London 2012 torch relay to feature in soap opera through, country, visit, opera

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LONDON - The Olympic flame will pay a visit to Britain's most famous launderette and pub next year after London 2012 organisers announced that the torch relay route would pass through the streets of one of the country's most-watched soap operas.

Map of the United Kingdom showing 2012 Olympics torch relay route. With factbox on modes of transportation and key sites through which the torch will pass. [Photo/Agencies]

Better-known for family feuds, dodgy business deals, extra-marital affairs and occasional murders, the fictional London borough of Walford, the focal point for the hugely successful BBC drama EastEnders, will be one of the stop-off points for the symbolic Olympic flame next July.
Later on Tuesday, viewers of the show will watch as characters Fat Boy and Billy Mitchell are nominated as torchbearers and in an episode to be screened on July 23 next year the latter will carry the torch through Albert Square - arguably the most famous "neighbourhood" in Britain.
The torch's appearance on the show backs up London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe's pledge to make the relay as "creative as possible".
While the episode will be filmed in advance, organisers say that several minutes of the Olympic procession will be beamed live from the show's set as part of the torch relay that will travel the length and breadth of the country.
"While this may be a fictional one-off for Billy Mitchell, it's a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I'm thrilled that Walford and Albert Square will be part of this amazing event," Perry Fenwick, the actor who plays Billy Mitchell, said in a statement from the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG).
Torch relay to pass over 1,000 places
The 2012 Olympic torch relay will travel some 12,800 kms around Britain, taking in 1,018 villages, towns and cities and the 1,085-meter summit of Snowdon, before culminating with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron on July 27, as confirmed by LOCOG early last week.
It means that LOCOG has realised the aspiration of taking the Olympic flame to within an hour's journey time of 95 percent of the population. In fact, over 95 percent of the population will be within just 10 miles of the Olympic flame next summer.
LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe said: "I'm delighted that the Olympic torch relay will take the 2012 Games at almost every corner of the UK and that we have achieved our ambition to take the flame to within an hour's journey of 95 percent of the population. Now everyone is invited to plan their welcome and find out where they can go to be part of this historic occasion. The Olympic Games are coming to you as the Olympic flame gives our people and places their moment to shine."
The Olympic flame will arrive into the UK from Greece on 18 May 2012 then begin a 70-day journey starting at Land's End, Cornwall on the morning of 19 May 2012.
The flame will be carried by 8,000 torchbearers.