He said: "You know the Olympics are huge, but when you see it on the scale of Beijing we all immediately thought, 'This is two, or three, or four times bigger than we thought it was'.

"I remember emotionally feeling, 'This is colossal' and, though we had some pieces in place, really feeling we had to get on with it in a much more serious, big way."

Upon his return from the Chinese capital, Mosey stepeed down as the head of BBC Sport to concentrate on preparing for London.

He is hoping that the BBC's coverage will help the whole of Britain feel involved in the Games.

Mosey said: "Two things are true - they are London's Games, as a world city, but the BBC is a UK broadcaster and the appetite is from around the UK to watch and take part.

"The whole of the UK should fizz about it.

"You've got this opportunity to make the whole of the UK feel like they're part of it - that sense of involvement and participation.

"In some cases the approval levels for the Olympics get higher the further away from London you go."

Statistics show that by the end of the Beijing Olympics, 73 per cent of the British population had seen at least some Olympics coverage.

Britain's outstanding success at the Games, where they won a record 47 medals, including 19 gold, has helped broaden the interest in many of the minor sports in this country and Mosey believes that 2012 represents an outstanding opportunity for others to leave an impression on the public for the first time.

He said: "For a number of minority and participation sports, if they are ever going to make their mark in the national consciousness this is the four years in which they are going to do it.

"You've got top-level, elite success and there's also the chance to participate and it's great for exercise and stuff.

"Tom Daley became famous without any live diving being on the BBC [beforehand]."

Mosey is, predictably, very upbeat about how successful the BBC's coverage will be of the first Olympics to be staged in London since 1948 when television was very much in its infancy.

He said: "The BBC, one million per cent, can deliver a great Games in 2012.

"What is there not to like about delivering the biggest event the BBC has ever covered in peacetime?"