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The Olympics: Dan the Man and the #Copacabanter

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The rest of the world sees Britain as many things, one of them being eccentric.

So although we’ve just had our most successful Olympics since 1908*, there’ll be many viewers around the world to whom the British presence in Rio meant less of a gold rush and more of a Copacabana-suffix frenzy.

BBC4’s coverage, led by Dan Walker, became must-see viewing, as the beach-based presenter commentated on everything happening ocean side, leading to the punniest #Copacabanter trend.

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From presenting the #Copacabinmen with Gold medals for their devotion to their work, bride-to-be Maria and her family joining Dan and the crew, the #Copacanoodling couple “reading a book” and Antony Worrall -Thompson** working out, the easy going anchorman gained an army of fans - and not even an hilarious subtitling error had him speechless for long!

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Olympic sports fans - those who normally only tune in for two weeks every four years - are already bemoaning the void left in their lives, with many threatening to tune into Football Focus to fill the Dan-shaped hole on their television. There’s a career for Dan in Brazil too, becoming something of a celebrity there, as he delved into the everyday lives of lovely Latin folk going about their business on the beach.

It was one of those quirky British affairs that not only adds to an already good-natured event but confirms overseas thinking that we can be just a bit, well, weird. Maria and her friends loved it “BBC-BBC-BBC-BBC”. Check out all the best bits via Dan’s Twitter feed.

Back to his day job this week, and there’s a plea from Dan:

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Good luck with that, Dan!

*We placed 1st in the table with a total of 146 medals, including 56 gold

**Not really Antony.

Want to chat TV? Find me @Scattyjan on Twitter