Bedtime Stories.

Sport This past week, since Christmas, I've been enjoying the glorious commentary free version of the Olympic opening ceremony which is available on BD, in which just the stadium announcers and a few captions tell the viewer absolutely everything they need to know about what they're seeing.  Sadly, the BBC's own commentary bordered on the inane in places with Trevor Nelson apparently hired for no reason other than to talk at inopportune moments.

All of which said, it was still a hundred times better than the NBC version of which a snatch is viewable on Mediate from the bedtime stories section in which Matt Lauer and Meredith Veira talk across everything as they state the bleeding obvious over and over and over again. For blind viewers perhaps this is a useful service, but unlike the bespoke commentary which appeared on More4 during the Paralympics ceremonies, it's not detailed enough for that to have been the intent.

Also helpful was the narration of Boyle’s celebration of the National Health Service, which might well have otherwise been lost on the American audience, but when the interpretation of bedtime stories turned evocatively nightmarish, it’s a good bet that everyone watching was aware that the giant Voldemort puppet was really tall, without Meredith Vieira chirping “Voldemort is 100 feet tall.”

Yes, really.