Things are getting pretty exciting for snow and ice sports fans as the BBC start the trickle feed of anticipation-building trailers for their coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The trailer (watch it below in full) was aired for the first time on Sunday night (12th January 2014) and it sets the bar high for the games itself, taking a lot of inspiration from the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien and the visuals of the subsequent Peter Jackson movies for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
If you’d guessed the voice in the trailer to belong to Benedict Cumberbatch, which we can understand after he took on the weighty tones of The dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and considering the fact the the trailer first aired before the second installment of the new series of Sherlock, you’d actually be wrong. The reality is that it belongs to another great British actor, Charles Dance, who has starred in everything from Alien 3 and The Last Action Hero back in the day to Game of Thrones and Your Highness in more recent years.
TV coverage for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games is set to start on the 7th February 2014 and will continue daily until the 23rd February 2014. It’ll be opened by the traditional opening ceremony, which will include more than 2,000 performers, will air live on BBC 2 on the first day of the games at 3:30pm and the closing ceremony is planned for the last day of the games on the 23rd Feb on BBC 2 at 4pm.
The BBC has announced that the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be the most complete digital coverage of the event to-date, featuring daily coverage on either BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 1 HD and BBC 2 HD from Sochi (see coverage details below). Six HD streams will deliver more than 650 hours of live action from Russian host city which can be accessed on network TV, through the red button, on you computer, tablet and mobile so that no matter where you are there’s a good chance you don’t need to miss a thing.
In addition to the live coverage there will also be daily highlights, news and analysis from the BBC 2014 Winter Olympic Games team. This time around we’ll have Clare Balding, Hazel Irving and Jonathan Edwards to take the lead for the coverage of the event, and they’ll have support from Amy Williams, Graham Bell, Colin Bryce, Emma Carrick-Anderson, Robin Cousins, Jackie Lockhart and Wilf O’Reilly for additional winter sports expertise.
If you can’t wait until then to get in on the action, you can get into the spirit of the games in the next couple of weeks with Ski Sunday at 5:15pm on BBC 2, as well as on iPlayer. If that doesn’t give you enough of a close up action preview, there’s always the official game of the tournament, Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to get your teeth into on the Nintendo Wii U.
BBC 2014 Winter Olympics trailer:
TV coverage:
Friday 07/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 15:30-19:15 – Opening Ceremony
Saturday 08/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 08:00-11:00
BBC Two & HD 14:30-1630
BBC Two & HD 17:10-19:30
BBC Two & HD 19:30-20:00 – Today at the Games
Sunday 09/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 06:00-11:00
BBC Two & HD 14:30-16:30
BBC Two & HD 17:10-19:30
BBC Two & HD 19:30-20:00 – Today at the Games
Monday 10/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 05:00-12:00
BBC One & HD 12:00 – 13:00
BBC Two & HD 13:00 – 19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Tuesday 11/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 07:00-12:00
BBC One & HD 12:00 – 13:00
BBC Two & HD 13:00 – 19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Wednesday 12/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 06:45-11:30
BBC One & HD 11:30-13:00
BBC Two & HD 13:00-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Thursday 13/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 05:00-12:00
BBC One & HD 11:30 – 13:00
BBC Two & HD 13:00 – 19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:30-20:00 – Today at the Games
Friday 14/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 06:45-12:00
BBC One & HD 11:30 – 13:00
BBC Two & HD 13:00 – 19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Saturday 15/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 05:00-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Sunday 16/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 05:00-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Monday 17/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 05:00-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Tuesday 18/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 06:45-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Wednesday 19/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 06:45-19:30
BBC Two & HD 19:30-20:30 – Today at the Games
Thursday 20/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 08:30-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:30 – Today at the Games
Friday 21/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 08:30-19:00
BBC Two & HD 19:00-20:00 – Today at the Games
Saturday 22/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 09:00-11:30
BBC Two & HD 12:30-17:35
BBC Two & HD 18:00-19:10
BBC Two & HD 19:10-20:00 – Today at the Games
Sunday 23/02/2014
BBC Two & HD 09:10-16:00
BBC Two & HD 16:00-19:00 – Closing Ceremony
