Team Dorset “Bladdered” and “Daggered”
INTERESTING to watch the reverberations from Team Dorset’s incredible confusion of TE Lawrence and Sir Laurence Olivier.
To recap just briefly: as part of its efforts to make people enthusiastic about Dorset and the Olympics, Team Dorset is publishing 1,000 “fascinating facts” about the county up until the start of the Olympics. One “fact” a day, on the Team Dorset website.
Specimen fact number 25 – sent out in a media pack – read: “Sir Laurence Olivier lived in Bovington and died in a motorcycle accident on Clouds Hill.” At least that’s how it did read until it got lampooned in the Dorset Echo and the Daily Telegraph and beyond.
Looking for something about Portland this morning, I stumbled by chance upon this comment by blogger the Red Bladder:
“What breaks my heart is the knowledge that my money is being lashed out on these people. If they can make such a stupendous error on something like that how can we take a single word they write or utter seriously? Can we believe a thing that they tell us?”
Actually, it looks as if Team Dorset has been trying to guard itself against further embarrassment. Someone has been through the Team Dorset website removing some of its mistakes, such as the fantastic claim that the Weymouth Relief Road was going to be opened to traffic in October 2012 – that is, after the Olympics.
But there’s still some way to go. Today’s “fascinating fact” is: “The rope that was used to hang criminals throughout the British Empire was made in Bridport, Dorset.” Was it really? After about 1600, rope-making was only a small part of Bridport’s textile industry. In 1810, when Britain most certainly had an Empire, there was only one rope-maker in Bridport, and they were supplying West Bay (or Bridport Harbour, as it was then called). No bills have ever been found in Bridport for hangman’s rope. Rope is just as likely to have been made for executions in Ilminster or East Coker. However, it is true that the hangman’s noose was known as “the Bridport Dagger” and being “stabbed by a Bridport Dagger” meant being hanged. So, if we’re being generous, there’s an element of truth in today’s fascinating fact.
But look also at the page on the dorsetforyou website which encourages people to send in fascinating facts. It gives suggestions. For Business, for example:
“Gundry’s in Bridport provide the nets for Wimbledon.”
No, they do not. Gundry ceased to exist as a trading name in February 1998. Edwards Sports Products provide the nets for Wimbledon. Even more to the point, perhaps, Edwards supplied all the tennis equipment for the Beijing Olympics.
I’ve been holding off writing about Team Dorset, its mistakes and so-called “fascinating facts” because comment can seem snarky (and everyone can make mistakes, and no journalist ever likes tempting fate) but the danger, surely, is that Dorset is going to end up looking silly.
And I don’t think “looking silly” is supposed to be a legacy of hosting Olympic sailing events in 2013. Joke!
I have never really gone in for a lot of ‘dog eat dog’ copy but in this case I made an exception. Somebody produced a bit of copy confusing Laurence Olivier with Lawrence of Arabia. Somebody subbed it, somebody saw the proofs and somebody signed them off. Surely the claim that the old actor died in 1935 should have rung an alarm bell with one of them? Anyway, the whole ding-dong led me to your site so some good came of it. Good luck with it and I look forward to seeing the revenue rolling in to your coffers like a horde of binge drinking youngsters staggering down West Street after a refreshing Friday evening in Wetherspoon’s.