Mon: BBC comedy shows Olympic clock screw-up; Tues: real-life Olympic clock stops

[muriel_volestrangler]

London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops

Embarrassment for Olympics organisers as giant Trafalgar Square clock stalls one day after launch

It was launched in a blaze of sparklers by Lord Coe, London mayor Boris Johnson and potential London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Ennis. But on the day Olympic tickets went on sale, organisers suffered a major embarrassment as their official countdown clock stopped.

The timepiece, which has become a traditional fixture for Olympic host cities and is made by sponsor Omega, stalled reading 500 days, seven hour, six minutes and 56 seconds to go until the opening ceremony.

The 6.5m-high structure, which is in a prominent position in Trafalgar Square, was launched on Monday night at an event hosted by Clare Balding. It was unveiled by four Olympic gold medallists from Team GB - rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson
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In a case of life imitating art the BBC on Monday night launched a Thick of It style mockumentary, Twenty Twelve, which featured a PR farrago around a countdown clock.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/15/london-2012-olympics-clock-stops

The spoof had them unveiling a 'countdown clock', only to realise that it was a normal clock starting from the date of the Olympics and counting backwards, so that it would start to show meaningless dates before the Olympics. But I think that clock managed to keep going.

:rofl: A preview of the next episode of the mockumentary seemed to show Lord Coe took part in its filming. If so, I bet he's regretting it now ...