGHS

Harem? I don't know.

The people in Britain, the gold medallists were getting postboxes.

Sure it wasn't a wife?

A lighthouse? That's brilliant. It's a lighthouse.

That's fantastic. A lighthouse.

I think that's pretty cool. I think we get a pat on the back.

Like if you're a man whose whole entire thing is to span

great distances with one flick, stick him in a lighthouse?

Is it because it looks slightly like a javelin?

An 80-year-old pensioner sent me £10 in the post for winning.

He didn't leave his name or address

so I haven't been able to reply back,

but I'd just like to say thank you.

OK, at number 44 we have an Olympic event

I'm sure even you took an interest in.

-Beach volleyball. Am I right?

-You are right.

I went down to Horse Guards Parade to have a look.

-Really? Did you enjoy it?

-I did. I mean, what's not to love?

People in swimsuits in a massive sandpit

in the Queen's back garden. It was amazing.

Did I see the beach volleyball?

Come on, you're going to ask me, a straight man, that? Of course!

Sexually very exciting.

Some of those guys - phew.

There's nothing sexy about Horse Guards Parade.

Horse Guards Parade is usually something that is the complete

opposite end of sexy.

The beach volleyball, the setting for that.

I imagine if you were a tourist coming to London, you went,

"Well, this couldn't be done any better."

For me, it's surprising to sort of see this atmosphere,

like totally crazed. I said, man, I fit right in here.

And the players, I mean, to have a bum like that.

Please, Santa. That would be amazing.

But the unarguable queens of the block, set and spike in 2012

were these two.

In at number 44 in our list it's Misty May-Treanor

and her pregnant playing partner Kerri Walsh Jennings,

who came out of retirement

to win their third successive gold in the beach volleyball.

I can't believe that Kerri Walsh Jennings was five weeks pregnant

when she won gold at volleyball. When I was five weeks pregnant,

I was eating Nutella out of a jar on the sofa.

The 2012 Olympics had a sticky start.

Question - how do you wind up a team from North Korea?

Answer - introduce them under the South Korean flag.

That was brilliant. Of all the countries to muddle up,

North Korea and South Korea couldn't be more of a tense relationship.

The only possible worst thing

could've been to muddle up England and Scotland.

The great thing about the North Koreans

is they've got a brilliant sense of humour.

They're very upbeat, very light about stuff.

They won't have minded that.

Turning round and getting the flag wrong was a massive faux pas.

And the fact that they came out an hour and a half late

and played the game, we should be thankful they even did that at all.

I did think they were going to start to test launch

some of the players from the stands in a threatening sign.

But it was South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam

who provided one of the most controversial moments of the Games.

Her sit-in protest, which lasted over an hour

after losing her semifinal, earned her a spot at number 43 on our list.

She just missed out on a place in the final,

and she didn't take it well.

MUSIC: "So Ronery" from Team America

When I watched it, I thought, she's being a bit mardy.

Then I realised, she's not.

She's so disciplined, so focused, so angry at herself that she

didn't get to the final, she's put herself on the naughty step.

MUSIC: "So Ronery" from Team America

Poor girl. Everybody else had gone home.

Gymnastics provided London 2012 with some of the most spectacular

sporting moments, and it was Dutch high-bar specialist Epke Zonderland

whose gold-medal winning routine

blew the roof off the North Greenwich Arena.

Zonderland is on track. There is the rybalko, a little bit wild.

Now then. Another biggie coming up now. Half turn.

He's got to go over the top again.

He's caught that too and he's rescued the swing.

He's putting all his money on the 7.9 difficulty.

He cannot afford to move on that dismount.

He's got to stand with glue on his feet.

Here it comes.

And that's a cracker!

He should be named Wonderland. It was just incredible.

I was told, "He is magnificent,"

but I never imagined that it would be as spectacular as it was.

But it was the women's uneven bar competition

that GB rested their hopes on a 27-year-old from Cheshire.

Step forward Britain's most decorated gymnast of all time

with her last shot at Olympic glory.

At number 42, it's the darling of British gymnastics,

Miss Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle.

It was so fantastic to see Beth Tweddle. I was so excited.

I took my little girl to the North Greenwich Arena,

and Beth was amazing.

Super full pirouette into the markelov, into the ginga,

caught beautifully.

The Olympic medal was the only thing missing from her

sort of trophy cabinet.

She was devastated finishing fourth in Beijing,

where she was expected to get a medal.

This was going to be her last chance, London 2012,

to ever win an Olympic medal.

You know, was this the year, could she do it?

She hung on and on, and, and really, you know,

if she got a medal in Beijing,

she wouldn't be still doing gymnastics.

So she hung on for that extra four years just to try

and get her hands on that medal.

Kicks strong. Lifts up, two twists.

Big step back. But she saved it.

It was a big step.

So as she is flying through the air people are just waiting

with bated breath to see her land on two feet.

And it looked like she was going to end up on her behind,

but she rescued it.

Great Britain's Beth Tweddle has a bronze medal.

That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

I don't know why I said it, or where it came from,

but it had a ring to it.

Sorry, Beth. I really am sorry.

She was brilliant, and it was breathtaking.

The competition was so, so high,

and it was just so wonderful to see her finally get an Olympic medal.

She put in a spectacular performance on the bars,

and for her to finally get the one thing that was missing,

an Olympic medal, was a great ending

to a great athlete with an outstanding career.

-Beth Tweddle. Is that her real name?

-Of course it is. Why?

I thought it was more like a move. Like the Tweddle.

-I'm pretty sure Tweddling is not a discipline.

-You know what?

-I'm learning a lot.

-Good.

-I'm really enjoying this Olympics malarkey.

-I really like it. Can I introduce the next clip?

-Don't mess it up.

-Yeah?

I won't. Right. Here are some really fast rooners. Runners.

Brilliant.

US sprinters had their work cut out against a formidable Jamaican

team, but American sprinter Allyson Felix bagged three golds,

which is the most a female track athlete has won since 1988.

But it was a Jamaican girl with far too many names

who was crowned the fastest woman on the planet.

Number 41 on our list is Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

It was too long, hearing a commentator...

Surely he could just call her Prycey.

But then we'd just think of Katie Price, that would be weird.

I wonder if she's a fast runner?

Jetta is away well but so is Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

And Ahoure is going well from the Ivory Coast.

Here comes Carmelita Jetta.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is going to retain her title.

She's a great person.

I've known her from high school age, I've seen her work,

I've seen her progress through the years.

So she's a very hard worker and she's dedicated

and she's shown the world that she can dominate also.

I think in Jamaica they must put something in the water

where you drink it and become an Olympic champion.

I was like, what is going on? Why is everyone Jamaican?

They're all winning gold medals.

But she's got power that is deceiving,

and I don't think most people realise that.

I mean, her start is very, very powerful.

She's a great athlete to watch.

To me, it's like he did it on purpose for comedy.

-It's like a comedy fall.

-There are certain moments

that you just go, "That's going in a montage."

And his name! He's called Feck.

It's like, you know, you can imagine the headlines already, can't you?

-Brilliant.

-German Stefan Feck wants to get on with it.

Forward three-and-a-half.

Oh! Here you go. The first calamity.

Is he really a diver?

Are we sure that he's an Olympic-level diver?

That needs to be down a leisure centre in Liverpool, that does.

That does not belong at the Olympic Games.

He should have got out of the pool,

looked at his scores and gone, "What?

"No. I think you'll find I was trying to land on my back.

"No-one else is doing it.

"The problem with the diving world is you're too stuck in your ways

"with this 'going straight in head first' thing.

"Mix it up a bit. Come on!"

The commentators can always tell whether it's really good

or not quite good, but to us I think it always looks brilliant.

But even I could say that that was really, really bad.

Stefan Feck well and truly fecked it up.

So we've had a mime artist, Royals, Koreans,

and even a lighthouse. What's next?

How about a massive inflatable octopus,

a Python fired out of a cannon, and five mums dancing on top of cabs?

It's the closing ceremony.

It was an absolute knees-up, the closing ceremony.

I got out of my seat and I was dancing.

I went to see the closing ceremony.

I really enjoyed the closing ceremony.

I thought, "I like this, it's all right."

I was absolutely brilliant. We had such a fantastic time.

We got to go to this incredible party

just after the greatest Olympics that have ever been hosted.

I was really pleased to be part of the ceremony

and actually be in the arena, so I loved it.

At number 39 in our list, taxi for Spice Girls.

Closing ceremony, time is running out. Bring on the Spice Girls.

I can leave the second most watched event in the Olympics was

the Spice Girls in the closing ceremony.

Who do they think they are? That's an actual joke for you.

Without a doubt my favourite moment of the Olympics,

seeing Mel B back in a catsuit. Boom!

When we saw all the artists' impressions of how it was

going to look, we were blown away. It was so exciting.

There was a guy in front of me from Canada who literally turned

round and said to me, "This is what the Games is all about.

"I have waited for this moment just to see the Spice Girls."

They brought something quite sexy back to the Olympics.

I bet Victoria Pendleton was sitting somewhere going, "Oh, Spice Girls."

I remember when I was a kid I used to have a crush on her.

Just the whole, the Union Jack dress,

all the guys in the school were like, "Geri is fit."

And then I saw her and I was like, "What was I thinking?"

No offence, Geri.

Damn.

It was quite close to the Games, really, when we were approached.

It was all a bit last-minute. But we were so excited.

And had the most incredible time.

Whoever you were with, wherever you were,

you were just walking about with people just shaking their hands

and thinking, you know what, thank you very much, Olympians.

And thank you, the Spice Girls.

Not even the Spice Girls like the Spice Girls any more.

-Fair point.

-Did you see them on top of those taxis? Embarrassing.

Well, look. Here's someone who is lucky enough

to be too young to remember the Spice Girls.

A 15-year-old who made one hell of a splash in the pool.

Zig-a-zig... Eurgh!

Teenager Ruta Meilutyte, from the same school as Tom Daley,

won Lithuania's first ever Olympic gold in swimming.

But it was a girl from China whose achievements raised a few eyebrows.

Number 38 on the list is a fantastic young swimmer

who no-one had ever heard of.

The girl, Ye Shiwen, who won,

smashed the time, she was beating, like,

men's times, in the medley and things like that.

And it was brilliant because as soon as she won it everyone said,

"Ah, well, it's drugs, isn't it? Obviously it's drugs.

"Got to be drugs, hasn't it?" But she wasn't.

You know what? She was just brilliant.

I think the thing is, with 1.2 billion people in China,

you are going to find someone as good as Michael Phelps

at some point. Because they've got the numbers.

If it was an athlete from Team GB who dropped the same

amount of time, people wouldn't be quick to criticise.

Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese woman, utterly extraordinary.

-Unbelievable.

-And the suspicion of, over there, they may be doing that.

And that wasn't fair.

So wrong that the first thing we think is she's cheating.

Know what I mean? She's cheating. She wasn't. She was just brilliant.

Either that or she was like Inspector Gadget

and she had motors on her feet. Maybe that's what they were doing.

If you thought there were surprises in the pool,

there were more to come at Eton Dorney.

Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking gasped in sheer disbelief

on crossing the line for gold in the lightweight double sculls.

A great achievement.

But at number 37 are couple of guys who have won the place not for

winning gold but for nearly killing themselves trying to win a medal.

-But Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter got off to a terrible start.

-Oh, no!

They've stopped! They've absolutely stopped. What's happened there?

His seat broke. OK.

We thought they would get a second shot, because it would be

a brave judge who would say at the London Olympics that the British

defending champions would not be allowed to defend their title.

For the second time now in this Olympic final, Great Britain

are away in lane number six.

It was drama with a small D at the start

but it was drama with a capital D at the end.

And now, Denmark just sneaking ahead of Great Britain.

The one last try.

It is Denmark for the Olympic gold, it is Great Britain for the silver.

You've got to hand it to them, credit their determination,

their guts to give it their all, and certainly we saw it on TV

and first-hand that they didn't have anything else to give.

You get home at the end of the day and say you're tired.

Are you really tired? Could you not really do another hour or so?

You can always give more. These guys couldn't give any more at all.

They were spent.

Totally, physically, mentally, emotionally, traumatically spent.

-Sorry to everybody we've let down.

-You've let nobody down.

After the year that you guys have had, you've let nobody down at all.

Emotions, emotions, goodness me.

Especially when you know these people, and know them pretty well.

It's quite hot being here as well.

I did cry. I cried a lot more once we'd handed to the next race.

That did choke me. That did choke me, the tears from John.

He comes across as sort of a hardened journalist in some ways,

enjoys his sport, but to see that emotion when Zac

and Mark finished and apologising to everybody,

of what bad result they had, that being a silver medal.

But I didn't expect John to have the same response as he did there,

from that point of view.

Oh. I would love a cuddle from John Inverdale.

Along with your medal, I suppose, the other thing you also got

was the complementary hug from Steve Redgrave.

It was almost like everybody that came out of the boat,

he just wanted to give them a hug.

You know, because he's an expert, and obviously a great Olympian,

but he's also their friend.

# Hold me close, don't let me go, oh, no... #

He was such a rock, Steve was. He was amazing at the rowing.

I had to hug Dara, which I thought was quite unusual at the time.

It wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I said, "You hug everybody.

"You spent the entire Olympics hugging people.

"Where is my hug?"

When I look back at the Games, of any time I was seen on TV, it was

probably hugging somebody over some sort of great achievement.

So it probably wasn't a bad role to have.

So emotional, Zac and Mark.

-Really, really moving.

-Can I get a hug?

-No.

-Sure.

Believe it or not, I can actually remember the next guy.

This is Robert Harting. He's number 36 and he was the biathlete...

-No.

-Yeah, yeah. Discus guy.

-Yeah. Gold medal winning discus.

Then did the hurdles. But embarrassed himself, like, shouldn't have bothered.

-That was his celebration!

-What do you mean?

That's like someone going, "I've just done the diving,

"I'll pole-vault back up to the board." Why would you do that?

Robert Harting, it's ironic that his name sounds almost English,

because where I grew up, in Essex,

his behaviour was just standard Southend, Westcliff behaviour.

He's a beast.

He went all over the hurdles, didn't he? His name is Harting.

I remember it was obviously very difficult for the commentator

at the time to say, "Harting, hurdling." Not an easy thing to say,

and not an easy thing to do when you're his size, I imagine.

He stripped off his top and started running a little bit of hurdles.

You could see the hurdlers going, "No!" Cos he's a massive guy.

He just showed us that big men can jump.

It would be amusing if he just casually beat the Olympic hurdles record.

Like if I had just won a medal, I wouldn't be able to then

compete another sport, unless the sport was hysterical crying.

And collapsing and peeing my pants.

Robert Harting, the Olympic discus champion.

What a lad. Legend.

From a hurdling hulk to a right bunch of shuttlecocks,

it was double troubles at the badminton.

Number 35 on our list sees some of the best badminton players

in the world throwing their match in order to avoid

playing the number one seeds in the knockout stages.

The bizarre practice of people playing badminton and trying to lose

so they didn't face the favourites in the next round. Brilliant.

I don't know badminton, I must say, I'm not a big badminton follower.

But I just thought that just tarnished the whole thing.

Not only what they did, but the way it was handled.

It was so obvious they weren't trying, as well.

It was obvious. Hitting it into the net, doing rubbish serves

and that sort of thing. It was a doubles game - one of them was at

the vending machine in the leisure centre reception, getting a Twix.

-BOOING

-They're serving fault after fault.

Just hitting the ball straight in the net.

The scandal led to 8 women, including the world champions,

being disqualified for this very un-Olympic behaviour.

Depressing. I mean, who wants to sit through something like that?

-It is unacceptable.

-Well said, Lord Coe.

Now, how's about this -

Hamadou Djibo Issaka from Niger amazingly only took up rowing

three months before the Olympics.

He did all his training in a fishing boat.

And despite coming last in the single sculls,

almost two minutes slower than gold medallist Mahe Drysdale,

Issaka the Otter, as he was called, got a thunderous reception.

Now, only doing your chosen sport for three months may be taking it

a bit far, but Briton Anthony Joshua

was only boxing for four years before the Olympics and he did OK.

In fact, he did very, very OK.

I was bored out of my head.

I was in London, no friends, no community,

I'd left all that in Watford.

My cousin, he was training, and he took me down the gym with him

and I just sat in and watched him.

Half of the time I was on my BlackBerry, half the time

I was watching him on the bags and he just told me to get involved.

I said yeah, I'll get involved.

He just strolled in and went, "I might box, I might not."

And someone went, "Do you want to box, then?"

He went, "Yeah, all right!" Crack! And won.

When I was watching the fight with him and the Italian guy

I was like, "If that was my husband or my boyfriend, I would be so scared."

Good rally from Joshua, rousing reception from the crowd.

It was pretty impressive and at times you thought that the Italian was coming, you know?

And then he just... It was great. It was great.

You have a million thoughts running through your head

when you're competing, so I just said,

"I'm going to walk out of the ring with my head held high,

"my chest out and I'm going to do the nation proud."

-COMMENTAOR:

-And as the closing bell sounds,

Anthony Joshua raises his hands immediately.

-An Olympic superheavyweight champion in the blue corner...

-CROWD ROARS

..representing Great Britain, Anthony Joshua.

You know, I wasn't number one pick for the Olympics

so I had to fight my way to be number one pick

in Great Britain then fight my way through the qualification

then fight my way to an Olympic gold so it was like relief, man.

It's been a tough journey.

From punching people to kicking people, and it's another gold medal.

Aged just eight, a Welsh girl was introduced to tae kwon do by her grandad.

11 years later and she's winning gold at her home Olympics.

On Twitter she says that she kicks people in the head for living and she loves it.

At number 33 it's the inspirational teenager, Jade Jones.

It was one of those sports that maybe people every week don't watch,

but during the Olympics it was just special,

it came to life and everyone wanted to learn the rules

and how many points you get for this and that.

Jade Jones is one of my massive superheroines now.

She is as close to Street Fighter's Chun Li as we're ever going to get.

She is amazing.

I spent a lot of time in the velodrome

and I watched a lot of gold medals in the velodrome

but half of that amount of people inside the little room in the Excel Arena made double the noise.

CROWD ROARS

-COMMENTATOR:

-You little beauty!

As soon as she won, the helmet went up in the air,

the hair came flowing down.

She then did a lap of honour and then she got the Welsh flag in one hand,

I'm pretty sure, a Union Jack in the other and round she went again

and nobody was going home until she finished.

-Jade Jones, Olympic champion.

-There you go.

Jade there proving that if you're good enough, you're old enough.

Yeah, and on the same note, Greg,

check out 71-year-old Hiroshi Hoketsu here

proving if you're good enough, you're young enough.

-Did you know, he first competed in the Games in 1964?

-1964?

That's like...ancient Greece.

Did you go to school?

So, from our youngest gold medallist to our oldest

in the shape of Nick Skelton,

a member of Britain's first showjumping team to take gold in 60 years.

Oh... Sorry, yeah. 60...

Ancient. Yeah.

I actually thought that they had lost their chance of winning gold

and then the Dutch made couple of mistakes

and it came down to a jump-off situation.

My image of athletes at the Olympics is the lithe twenty-somethings.

You know, "We train hard and then we party hard."

And then these people looked like

they just walked from a Round Table meeting.

-COMMENTATOR:

-This could be the first gold for Great Britain since 1952.

And Britain have got the gold!

I was trying really hard to keep a grip because, you know,

you try to cover these things professionally, but, of course,

I know the riders really well and Nick Skelton in particular.

He's 54 years old, he's been trying to win an Olympic medal since 1980.

Nick Skelton, you have an Olympic gold medal.

Took me 54 years.

It's taken Great Britain 60.

Yeah, I'm speechless. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

I think it was the crowning glory of a career that has been sensational.

People were tweeting me and e-mailing me afterwards saying,

"Nick Skelton? I had posters of Nick Skelton when I was at school,"

and these are women in their 50s. Yeah, you did,

because he was your pin-up in 1980 and here we are in 2012

and he's the star performer in the showjumping team that wins gold.

It's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Absolutely brilliant.

Great for the country and great for our sport. Taken all these years.

Unfortunately, for every high at the Olympics there's also a low.

Euan Burton here getting knocked out of the judo in the very first round.

Can you take any positives from this experience at all?

No, none. None whatsoever.

I feel like I've let myself down a bit,

let my mum and dad and my brother down.

I've been working for this for over a quarter of a century.

I'm pretty sure you won't see me in Rio,

so no, there's no positives to be taken from it.

Poor Euan. There was arguably more pressure on Mark Cavendish

who was carrying the dreams of a nation on day one of the Olympics.

He was the favourite to win the men's road race

and kick-start Team GB's gold rush.

I left Eton Dorney, ran to get on a bus, to get a taxi

to just somewhere beyond the route because I wanted to be there

cos, you know, Cavendish was bound to win gold.

This was the big start of the Olympic Games, you know?

This was the guy who helped Bradley Wiggins to win the yellow jersey

at the Tour de France, it was a man whose Olympic dream

had been blown away four years earlier in Beijing. This was the moment.

I can't remember how many miles from the finish I was but I wasn't

that far from the finish, expecting to see Mark Cavendish go...

And then everyone was saying, "He's not going to win. He's not going to win."

To see Mark Cavendish come over the line where he did, he was distraught.

It was probably the biggest shock of the Games, actually.

And a shame that it came on the first day.

But Cav's spirits were lifted when he joined Jake

and the rest of the BBC team to commentate at the velodrome.

To be honest with you,

I just did it so I could go in the velodrome and watch the riders.

I had tried hard for a whole couple of weeks

to hold back my true feelings for Mark Cavendish

and I just couldn't do it any longer.

They had this camera roving around finding couples

and they kept focusing on our commentary box

and the crowd were going, "Kiss, kiss, kiss," so I thought,

"What the hell, I'll plant a little kiss on Mark Cavendish's forehead."

I thought that that was only being seen by the people

in the velodrome on the big screen

and as I lent in, out of the corner of my eye

I could see the BBC One feed and I was like,

"Ah. I've just kissed him live on BBC One,"

and sat back thinking, "What did I do there?"

I think he just liked my aftershave, actually, so...

You've got to feel sorry for Cav,

one of our greatest ever cyclists and still no Olympic medal -

just a kiss from Jake Humphrey to show for his efforts.

The country continued to hold its collective breath for a medal

and day two delivered in typical British conditions.

Here's Britain's Lizzie Armitstead

going for gold in the women's road race. She's in at number 31.

For anyone who's seen The One Show,

they'll know that I've spent a bit of time

pedalling through the most horrendous weather

that Britain can throw at a cyclist

and so I did feel for Lizzie Armitstead

on that day of the road race.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Courage is the order of the day

and these three are going back to the well

to find more of that courage.

I mean, that added to the drama. It really did.

I thought the last half mile of that race was just fantastic.

To see the way she rode for that last 50k

with about three or four girls away

and then to not quite get there at the end

but still to come away with a silver medal in the road race,

which is probably the hardest race to win in the Olympics.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Armitstead's trying to get up on the side of Voss.

They're gritting their teeth, both riders looking for the line.

Where's the gold medal going to go?

Voss takes gold and Armitstead takes silver.

It was nice to watch that and see the results, you know?

To see her get a medal. Yeah, it was nice.

She was the first medallist, she'd relaxed us all

and she was like, you know, "I'm king of the athletes in Britain,"

for about 12 hours and then everybody forgot about her.

It was tight.

London 2012 will go down in history for being the Olympic Games

that saw women from oppressed nations competing on the world stage.

Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Qatar

had female representation for the first time.

They didn't do very well, but that didn't matter -

that wasn't the point, as Sarah Attar from Saudi Arabia proved.

There were so many fantastic women in the Olympics this year.

It was very much the Olympics of Girl Power.

To have a female contender from every single country competing

involved was an amazing achievement.

Previously the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee

had banned female athletes from competing at the Games.

Despite finishing more than half a minute slower

than the nearest athlete, thousands of spectators

stood and applauded Attar as she crossed the finish line.

That is a step forward for women's athletics.

As was talked about so much with this Games,

it's the legacy, you know, and inspiring a generation

and I absolutely think that has happened without a doubt.

Well, a bit of history being made there.

The first Saudi Arabian female athlete.

I think it's had a huge impact.

I think firstly it's made women from the UK

realise how free we are here,

but I think around the world it's made us realise

that there are so many women who don't have that freedom

and that that's not OK.

Now, Greg. I bet you don't know what it took for Britain's Pete Wilson

to win his gold medal in the shooting.

-Right, I'm going to work it out. OK. Steady hands.

-Yeah.

-Absolute precision.

-Yeah, OK.

-Nerves of steel.

-Yeah.

-Oh! Ah-ah - earmuffs!

-No, no, no.

-It's loud, isn't it?

-No, you're not going to get it.

Is it an outrageously rich sheik from Dubai?

Yes! How did you get that?

Just a lucky guess, I suppose.

I lost my funding in 2008.

Ahmad was an Olympic gold medallist from 2004

and so this guy is a legend. I just thought,

"I might as well approach Ahmad."

He was the one shooter who I really respected

in the world of double trap and I thought, "What do I lose?"

You know, "Hey, he's a Prince, but he's also an Olympic gold medallist

"and if I ask, you never know - I might get."

Not the normal story for an Olympian.

Peter Wilson came from nowhere.

Maybe within shooting they knew he had a chance,

but it was quite an open tournament.

Ten shots left for Wilson of Great Britain and a four-shot lead.

Four targets over second place

with ten targets left to go was incredible.

I mean, as far as I was concerned that was it, you know?

This was my moment.

I put the gun in my shoulder. I wasn't even thinking straight.

Called pull, bang, bang, miss, miss.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, and he's missed them both.

I couldn't believe that I was about to throw away this opportunity.

And it's a terrifying feeling.

Absolutely incredible.

So his lead has been cut from four to two. It's been halved.

You can either go on to miss more or you go on and hit the rest

and I went on to peg two, peg three, peg four

and I hit three pairs.

Here you are, one pair to win gold in London 2012.

Peter Wilson needs these targets to win gold for Great Britain.

And he does it - Peter Wilson has done it! He has won gold!

I had so hoped to turn, finger raised at the crowd,

looking suave, looking cool,

but, no, it wasn't to be and I went - bang, bang -

dropped to my knees, cried like a baby and I'll never forget it

and I'll probably never play it down for the rest of my life.

He wins and he falls to his knees and his dad runs on.

Dad!

'I just couldn't believe I'd seen the old man come bounding through

'and I was able to give him a hug and it was very, very special.'

How do you follow in the footsteps of two knights of the realm,

the Olympic icons Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent?

Well, the men's coxless four had their work cut out.

They may have started as favourites,

but anything less than gold would have spelt failure.

Remember - GB have won this blue riband event

for the past three Olympics.

That's pressure. At number 28, it's the awesome foursome oarsmen.

The guys did fantastically well.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The British four are going to defend their Olympic title

and they are doing it in such style.

There wasn't any to-ing and fro-ing, we just inched and inched

and inched and inched through the whole race.

It was textbook stuff and that was actually the plan.

We have done it! We have done it and we have done it in style!

Great Britain, the Olympic champions!

We only won by a little bit. If it had been less than perfect

then we would be coming home with silver medals

and nobody in the country wanted that from the British four.

Commander of the loveboat Pete Reed earning his second

consecutive gold medal at London then got down on one knee

at the closing ceremony to propose to his girlfriend.

She couldn't really say no, could she?

Well, how long have we been together? That's a tough one.

-He asked you, not me.

-I think it's two and a half years.

It couldn't have been any better, could it? It was a perfect time.

Just absolutely thrilled.

Keeping the flame alive for romantics everywhere.

Speaking of which, let's go back to the Opening Ceremony

and remind ourselves of how the Olympics sparked into life.

Just saw David Beckham flying down the Thames on that speedboat.

You know, your heart's racing, you're like,

"Who's going to light the flame? Who's going to light this?"

I think it should have been a guy in a high-vis jacket

finishing off a cigarette and then flicking it into the thing.

That would have been just perfect.

Cos those guys got a hard time, didn't they?

No-one thought they were going to finish the stadiums on time and they nailed it.

Everyone thought it was going to be Sir Steve Redgrave

or Daley Thompson and in the end they got seven young people,

which I thought was lovely cos if you recall correctly

the last summer we had

where there was a bunch of young people running around London

with fire in their hand, it wasn't exactly Olympic, was it?

Technically they were going for gold, but it was Argos gold.

How do you break that to Steve Redgrave, our greatest ever Olympian

going, "So then, David gives the torch to you..."

"Yeah, and I light the flame..."

"No, no, no - you're just going to give it to a bunch of kids."

You did just expect Steve Redgrave to run on in a flaming coat

and roll over it until he was lit

and then lay there going, "I lit the flame,"

and hug everyone until they were on fire and then just turn into

a fireball and spell his own name out in the sky that says, "Steve!"

But it wasn't that.

Instead, it was very moving, it was seven kids came on,

young Olympians, the people of the future, igniting the flame,

which represented the start of the Games,

was people at the start of their sporting career.

There wasn't a single person in the room where I was

that didn't have a tear in the eye.

Gabby, do you know what?

I am absolutely loving this Olympics stuff.

-That's good. Good.

-So much. What's next?

OK, well number 26 - I'm really excited about this one - it's gymnastics.

Britain's men with the first team medal ever in the Olympic Games.

Mm... What else have you got?

Gymnastics is... It's just roly-poly isn't it?

-Yeah, go on then, do one.

-All right.

I would, but my shoulder's giving me a bit of gyp since the javelin,

-so I can't, really.

-Built for it.

-Yeah.

Having never won a team gymnastics medal,

expectations for our boys weren't that high -

especially as they were up against the world's greatest nations.

Still to this day that the team final medal for us...

..is just the shocker. It's the one that doesn't really sink in.

I've never witnessed an atmosphere like that.

Double Arabian, just a pace, and that is just what was needed.

There was this energy that kind of wrapped up each and every

single one of the British gymnasts and, sort of,

carried them off the floor as soon as they started their routines

and it just encased them.

This memory will never leave me, watching the men's gymnastics.

It was like a heart-stopping moment.

I don't think anyone expected to win a medal the first time in history,

in 100 years, to win a medal.

I cannot believe that the men's Great Britain gymnastic team

beat America, Germany, Russia, Ukraine.

All of the men's team did such an incredible job on their apparatus

and we eventually got the bronze, but you know what?

It was such an incredible job that they did and it was, I think,

one of the most incredible moments of the whole Games.

I mean, I was up on me chair, I was running around...

It was just brilliant, it really was.

We came third behind China and Japan. That is unbelievable.

HE SOBS

You know, these Olympics could get a bit overwhelming.

I meant for the competitors.

HE BLOWS HIS NOSE

Take a look at this.

Well, we've already seen John Inverdale losing it

and there were more than just a few tears around the Games.

What about this guy?

This is Felix Sanchez who at the age of 35 became the oldest man

to win Olympic gold at the 400m hurdles.

Maybe that's why he's a bit weepy.

From the king of blubs to the queen of sobs,

it's our Vicky at number 25.

Victoria Pendleton, what she brought to the Olympics

was a sense of TOWIE, that kind of drama.

I don't think anyone brought as much drama

to the Olympics as Victoria Pendleton.

There's always drama, there's always tears,

there's always something to enjoy when Vicky's on the track.

I mean, you did get a bit tired towards week two of people

talking about the sacrifices they've had to make.

I mean, what do you want? A bloody medal?

As expected, there was drama for Queen Vic in the team sprint when

the judges deemed her changeover with Jess Varnish to be illegal.

She was disqualified. Cue more tears.

Oh, sorry. I'm welling up.

You know, Vicky can be quite fragile, you know,

and this was her swansong and it was London, it was everything.

It had been built up.

I know I felt the pressure as I'm sure that

most of my team-mates did too.

There was one more chance for Vicky to end her career in style.

Could she take gold in the keirin?

You can imagine her in the backstage Olympic village going,

"Oh, my God - do you think he fancies me?

"Do you think I look good in this? I don't know what to do -

"if I don't win a gold I'm just going to really, really just go.

"OMG."

As they are coming down the finishing straight now,

they are on the line, oh, Victoria Pendleton takes the gold medal!

She is the Olympic keirin champion!

That was nice to see her get gold, you know, in the keirin.

And I like the old teary-eyed celebrations.

That went down very well with everyone.

The heart symbol at the Games,

it wasn't premeditated or anything like that, it was...

I could see my family in the crowd,

like, way above me in the stands and, you know, I did that and,

you know, said, "Love you,"

that they might recognise what I was trying to say.

That looks more like a snail than a heart.

She should've gone...

Because your heart's slightly to one side and it beats funny like that.

Or she should have just gone like that, "See you in a bit."

That's a better symbol, isn't it?

From the queen of hearts to a woman who captured

the hearts of the nation.

For one extraordinary night the Excel Arena turned green

and Ireland returned its first and only gold of the Games.

At 24 it's Katie Taylor.

Katie Taylor, I point it out far too often -

people must be tired of me saying it -

is from the same town in Ireland that I'm from.

She is absolutely sensational. Absolutely wonderful to watch.

What a fighter Katie Taylor is, an Irish legend.

Going back to my hometown is kind of funny now because it's like,

"Welcome to Katie Town,"

cos everywhere there's giant posters of Katie.

It was really nice to see her do well cos

she always has a massive fanbase from Ireland.

In the room it was 80% Irish and myself and Ed Byrne were there

and we said, "Look, let's not just do this in a kind of a bluffy way,

"let's actually try to work this out."

How you have a randomly allocated tickets system that leads to

an 80% Irish intake on the day is one of the great miracles.

Good to have you here. Thanks for coming along.

The way boxing works, it's a flurry of punches

and then you nervously wait and see what the judges think.

Oh! Lovely!

Then she went out, turned it around and went 7-5 up.

Oh, she doesn't know that she's gone 7-5 up? The roof came off the place.

An explosion.

And at the final bell Katie Taylor receives

a hug of congratulations from her coaching team.

This could go either way.

-ANNOUNCER:

-Ladies and gentlemen.

The winner by a score of ten points to eight

and the Olympic champion in the red corner representing Ireland...

-CROWD ROARS

-..Katie Taylor.

And then my stomach, my massive stomach,

suddenly appearing in shot so I was like, "Oh, Lord.

"I really must do something about that."

We don't get, in Ireland, lots of medals.

To have actually been at one of those moments, oh, that's like...

You hand that out as a business card. "Oh, yeah, hiya.

"I was at the Katie Taylor fight."

This is a dream come true for me.

It's incredible. The best day of my life.

One medal was enough. It was a beautiful event.

-Would you say your parents are proud of you?

-Hard to say, really.

Yeah, sometimes is difficult for people to show their true emotions.

-No, no. I was raised by wolves so it's literally hard to say.

-Yeah.

OK, well, coming up in this next clip is a human father who

didn't have any trouble showing his emotions as he watched his son

take gold in the aquatic centre. It's Chad le "Closs".

-Le "Cloe", isn't it?

-Yeah, like you'd know. Is it le "Cloe"?

I was covering the swimming and in the 200 fly,

a race that Michael Phelps hadn't been beaten in for, I don't know,

six or seven years, he was beaten by a South African called Chad le Clos.

Oh, my goodness me. Chad le Clos won the gold.

And there was this guy on the balcony,

this great big South African man going really,

really nuts for Chad so I said to Mark,

"Go and get him! Go and get him!"

So I ran round and I said, "Do you think that Bert..."

Or Chad's dad as he was known at the time, "..would talk to us?"

He looked at Chad's dad, looked back at me and said,

"He'll talk to you but I warn you - he swears an awful lot,"

which in my mind, I went, "That's not my problem - it's Clare's problem."

And I was saying on the talkback to the director and the editor,

"You must stay with me because we are going to get Chad's dad,"

and so we got him, found out his name was Bert.

I started interviewing him

and he just bubbled over with love and pride.

-My word. What a performance!

-Unbelievable!

Unbelievable, unbelievable. I've never been so happy in my life.

To happen tonight it's like I died and went to heaven.

-And there is your boy down there.

-It's unbelievable - look at him!

And he's beautiful! Look at this! What a beautiful boy! Look...

Oh, my God. Sorry, sorry.

"He's beautiful. Don't look at me! Oh, no, don't look at me! Are we live?"

Look at him! Look at him - he's crying like me!

"He's a beautiful boy. He's a beautiful boy."

Of course he is. Weird.

I love you. Oh, my God. Every time I see myself I look at him.

Just great and I thought,

"Just keep holding the microphone in front of him.

"Just keep holding the microphone - this is gold."

Oh, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Thanks, Great Britain.

He was just amazing. He actually reminds me a little bit of my dad

because if my dad was actually there for the Olympic Games

he would have definitely reacted along similar lines.

-Thank you and congratulations.

-Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

This was a brilliant piece of television and he doesn't know it.

I bumped into Bert two nights later and he goes,

"Oh, my darling, come here, come here, give me a cuddle!

"We are famous around the world! We are famous around the world!

"We have gone viral!"

Number 22 takes us back to the velodrome

and if you're going to keep Chris Hoy at of the individual sprint

for team GB then you'd better win gold. No pressure, Jason.

I think what was wonderful about Jason Kenny was that

he not only had to deal with the pressure of the crowd in the velodrome,

not only did he have to deal with the pressure of the fact that

four years ago Britain won gold, so anything less than gold was going to be a failure,

but also to deal with the fact that everyone was there going,

"Oh, THIS is the guy who I haven't actually heard of who they've decided

"is better for this event than Chris Hoy."

You imagine getting on a bike and you're all on your own

and you have to deal with all of that?

And, boy, did he deal with it.

COMMENTATOR: Kenny's got the head of the race and Bauge will not take it!

Kenny is the Olympic sprint champion!

But it wasn't his exploits in the velodrome that got Jason Kenny splashed all over the papers

but his not-so-secret romance

with fellow golden Team GB member Laura Trott.

There's one way to get outed, isn't there, as a couple?

And that's the pair of you win two gold medals,

go down the beach volleyball, sit a row behind David Beckham,

have a few beers and then discreetly try to steal a kiss.

Do you know what? The rules are out the window here.

This is us hosting our Olympic Games and if you want to fall in love with a team-mate

and watch the beach volleyball and have a little kiss,

all that will happen is the nation will watch that and think, "Fantastic."

At number 21, it's time to celebrate the exploits of Baillie and Stott.

The unlikely lads turned out to be the best water-borne double-act

since Pamela Anderson said yes to the Baywatch gig.

Gold and silver in the canoe slalom for Baillie and Stott

and Florence and Hounslow.

That doesn't really sound like athletes, do they? They sound like really boring estate agents.

CHEERING

It's a staged sport anyway, the slalom canoeing.

If you're going down a river through rocks and it's all fast, why would you go back again?

Why do they do that bit? They go, "Oh, we just escaped those rocks there. And certain death!

"I know! Let's go back!"

So Baillie and Stott had qualified by the skin of their teeth.

They were in 12th place and they go and do their thing, you know, go for it, no pressure on them.

So clearly when they get out they're the first ones who've gone,

they're in gold medal position. What's going to happen next?

What happens next is 11, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

None of them beat their time. They're in gold-medal position during the last run

and it happens to be their mates.

Their mates Florence and Hounslow are going to go.

And you could see when they were watching it,

there's a part of them that was getting their face ready like the Oscars.

Cos it was almost like they were nominated but they were ready to go, "Oh, they're great."

COMMENTATOR: This could be gold and silver for Great Britain!

Tim Baillie and Stott lead. Can Florence and Hounslow win it?

Oh, my goodness! They've got a silver medal!

I thought, well done to them. You know, underdogs in the final and they did it. Congratulations.

Well, that's 50 to 21 decided.

Some amazing moments there. How was it for you, Greg?

I loved it, I'm a convert. I think I've got Olympic-itus.

You better get that checked out.

-Sadly though that's all we've got time for.

-I want some more!

Well I might just have the tonic for you

because next time we're going to be counting down from 20 -

the top Olympic moments from London 2012.

-And you might just see this lot.

-Amazing, let's hug it out.

No.

Celebrate?

MUSIC: "Parklife" by Blur

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd