TEAM GB ... at the end of the day, that's all of us.

Yes, for once, we were all in it together, standing on our own imaginary Olympic podiums.

And well done to Wirral Council for putting on "I am TEAM GB" straight off the starting block to mark the superb achievements of the last fortnight.

Next Saturday sees a host of free leisure facilities open to the public.

Whether we supported the 2016 Olympics through buying lottery tickets or simply egging them on as couch potatoes, the five Olympic rings will forever symbolise dedication, discipline and a sense of camaraderie.

Our hard-working, inspirational national athletes are welcome role models again.

And jolly hockey sticks all round.

Wirral wonder Sam Quek did us proud.

The Inferno bestows on her a celebratory nickname – "Quek off the mark." 

Along with the commentators, we all went nuts in Brazil.

But one thing about the televised event was Greek to me.

I was bronzed off with the BBC's blanket coverage.

Scheduling was all over the place.

Viewers had to vault from their chairs to find the remote control.

There should have been a public medal for us at home taking part in "relay channel-hopping" trying to keep track.

Blue Peter badges all round, too, for the Beeb's OTT presenters.

They seemed to have put other news items' events way down in the running order to give us some ridiculous Olympic features, notably athletes being interviewed for 60 seconds while hoola-hooping.

Someone should have been drug-tested for coming up with this idea.

So as we now prepare for 2020 (no, not Phil Davies' Wirral vision plan) but Tokyo, can I suggest that the BBC dedicate a series of special channels JUST for the Olympic events in Japan and those who are allergic to tracksuits can watch the news and repeats of Inspector Morse in peace on the main channels.

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"HOW MUCH is your cheapest champagne?" I heard some shopper ask, stocking up for the Olympics.

That's the spirit.

Team GB were clearly sensible when opening the bubbly to celebrate.

The 320 fit-as-fiddle sports people were given 77 bottles on their chartered homeward bound plane which ran to a quarter of a bottle each.

Happily, they did not adopt the Formula 1 wasteful tradition of shaking then spraying huge magnums of champers as the winner will no doubt do in next week's Belgium Grand Prix.

I was bemused, however, with the endless photos of athletes biting their medals in celebration.

This dates back to the photographers demanding that tearful athletes do something interesting with their hands.

I used to think they were biting them to see if they were in fact chocolate, tin-foil covered coins.

Alas, many an athlete has lost a filling in this Gold rush.

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TURN-TABLES were turned on BBC Radio Merseyside's Maureen Walsh.

The request show queen was given a 75th birthday party this week and mega-stars lined up to send messages.

Her son Mike, who works for London-based Radio X, compiled a greatest hits video including Rick Astley, Jason Donovan, Aled Jones and John Suchet. Mo's connection with Wirral goes back six decades.

She was one of the famous "New Brighton Lido Lovelies" entertaining summer seasons at the Pavilion in the 50s.

"We did 36 shows in 36 costumes, including two houses a night,” she recalls.

A feat that the other Mo (Farah) would be proud of.

There was one guest who could not be there in person for Ms Walsh.

One George Clooney - but Mike did arrange a cardboard cut- out for a selfie.

Happy birthday golden girl, Mo.

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AND finally ... next month in Liverpool we have the Labour Party leadership election result.

Take it as red this is a labour of love with a difference.

To get us all in the mood the wily, politically-correct Everyman Theatre are offering a one-man play called Tony's Last Tape on September 22 marking the life of one-time leader contender Tony Benn.

As for Mr Corbyn and Mr Smith who will get the gold and who will get the silver?

Under starter’s orders...

Peter Grant