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Welcome to London

London had David Beckham, James Bond, JK Rowling, Mr. Bean and a blazing flower cauldron -the XXX Olympiad has begun.

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The XXX Olympiad is officially underway after an eclectic Opening Ceremony directed by Trainspotting‘s Danny Boyle.

It began with footage of the Thames through London, and spanned to children’s choirs across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Kenneth Branagh introduced us to the Industrial Revolution, as hundreds of workers built mines across England’s farms. Accompanied by drummers, they were followed by Suffragettes, metal workers, immigrants, and tributes to fallen soldiers. Five huge Olympic rings showered fire high above the arena.

Daniel Craig escorted The Queen (in her first ever acting role) in a helicopter from Buckingham Palace to the stadium. Mike Oldfield made a rare appearance as Tubular Bells accompanied a tribute to Great Ormond Street Hospital. J.K. Rowling introduced a ‘dream’ sequence as fantasy characters came to life: Cruella de Ville, Valdemort, Captain Hook and Mary Poppins.

The London Symphony Orchestra performed Chariots of Fire with a cheeky Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) on keyboards. Television, pop culture, suburbia and a British Saturday night came to life with kids, dancers, and fluro colours. A medley tribute to the music industry referenced The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Mud, David Bowie, Queen, Sex Pistols, New Order, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Eurythmics, The Prodigy, Amy Winehouse and Muse.

The sequence concluded with an appearance by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor who created the world wide web (thanks Tim!).

After Abide with Me it was time for the athletes to enter the arena.

Australia’s outfits were understated this year in green and gold jackets with white pants. With Lauren Jackson carrying the flag there was clearly elation on the faces of the Aussies, and every athlete seemed to be snapping pics on their phone. When Great Britain entered the arena resplendent in white, the crowd went wild, showered in confetti (while Her Majesty appeared to be doing her nails).

Arctic Monkeys took to the stage as winged cyclists circled the stadium before the official proceedings began with Sebastian Coe and Jacques Rogge. Queen Elizabeth declared the games followed by the arrival of the Olympic flag and appearance by 70 year old Muhammed Ali.

The Olympic flame arrived via a boat across the Thames, headed by David Beckham.

The moment everyone had waited for, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron saw flame petals form the shape of a blazing flower in the middle of the stadium.

Fireworks lit up the sky as Sir Paul McCartney performed Hey Jude –and appeared to be out of sync with his click track. But the crowd sang along nonetheless, ending a spectacular, sometimes humorous and showbiz opening to the XXX Olympiad.

Welcome to London.

45 Responses

  1. HD quality here was woeful although that’s not surprising considering how bit starved HDTV is here on FTA in Australia. I went for the BBC broadcast, good HD quality, no ads, no Eddie.. Much more enjoyable and professional.

  2. Loved it, the Poms hit it out of the park. Absolutely fabulous spectacle, so well conceived, technically brilliant, it ticked all the boxes. What I didn’t like was the coverage of the parade of athletes. Nine skipped over whole countries to concentrate on Australia. Enough already! We saw them when they came in, we didn’t need to see them after that. I was most disappointed with the coverage of that part of the ceremony.

  4. I loved it. As much as it pains me to say it, I think it was better than the Sydney opening ceremony.

    On the subject of McGuire, when the Croatians came out he said there was “a big roar for Croatia as there are a lot of Croatians in Australia” Does he not know where these games are?

  7. Eddies commentary wasnt as annoying as I thought it would be and the ceremony was alright.However,I did think that we should have been able, to see all the countries walking into the stadium.Australia is a multicultural country and the Olympics is about many nations coming together.It was only fair we got to see them all equally,instead of skipping over some of them.

  8. @ jezza Of course there is going to be an emphasis on Australian athletes, but it should not be at the expense of other nations, especially for a multinational sporting event such as the Olympics. Don’t forget there’s a lot people with overseas roots in this country, how are they supposed to cheer when the network doesn’t give them an opportunity to do so?

  9. 22 million in Aus and Eddie McGuire and Andrew Gaze is the best we could do for commentary ? would’ve preferred an elder quieter more knowledgeable statesman like Les Murray.

  10. Stop whinging, the opening ceremony was awesome. Eddie did not spoil it too much, he provided a narrative and kept fairly quiet. There is always gonna be pictures/shots of aussie athletes on aussie tv durr c’mon. The whole show was just great….no complaints so far…

  12. “And here’s the green and gold of Australia”. Actually, Eddie, they are wearing green and white.
    The “HD” quality on WIN/GEM is terrible. Switched to WIN SD for a better picture this afternoon.

  13. To those complaining that too much footage focused on Team Australia, during the parade of nations – it’s no different here in the US. Here, they save all their ad breaks for the parade, and then skip entire nations (using quick “ealier we had xxxxx come out”). It’s nearly 200 countries of ‘filler’ until the USA arrive. After which, they focus on them with occasional cutaways to other succeeding nations.

    They did at least give plenty of time for Great Britain. Mostly because US audiences are fascinated with all things English.

  14. @Craig: There *was* a reference to Doctor Who – but blink and you missed it. In the “Frankie & June Thank Tim” segment, while Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was playing. Just after the line “Just gotta right out of here” you can hear the TARDIS taking off! I just played it twice to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. It’s faint, but it’s there.

  17. Thank god we don’t have Eddie Everywhere forced down our throats every damn day!

    Every time he opened his gob he made it sound like we were watching a football match!
    Can’t he ever relax for gods sake!

  18. Great so I paid for the Foxtel coverage only to get Eddie 😛

    FYI while I agree some of the commentary is boring it is need to explain what is happening. Apparently the NBC commentators were worse.

  19. Why oh why did Channel Nine send Eddie Everywhere???? His constant stating the obvious and running commentary completely ruined the opening ceremony. I don’t understand why they couldn’t just use the UK feed – we don’t need to listen to that bore!!!!!

  20. All the pop culture and no Doctor Who which will be 50 years old soon? Kinda disappointed David Tennant didn’t light the torch like Doctor Who did in Season 2 😛

    Is it just me of does XXX Olympiad sound kinda dirty 😆

  21. Nine’s coverage of the “parade of nations” was pretty disrespectful. Skipping whole countries such as Austria and Japan for shots of Aussie athletes texting and Tweeting sure made for compelling television!

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