After enormous efforts to get the London 2012 Olympics ready on time, Danny Boyle now wants to delay the start. The film director, who is masterminding the opening ceremony, wants to postpone it by an hour and a half so that the fireworks in his show can be seen to the best effect as night falls.
The move threatens to throw other preparations into chaos. The Olympic clock, which has already gone wrong once in its countdown to the Games, is timed to reach zero at 7.30pm on Friday, July 27, next year. Publicity, ticketing and travel plans are based on the time.
However, Boyle, director of the film Slumdog Millionaire, has told Olympic organisers that the “epic and intimate” show he is designing will lose its impact unless it is delayed until after sunset at 8.55pm.
The proposed delay raises the prospect of 1m revellers in central London having to find their way home after 1am. Among those staying so late would be the Queen, who will be 86, and the Duke of Edinburgh, who will be 91.
With 481 days to go until the Games, the organisers may have to pulp thousands of brochures, which have been printed with a 7.30pm start, and revise information given to ticket applicants.
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Under Boyle’s plan, the Olympic torch relay will wind through the streets of London to reach the Olympic park and light the cauldron to start the Games as the sun sets. His display will be inspired by the history of London and the industrial revolution.
However, his artistic vision is proving a headache for organisers because of the knock-on effect on travel. Transport for London is planning to keep the Underground open late so the final train does not leave Stratford, location of the stadium, until 1.30am, but even this may not be late enough.
The prospect of travel chaos at Stratford will raise fears of a repetition of the chaos on millennium night, when VIPs and ticket-holders for the Millennium Dome celebrations, where the Queen was also the main guest, were kept waiting in queues and crushed into special trains so that many of them missed the festivities.
In addition to about 80,000 in the crowd at the Olympic stadium, a further 135,000 are expected to flock to giant screens set up across London in Hyde Park, Victoria Park and near City Hall to watch the opening live. Thousands more will line the streets to catch a glimpse of the Olympic flame.
TfL has agreed to keep Underground trains running out of central London until 2.30am, an hour after the last one leaves Stratford, and may be prepared to meet Boyle’s demands.
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A spokeswoman said: “We haven’t ruled out the prospect of running a 24-hour service on the Underground during the biggest events, such as the opening ceremony.”
NBC, holder of the American broadcast rights, would also back the change, which would bring the opening ceremony closer to their prime-time slot in New York. They maintain, however, that the decision should be up to the organisers.
Boyle, 54, whose other films include Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, has played down concerns that fireworks are bad for the environment.
He praised London’s most recent New Year’s Eve fireworks display. “There was this big debate, should there be fireworks [at the Olympics opening ceremony] or not, because they’re not very green. I’m sure they will [have them at the Games] after New Year’s Eve.”
Boyle has also disclosed that he has been reading Charles Dickens and literature about the industrial revolution for inspiration, suggesting he will feature sequences depicting the changes London has undergone over the years.
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However, in the light of China’s impressive opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Boyle has tried to lower expectations for his own show, saying: “I don’t think England can quite top Beijing.”
That show started at 8.08pm to mark the year 2008 in the 24-hour clock and because the number eight is considered lucky in China.
During the Beijing opening ceremony Li Ning, a Chinese gymnast who was carrying the Olympic flame, was hoisted up by wires and flew around the stadium before lighting the cauldron to start the Games.
Organisers of the London 2012 ceremonies hope to keep details secret. This weekend, a spokesman for the London organising committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said it would be “wrong to speculate” on precise timings.
Those wishing to get a seat for the opening have until April 26 to enter the ticket lottery either by post or online.
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A spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, which must approve arrangements, said Locog should “take into consideration environmental factors such as the onset of nightfall and the needs of the various parties involved including, of course, the athletes and the public attending”.