Discussion: Opening ceremony

It was well done - lots of subtle British humor mixed in :-)

Good decision I think, to go for humour and everyone joining in, after the incredible feats of Beijing.

Totally agree, smart move and it came off (good commentary in the NYT this am).

Seemed a bit flat watching it on Croatian tv.

Really enjoyed it. Mike Oldfield still banging away with Tubular Bells? Who knew? Rowan Atkinson - priceless. The 007/ER2 scene corny, but fun. Old St Andrews flatmate Andy Thornton getting more mileage out of the Chariots of Fire beach run. He's really starting to look young!

Seb Coe: "This is our time and one day we will tell our children and our grandchildren that when our time came we did it right"

If everyone operated on this principle, the world would be in good shape.

I liked the shipping forecast be (before the main show), so, so British. "Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Forties, Dogger..."

Oh, I didn't see that bit! I think they'd cut the prologue on the iPlayer replay.

George, did it make any sense with commentary in another language?

The longer I stay away from home the more I like the Queen. Strange...

The Arctic Monkeys were my highlight! Well done on sleeping through the cycling - best thing to do unfortunately...

If you put her on Pluto we might all like her.

That's not very nice Neil!

I'm not a massive Monkeys fan but they did sound pretty good up there! I actually think I preferred Dizzee, purely because the song is so ridiculously stupid that it was genius.

We saw it again tonight during half time, other parts. Still didn't make much sense, or perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention. But the women won. The important stuff!

Oh, I wouldn't suggest separating her from her family or anything.

I switched on part way through (6am start in Australia), and was greeted by the Sex Pistols being played, which wasn't really what I was expecting. Presumably Her Majesty would not have been amused had their version of "God Save The Queen" featured instead.

@blair - sex pistols "God save the queen" was played at the beginning - I guess it was best to do it before Mr McGuinness's new lady pal arrived.

I don't like these opening ceremony things, but got bullied into watching and really, really enjoyed this. I liked the way they built up the hubris and then pricked the bubble by doing something silly.
Just a shame our cycling team followed the same strategy.

I enjoyed the opening ceremonies. I liked how they celebrated Britain and that it had a party-like atmosphere. Enjoyed the music bit actually (hey they even played the Jam). Not having an athletic celebrity light the flame and having youth/stars of the future light it was excellent. First time that has been done since Montreal in '76. Given that recent American movies like to re-write history by claiming British inventions and battle victories as American (their own) perhaps some of the history didn't make much sense to some of the viewers in the US. ;-)

Me dumb 'Merican ain't understood that English stuff. Yee haw!