1 The organisers did an excellent job. The stewards were plentiful and helpful, we picked up our tickets easily, enjoyed some excellent chips from the food vans and were in front of the stage in plenty of time.
2 It’s a shame there wasn’t a bonfire. There were probably half a dozen irrefutable reasons why there wasn’t one – health and safety, nowhere to put it – but there is nothing like the sight, smell and sound of a raging bonfire.
3 If you’re going to bring on Bond, give him something to do. Daniel Craig lookalike Steve Wright had already toured York to publicise the Kaboom show, and he was back again on the night. But all he did was stroll onto the stage, answer a couple of questions and walk off again. There wasn’t even any Bond music to herald his arrival, BBC Radio York’s Elly Fiorentini having to sing it herself.
4 This wasn’t a good advert for the York Dungeon. With my son I went round the dungeon earlier this year and it was great fun, with lots of laughs to go with the gore. But it is hard to express how painfully bad the dungeon team’s “comedy reenactment” of the Gunpowder Plot was. Guy Fawkes was hung, drawn and quartered and most of the crowd would have found that experience less excruciating than standing watching this endlessly unamusing playlet in the freezing cold.
5 The fireworks were magnificent. Choreographed to various Bond themes, the pyrotechnics were stunning. I’ve never seen red fireworks explode into heart shapes, as they did to From Russia With Love; and they were followed by gold and silver displays to mirror Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever respectively. Wonderful.
6 Marcus Collins can sing. Boy, can he sing. On a night cold enough to shrink the strongest vocal cords, the X Factor finalist could still belt out a tune or five, hitting the high notes effortlessly. And fair play to his backing dancers who were on stage in short sleeves. We should also mention Thomas Teago who impressed the crowd with his set earlier in the evening.
