Torch Relay Producer Takes ATR Behind the Scenes

(ATR)After being lit atop thehighestpeaks in each of the four UK nations, the National Flames mark the start of the Paralympic Torch Relay with a series of celebrations.

The English National Flame lit the cauldron at Trafalgar Square on Friday as the Torch began its tour of London landmarks.

During the lighting ceremony, 26 Flame Ambassadors each lit a lantern to take back to various celebrations being held in other regions.

Over the course of the day, the Flame will visit the Royal Opera House, the Houses of Parliament, and travel on the Docklands Light Railway.

The Northern Ireland National Flame will light the cauldron on Saturdayin front of the Stormont Buildings before touring Belfast.

Flame Ambassadors will carry splinters of the Flame to seven communities across Greater Belfast for additional celebrations.

The National Flame will visit theBelfast Children’s Hospice andThe Titanic Museum.

Each of the four nations will host their National Flames until Tuesday when they will be combined at Stoke Mandeville. A 24-hour Paralympic Torch Relay will then carry the Flame to the opening ceremony.

As the Paralympics torch relay begins, Around the Rings interviews Deborah Hale, producer of both this relay and the mammothrelay for the Olympic Games.

Hale and her team escorted the Olympic Flame as it traveled through 1,000 communities over the course of its 70-day journey to the London Olympics.

Around the Rings: Does it make it easier to have the relay contained within the borders of the United Kingdom?

Deborah Hale: I guess, I mean this is the first Relay that I have worked on certainly full-time, I did a bit of observing in Vancouver, and I guess that every Relay is very different. But I think we were grateful that we had a small country. Although that enabled us to take the Flame to 95 percent of the population, so I think that was good, but, you know, we had different kinds of challenges. And so I guess all Relays have their own challenges.

ATR: And what kinds of challenges did you face? What was the toughest thing to deal with?

DH: I think, well, certainly for us we were doing them with four nations, of course, all at different stages so there was a lot of stakeholder engagement in the early days. I think setting ourselves the challenge of 95 percent of the population within 10 miles, even though we are a small country, we were determined to get everywhere and we really wanted the UK to take ownership of the event. It was very much about it becoming the UK’s Torch Relay as opposed to it being LOCOG’s Torch Relay that we brought to them.

So we took a lot of time on route planning, lots of time considering the nomination process which was, we were very determined again that 95 percent of the slots would go to the public. So that’s something that we’re very, very proud, we’re proud of.

We made life difficult in some ways by focusing on wanting the youngest Torchbearer age to be 12 because there are all sorts of duty of care and health and safety issues around young people and naked flames, which won’t surprise you. So I think we challenged ourselves more than the project challenged us but that it was worth it in the end.

ATR: And regarding Torchbearers, celebrities, people in the community, people who are recognized for their achievements, what they’ve done, but no politicians were allowed to carry the Torch…

DH: No, no. No elected politician was allowed to carry the Flame.

ATR: Even if they were a great person, if they’d helped their…

DH: Nope. When we started we just felt that the Relay should be outside of politics. And I do think that was the right thing. I think that was the right thing to do.

ATR: Was it grueling? Was it tiring?

DH: Yes, of course. You know, when you’re staying in a different hotel bed every single night of the week, inevitably there is fatigue but I think first and foremost we had an amazing team and, although there were glips, others sort-of picked one another up so there was an amazing team spirit not just within my core team but across the departments and the Met police, or the Torch Security Team as they have now become known.

So I think the main thing to say is that, whenever there was a dip in energy, you’d get out into the Relay and both meeting the Torchbearers and seeing the public response gave you your energy back and it was quite as simple as that. You’d just need to spend two or three hours out on the Relay again and then you’ be back, back to full fitness.

ATR: The size of the team; how many people there for the Relay from LOCOG?

DH: Well the total team, including partners and Torch future teams was 364. My core team was 120.

ATR: So another 220 plus from the sponsors, stakeholders, that sort of thing?

DH: Sponsors and the Met Police.

ATR: It’s organized in such a way that you have teams going ahead, you’re kind of leap-frogging across the country?

DH: That’s correct. So we have a two day advance, so two day advance included the advanced manager’s media briefings so the people who had designed the route, it included what we call ‘tour services’ – you would probably know that as ‘rest overnight’ from previous relays – so the guys that sort out the hotels make sure that the meals are all prepared that the offices are set up, that sort of thing.

Then we have a one day advance which were our pilot team who went out and made sure that all the stickers were in the right places, so the beginning and the end of every single one of those 8,000 slots. And then there was 2 hour advance in front of the Relay just to alert us to anything we needed to be aware of. Obviously we’d got our stage crew were traveling on a 1 day advance so they were setting up the evening celebrations for the following night.

ATR: And you had a Coca Cola Pavilion and Samsung Exhibition area and the sponsors had things to do at each celebration as well, did they?

DH: They did; so they each had a showcasing area at the evening celebration sights. Obviously they also a vehicle in advance of the core convoy so the large vehicles you saw just traveling about eight minutes in advance of the Torchbearer, bubbles as we call it, and then they had a number of different activation vehicles that were traveling around and about on the same day but ahead of the Relay.

So Coke had their mini-beats, Lloyd’s had a little taxi and an ice-cream van and Samsung had quad-bikes and they were traveling a couple of hours in advance, setting up, giving out keepsakes, etc. to the public and generally just getting everybody ready for the arrival of the convoy.

ATR: Did you ever come to a place, come to towns that were too small for you? Where you sort-of overwhelmed the population and facilities there that were available? Where you couldn’t find enough hotel rooms?

DH: We were always… That was all in the planning. We were determined when started planning the route that we would go, even if there were only two or three Torchbearers in a little hamlet village, that that wouldn’t prevent us going so that was very much a deliberate part of the strategy. Certainly from a hotel --- and overnight stop point of view the UK challenged us. It’s not like the States where there are large motels. I think there were only seven nights where the whole crew were together in one place.

ATR: Rio de Janiero is going to be planning its Torch Relay pretty soon and Brazil is a huge country. There’s jungle, there’s mountain – the size of the place. What would you tell them? What kind of advice would you give to them as they look to plan their torch relay?

DH: First and foremost we started with the message of the Flame. This thing that symbolizes peace, friendship and unity,that was our starting block.

Then what we recognized was that it was an amazing opportunity to showcase the very best of who we are both in terms of our landscape but also in terms of our communities and the involvement. Making sure that communities took ownership of it, I think, was a key part of its success.

So one of the things, again, we’d said to them was celebrate it in your way, we won’t dictate to the scale of that, you know, if you want to have a tea party that’s fine, if you want to bring out a brass band that’s fine, you do it your way. And I think that meant that the public took ownership and that was a very important thing for us. And then thirdly, celebrate your people.

So, again, that was why we were determined that what we called "extraordinary ordinary people" would be celebrated. I think it’s an absolutely unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate who you are and what you are in a particular moment in time. But ultimately it is for Rio to decide.

I’m glad they hired a Brit to do [the London relay]. I understood the country, I understood the political landscape, I worked with a lot of amazing people to hopefully do the right thing. I think in my role, in the producer role, you have to be a national. And listen – that’s the first thing.

I spent months just listening to what people felt the Relay should be and what we wanted it to be for our country. So that would be my best advice: just listen first and then do the right thing with your country.

ATR: And everyone pays attention to when the Flame goes out, did that happen very many times? Was that an issue?

DH: No it didn’t. I set the team a challenge. I know I’m correct, this has been the most successful Flame to date – it went out seven times. Our Flame went out three times; twice because it wasn’t lit correctly and once because, to be fair, we put it on a whitewater raft and it got drenched! So it did go out but it withstood in days like Blackpool where we had these incredible winds and incredible rain, the Flame kept going. So we’re very, very proud of what we managed to achieve with the Torch and the burner system.

ATR: And there will be no connection with the Olympic Flame and the one to be used for the Paralympics?

DH: No connection at all, no. We plan to light four national flames using a completely different technique for the Paralympics and we’ll unite those Flames in Stoke Mandeville to create the Paralympic Torch, the Paralympic Flame and then there’ll be a Relay to London.

ATR: How long of a Relay is that going to be?

DH: The Paralympic Torch Relay is six days in total. It starts on Friday the 24th, it’s on a bank holiday weekend. So we will light on consecutive days four national Flames for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and then those Flames will travel to Stoke Mandeville.

There’ll be a ceremony in Stoke Mandeville which is the spiritual home of the Paralympics. So they’ll be united to create the Paralympic Flame and then there’s a 24-hour Relay with Torchbearers in teams of five that will travel from Stoke Mandeville to the Opening Ceremony.

ATR: And how many Torchbearers in all will there be?

DH: There are 620 Torchbearers in total; 580 on that last Torch Relay from Stoke Mandeville to London.

ATR: And what happens to you after the Paralympic Torch Relay? What happens to Deb Hale?

DH: I finish on the 31st of October and then I’m going to have a very long holiday. That’s all I know so far.

ATR: Find yourself in one place for more than one night, enjoy it?

DH: Yeah I’m going to go to Thailand for a couple of months.

Conducted in London by Ed Hula.