It’s hip to be Square

So, I’m back. I’ve been to London, done the job and am raring to go.

What was I doing? Well, the Royal Navy decided to have it’s finale to the Trafalgar 200 celebrations in Trafalgar Square. This was designed to highlight Nelson’s qualities and show how they are still admired today and continue to shape the Royal Navy and the country.

Indeed, I heard one historian comment that it is hard for us to realise the influence and esteem of Nelson. Imagine a leader respected as much as Churchill, but loved as much as Diana Princess of Wales. You’d be getting close, but you’d still have a way to go.

So, the Royal Navy took over the Square for the weekend. The idea was to have two shows. In part one, there would be light-hearted entertainment, but with a maritime/RN flavour (Royal Marines Band, Sea Cadets taking the Mickey out of some poor victimised Officer, Physical Training Instructors dancing the hornpipe and demonstrating the use of Cutlasses and interviews with seafarers and 2008/2012 sailing Olympians). In the second part, they moved to high drama with Royal Marines (Yes, they are part of the RN – Naval Service – not the Army) storming the square to rescue hostages, respects paid to those that lost their lives on HMS HOOD, talk about the prevention of drug smuggling – and of course, what happened to Nelson on 12 Oct 1805.

What was my part? I wrote the scripts for part one of the show; I effectively produced the first part of the show, I was the presenter/interviewer – I stood in front of 10,000 and managed to make them laugh and applaud at the times that I wanted them to.

It was one heck of an experience. It didn’t go off without problems – people were missing when I needed them to go on stage, one individual was not on top form… But at the end, the audience didn’t know anything about it. Plus I managed to complete my 30 mins on stage to the second! I was terrified about over running – or worse being far to fast and leaving a huge pause in the events… But I was to the second!

What an experience! I’ve had loads of feed back – and people were not stroking my ego: there was a lot of constructive criticism. But all of it concluded with “you were very professional” or “you put on a great show”.

I can’t believe that it’s over. But at least it means that I can get back to writing now – I can keep this blog updated.

If I can get hold of some decent photographs of the show – I’ll make sure that I post them.