The Greatest Show On Earth

I enjoyed the Olympic Opening Ceremony so much, that I think I might just series link them all. I was cynical about the entire thing, but I was wrong to be so because it was an amazing thing to witness - right from the beginning to end, despite the even lasting for nearly four hours.

The opening clip with the animation of the journey down the River Thames was very well done, and was actually quite funny I thought. However, this show wasn't just for us Brit's - it was for the entire World, and like many people have said: I'm not sure they really got most of it.

For those of us who did, we recognise it to be party a history lesson done to an incredible standard with dancing and thumping music, as well as celebrating it, and other great achievements, such as music and technological advances. For example, I think it was a lovely idea to get Tim Berners-Lee onto stage for the crowd to cheer to thank him for bringing everyone the World Wide Web - the Internet as we've come to know it today. If only all sporting events started like this one.

So, after they had the Industrial Revolution stage of the performance, which included the countryside of the very start to be taken apart, to make way rising, smoking chimney's, in which a lot of men in bowler hats started dancing, the Olympic rings were displayed, floating in the centre of the beautiful Olympic stadium, represented in what was supposed to look like burning iron. After that, the next part of the program started.

Then Daniel Craig (Current James Bond) walks into Buckingham Palace, past the Corgis and goes to see the ACTUAL Queen. Who then walk and enter a helicopter. At this point, an actress takes over from the Queen as they fly through London past landmarks, statues and other things you'll find in London. The helicopter then flies above the stadium, to which the 'Queen' and 'James Bond' parachute into the stadium. This was a Royal entrance like none other.

Then followed a celebration of the Armed forces, which is just as well seeing as they've been drafted in at the last minute to provide security for these Olympic Games. This included the National Anthem sung by a choir called Chaos, who both sung and signed games.

After this, the National Health Service was celebrated, in which the staff and patience of Great Ormond Street Hospital come onto stage over music provided by Mike Oldfield. The nurses and patience then had a good old dance, which you cannot argue was anything but heart-warming. I would have liked to of heard the American commentary where they explain what the NHS is to their country-folk, with a tone of jealousy.

Then the celebration of Children's literature began with J.K. Rowling reading an extract from Peter Pan. There were a few moments before the audience cheered where they tried to work out who she was. After this, events from books where played out, such as the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Voldemort from Harry Potter and Mary Poppins, as well as many others. During this, the nurses and children still were being involved. This was a lovely and brilliantly done part of the ceremony, even with a giant baby rising from the ground.

Then, a tribute to British films was performed, with music coming from the London Symphony Orchestra. It was at this point where Rowan Atkinson popped up, in the role of Mr Bean, during a performance of Chariots of Fire playing the keyboard, using his physical comedy brilliantly! This was easily, the best part of the ceremony, and therefore the best part of the games - I can tell you that now! This whole bit had him centre stage almost. Even a clip with people running across wet sand (the iconic image from the Chariots of Fire) was given the Mr Bean treatment. Five minutes worth of Atkinson is perfect for me, and he took his bow deservingly.

The next part celebrated the digital age, with communication being celebrated, with television including iconic clips and sounds British from television, such as Blackadder, Corrie, Eastenders, Doctor Who and so many more. They also celebrated social media, games, and music. They then went through the decades of British music, with lots of amazing clips of music played, such as The Jam, The Who, The Beatles, Mud, David Bowie, Queen, Sex Pistols, New Order, Blur, Dizzie Rascal and Muse; which were all acted out separately. All this happening while a little inter-racial love story played out. People have been comparing this opening ceremony to the one of China four years, to which I never watched. Well, you can say what you like about it, but I doubt there was much pop music there.

Then the short Tim Berners-Lee celebration happened. It is important to note that the who ceremony had relied a lot on music and it's 7,500 volunteer performers, but also lighting, with it being used on a massive scale, and with it working brilliantly!

Then, after that, a quick look back at the Torch Relay through Great Britain, before we see David Beckham at the wheel of a speed boat which was thundering down the River Thames towards the stadium with the flame on the front. All this was building up to the Olympic cauldron and who will light it.

After that, we had 90 minutes of people walking around carrying flags: 204 countries in total; a few of which I'd never heard of before. This was quite dull in all honesty, but that's no-one’s fault. It's something that has to be done, and there is no real way of making it any more exciting. I remarked on Twitter how it was the Eurovision equivalent to a fashion catwalk, that was terrible and dragged on for longer than most people's patience.

Anyway, that finally finished, and we had the final part of the ceremony. This was started by a performance by the Arctic Monkeys. Now, they are a great band, but I do think there are many more current bands who are a lot better and represent Britain in a better way; but that's just nit-picking. This included a visual display by people on bikes cycling around the stadium with moving Dove wings attached to the back, which were quite striking to look at.

In the end, they thought it a bit demeaning to make Bradley Wiggins cycle a bike with dove wings on it...
— Stuart Collyer (@MrStuy) July 27, 2012

After that, there were lots of speeches. Started off by Lord Sebastian Coe, the Olympics president Jacques Roggee and then the Queen who simply declared the games open. Following on from that, we had lots of fireworks, a small procession with the Olympic flag, which included a moment from a very unwell and unstable looking Muhammad Ali.

Then it was revealed who the person to light the flame would be. As David Beckham approached the stadium in his speed boat, Steve Redgrave was waiting to take it off of him. People commented that they did not know who he was. They are idiots, and the less said about them, the better.

While Redgrave made his way to the stadium, the athletes took oaths not to take drugs and to be role models and blah, blah, blah. A little ceremony happened with the flame after than when Redgrave gave it to some teenagers who ran off with the flame, who then themselves actually went an lighted the cauldron. The cauldron was a thing of beauty which I cannot really describe. Either way, it was a marvellous and beautiful piece of engineering.

Then, after some more fireworks, Paul McCartney sang Hey Jude; the song he has finished every major British event with over the past few months. Then some more fireworks happened, and then it was over.

This whole celebration, forgetting the boring bit with the flags in the middle, was quintessentially British, and was one of the few times in my life I can say I was actually proud to be British. However, I'm not sure I could say I was proud of the BBC, who had three commentators, who jabbered on through-out not saying much of any value. In fact, they were silent during the silent parts of ceremony, and then spoke through the talking parts of the ceremony. As well as that, I was saddened to see that Boris Johnson never made an entrance. Other than that, I loved it. I sense an OBE for Danny Boyle...

Anyway, bring on the Closing Ceremony!