olympics opening ceremony

[jeffhaskeft]

why the hell is the announcer speaking what i think is french first and then the other speaks english?
i thought this was an olympics stage by the british
i can no longer watch it

[Peter]

French and English are the official languages of the Olympics, I believe. Can't remember it being so noticable last time, though.

[jimslip]

An amazing spectacle, blows Sydney and Beijing out of the water and its only 11pm!

[Arginald Valleywater]

Bit PC and left wing for my liking. Didn't realise 1/3 of Britain was not white....the Industrial Revolution stuff was superb but then ruined by shit like Mr Bean who panders to the brain dead among us. As for the NHS ye gods where were all the ?100k managers with clip boards?

[Peter]

That German bloke wants to rethink his waving technique! A very third reich look to it!

[Peter]

Arginald Valleywater wrote:

> Bit PC and left wing for my liking.

Yep, enjoyable, but looks like it was written by Little Teds gang. Which I suppose Boyle is, really.

[jimslip]

I loved Boyle's depiction of rural and agrarian Britain completely destroyed by top hatted toff industrialists, led by Mr Smug, Kenneth Branner, trampling all over toiling peasants! lol Technically, I thought the whole event was a masterpiece. Remember the event relied on 1000's of local volunteers to perform and this was reflected in the occasion. I am sure if the Olympic Park had been built in rural Surrey, the ethnicity of the thousands of performers would have been very different! Bare in mind the whole point of the Olympics is its inclusiveness.

I thought Mr Bean, Bond and the Queen were brilliant and I can't wait to buy the Blu Ray of the whole thing and keep it in my collection and the best thing of all, was Cliff Richard was barred from performing!!grin!

[Sam Slater]

Agree with everything you said, Jim. It was fantastic. Could have heard a bit more of Led Zeppelin and The Clash but that's just a personal bias.

I really thought that the Queen would be some lookalike. Gob-smacked that they got her to do a bit of acting.

Couldn't get much more British, really. Loved the whole NHS scene. A big 'fuck you' to Mr. Cameron, there! Boyle outdid himself.

[max_tranmere]

I was impressed. Especially when the Queen parachuted out of the helicopter. Quite a daring thing for an 86 year old woman to do. Lucky she didn't miss the stadium and end up in the canal. I was particularly impressed that her bloomers didn't fly up and expose her undergarments. lol.

But seriously it was a very good opening ceremony. The 'newly forged' metal rings that were elevated was an impressive bit, and also some of the whacky comedy like the bit with Mr Bean. Overall: 10 out of 10.

[planeterotica]

I shot this at 9.0pm in Trafalgar Square the official countdown

And this earlier in the day the torch being carried down the Thames