Russell Davies: I'm looking forward to 2012 - Shame that the world might end

By Russell Davies, campaignlive.co.uk, Thursday, 08 December 2011 08:00AM

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Festive Felicitations! This is my last column of the year, so I'm cramming in all my wishes now.

Russell Davies

Traditionally, at the turn of year, it falls to columnists to look back and look forward, to wrap up the old year and preview the new one. It's a semi-interesting diversion for everyone and can normally be written weeks in advance so hard-working columnists can have brief breaks from the word mine over the festive period.

I'm not sure, though, that I can face looking back at 2011.

It has been a year, for me, best described as "not brilliant". Therefore, let's raise our hopes and glare fearlessly into the breaking light of 2012, because it's going to be a remarkable year.

There'll be the Olympics and Paralympics, of course. Are you ready for those? Some businesses and brands have been preparing for years; others are just now looking at their calendars and wondering if it's too late to secure a pole-vaulter or a wrestler. Having peeped behind the scenes at what some organisations are preparing, I can predict extraordinary moments of creativity and a huge swathe of undifferentiated generic pomp. 'Twas, I suppose, ever thus. The exciting bits are going to be great, though - and great in interesting new and digital ways while the whole world is examining British creativity. An opportunity for us to shine. Plus, I've got some tickets for the canoeing, so I'm really excited.

And, if we get a decent bit of warm weather, we're all going to take the summer off, aren't we? Tell me you're thinking that too. One long festival from the Golden Jubilee through the Euro Championship, Wimbledon, World Pride, the Proms and the Notting Hill Carnival. Productivity will hit an all-time low but relaxed creativity will boom.

Technologically, as well, I suspect it'll be interesting. New iPhones, new versions of Windows and, hopefully, much-promised developments such as the Internet of Things, decent consumer robotics and market research drones will finally hove into view. If you want a vision of that, consider the fact that Gerry Anderson's Joe 90 was set in 2012. (The younger ones among you - have a look on YouTube.)

And finally, of course, the world might end. All sorts of eschatological beliefs are pointing to 21 December 2012 as being the moment the catacylsm will come, mostly due to dubious interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. According to Wikipedia: "Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, or Earth's collision with a black hole, passing asteroid or a planet called 'Nibiru'." So, given that, it's probably worth having a good stab at the first 346 days of the year. Enjoy it! See you in January.

russell@russelldavies.com

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk