No surprises that Redgrave is lighting the torch. Looking forward to McCartney's bit next!

Quote from J@tko :

No surprises that Redgrave is lighting the torch.

Ah, the guy from Top Gear Ground Force or whatever it was called... is he famous or something?

Lalaallaala naadaaa laddaallaa.. Hmmmhey Jude.. Ttaaakkkke a ssaadd soongg aandd maakeee it bettterrr laadaannaadiddaaa.. Mnnnahnaaa

Well I think Paul McCartney and Mr Bean stole the show. Probably the only time I'll ever say that.

Cauldron is epic.

Quote from DevilDare :

Cauldron is epic.

Yes what a brilliant idea. And yes, they're moving it before the hammer competition starts

I was expecting Rowan to overtake the people in his yellow Mini :P

Oh and btw, those boots that the Czech athletes were wearing were ridiculous.

Quote from Intrepid :

Beware everyone don't criticise the opening ceremony the Twitter/BBC thought police will come after you. It was very political and very left-wing... as you would expect. Any dissenters will be punished. Some MP merely stated the whole thing was very lefty biased as is fairly obvious.. and boom twitter (apparent protectors of free speech) go into a Daily Mail outrage.

The same Tory MP who was sacked after he took part in a Nazi Stag Party in the french alps it seems....classy guy. Must have been royally pissed when it was Macca who turned up instead of Mick and Keef at the end as well.

They got the James Bond bit a smidge wrong; Daniel Craig should have walked in to the Queen sitting, stroking a Corgi. "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond."

Otherwise, mostly well judged. They had to make it British rather than trying to compete with China's generally incredible mass choreography. I'm sure parts would have baffled the world audience, but not bad at all.

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

They got the James Bond bit a smidge wrong; Daniel Craig should have walked in to the Queen sitting, stroking a Corgi. "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond."

Otherwise, mostly well judged. They had to make it British rather than trying to compete with China's generally incredible mass choreography. I'm sure parts would have baffled the world audience, but not bad at all.

I was thinking to myself: "Hmmm, I bet Charles in his heart of hearts wishes this was real and it would all go wrong."

Also for our American friends, THAT WAS NOT ABRAHAM LINCOLN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

Otherwise, mostly well judged. They had to make it British rather than trying to compete with China's generally incredible mass choreography. I'm sure parts would have baffled the world audience, but not bad at all.

Yep I agree with that. Had to explain to Deko a couple of times what was going on but it was good. Not quite sure how the Arctic Monkeys got in there but they did a good job. Crowd were excellent.

Can't quite help feeling it perhaps wasn't worth the £2,000 top price ticket though :P

I just love UK for its music.. All the best music came from UK... No doubts... To hear playin' live Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd in the end of the show was just priceless... It's the best way to represent UK! Especially so happy for Mike Oldfield to be pick up for the ceremony. He really deserved to be there and play in front of billions people all over the world.
Speaking about the show, it was just amazing! Historical narrative about country and its legacy, Atkinson's hilarious show, J.Bond moment with helicopter and so on and on... It was so good that I even wanna to play it from the start again!

I also liked it very much! Didn't see anyone mention yet but playing Pink Floyd's Eclipse at the ceremony's climax was incredible!

@Storm Cloud - agreed! Well said as usual.

I actually think that was the best opening ceremony of any Olympics. It wasn't a pretentious display of wealth or power, it had real character and did a great job of representing our eccentric culture and history. Coming from the impressive but also very oppressive Chinese ceremony, it was refreshing to see such a big focus on including everyone, and the cauldron is fantastic, it's a great symbol of unity and such a clever design.

Also, for any of you who didn't understand most of it, I don't think you were really meant to, just know that the British understood it and most of us bloody loved it. Proud.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/u ... -edge-154500518--oly.html
Lol'd when I read this.

Anyone know where I can find a nice torrent or web replay of the opening ceremonies? My power went out sometime just after the 70s bit, while I was watching on BBC stream. I couldn't stomach the NBC feed, they yammered too much, dozy yanks. PM me if you have something.

I sadly missed it. Gotta watch a record somehow, seems awesome.

The Rowan Atkinson part, for us, who didn't see it at all.. pure gold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D0JIAWpdGI

Quote from dekojester :

Anyone know where I can find a nice torrent or web replay of the opening ceremonies? My power went out sometime just after the 70s bit, while I was watching on BBC stream. I couldn't stomach the NBC feed, they yammered too much, dozy yanks. PM me if you have something.

If your computer is still uber h4xxored, watch it on iPlayer

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I actually think that was the best opening ceremony of any Olympics. It wasn't a pretentious display of wealth or power, it had real character and did a great job of representing our eccentric culture and history. Coming from the impressive but also very oppressive Chinese ceremony, it was refreshing to see such a big focus on including everyone, and the cauldron is fantastic, it's a great symbol of unity and such a clever design.

Also, for any of you who didn't understand most of it, I don't think you were really meant to, just know that the British understood it and most of us bloody loved it. Proud.

This is just beautiful true british comment!

@de Souza - I mentioned already Pink Floyd. Yeah.. Hearing Pink Floyd in the end of the show was truly amazing experience!

I ended up watching it because I got leathered in the afternoon and could do nothing else but lie infront of the TV in the evening.

I thought it started out well with the industrialisation and stuff, but then it got a bit 'medley' and there seemed to be no narrative to it. The NHS is good - OK - and we've got childrens' literature fair enough I suppose, and here's some kids texting eachother, er... Where's this going? And then who's in the creepy house after the teenage couple are snogging? Tim Berners-Lee. In the dark. Alone at a computer. Looking like he's downloading child porn.

The cauldron is a good looking bit of kit, so well done with that. Shouldn't have asked Ali to take part though he's obviously not well enough, should've left McCartney at home too.

Highlights for me: Starting out with The Shire and then going all Saruman. Dizzee Rascal (finally they got someone from East London involved). President of the IOC thanking the volunteers. Caster Semenya carrying the flag for South Africa.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I actually think that was the best opening ceremony of any Olympics. It wasn't a pretentious display of wealth or power, it had real character and did a great job of representing our eccentric culture and history. Coming from the impressive but also very oppressive Chinese ceremony, it was refreshing to see such a big focus on including everyone, and the cauldron is fantastic, it's a great symbol of unity and such a clever design.

Also, for any of you who didn't understand most of it, I don't think you were really meant to, just know that the British understood it and most of us bloody loved it. Proud.

That mainly sums it up for me too, I think this is the best opening we had for quite a while.

And when you are talking about the true British bits, some of the things I understood or my parents told me what they meant. And other things we had no clue about we were informed by our commentator.

I loved the part with Mr Bean. Also the part where they let the children from hospital in was really good. During the ceremony there was thought of everyone in the UK, the important and less important things all got a place.

I say Thumbs Up to the organization of the Olympics 2012, p.s. the road cycling track for today is amazing.

German broadcasters must have watched too much NASCAR on FOX. Just that their mascot is a beagle instead of the Digger. And no, it is not Snoopy but an ordanary one.

About the opening ceremony it had an astonishing beginning. The "production" of the Olympic rings was great. Also the music compilation. Interesting they included the Sex Pistols although the Queen was present But some of the show parts just got boring and somehow the ingition of the Olympic fire was unstatisfying for me. I blame the media for that since they did a big hype about the "who-will-ignite-it". All in all a very good show nontheless.

About the cycling track... I'd have loved to see the olympians race on the paralympic road cycling track, which is the Brands Hatch Grand Prix track, but I just might have too much petrol in my vains