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I liked it that they had the end of 'Dark Side of the Moon' at the finale.

I thought it was utterly boring. I fell asleep three times - the announcer said that Kenneth Branagh was going to recite something from The Tempest - next thing I knew some bird was singing "Abide With Me".

I also hadn't realised that there were so many Indian businessmen in Brunel's time nor that the Windrush was crewed by white people.

The cynics on this item are a sad sad lot....I watched most of it (missed
part of Boyle`s tableau) in front of a huge screen in Budapest with folk
from about 30 countries (judging by the clapping as the nations entered
the arena).
The show looked as spectacular as Peking (I don`t hold with this PC crap),
and surely demonstrated the inventiveness, the eccentricity, the music, the
quirky self-deprecating humour of the British, along with our skill at
staging extravaganzas like this...fantastic and I was one of those Brits in
Budapest clapping out loud for my old country !
Despite all Mr Boyle`s multi-culturalism, despite all the fireworks and rock
bands, I also noted that the Olympic anthem was played with due respect
without warbling Aussie schoolkids or Greek choirs.......Overall - the best
Olympic ceremony since Barcelona - and even HM the Queen demonstrated
she likes a joke !!

Absolutely superb.5* all the way!

Bloody brilliant.

Absolutely bloody brilliant.

I thought this was a triumph overall.

Very, very British in its humour. For me the bits that I thought were fantastic were:

The overall set with the hill which was later used to plant the nation flags
The James Bond scene with the Queen. What a gal!
The Industrial Revolution stuff when the Olympic rings were forged and rose up. Brilliant!
The music! The Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant blasting out - go, go! I thought the Arctic Monkeys were brilliant. Cool as fuck. And McCartney for the mums, dads, grans etc. The way they used the soundtrack by Underworld to speed the athletes up round the track.
The NHS bit. Up yours Lansley and Cameron.
The digital stuff involving the audience

But best of all, was the whole bit around the lighting of the flame. The speedboat coming down the Thames was a brilliant bit of theatre. At first I thought Redgrave would be lighting the flame but to have a bunch of young athletes that virtually no-one had heard of rather than some superstar was a great idea.

And the sculpture to hold the Olympic flame was genius, using the brass or bronze? objects carried in with each team to be part of the structure and the way it rose up to fit together. Awesome concept and execution.

Well done Danny Boyle and all the volunteers. Ya done great!

I think the NHS sequence was a reflection of our forefathers wanting to change things for the better after the war and Britain is famous for it. I reckon its imagery would have had a great effect on the Americans and in perticular Obama who is desperately trying to introduce a tiny, primitive version of the NHS in the USA. The Right over there behave as if he is suggesting gassing everyone. So that awful, slimy, fucker Romney, who I think was in the audience, must have hated the whole thing from beginning to end.

I was travelling way oop North, so only heard it on the radio, but watched some of it later, it sounded bizarre on the radio but looked amazing on tv

Found most of the opening ceremony totally cringeworthy myself, especially that desperately unfully Mr Bean sketch, and what were they doing roping the Queen into some lame helicopter-leaping routine? Just awful, and totally lacking in class...no doubt Boyle will get into the New Year honours list for his bizarre efforts though.

WigBilly wrote:

Just awful, and totally lacking in
> class...

Thought that about the GB team, dressed like a gay pride parade and turning into the camera every time one pointed at them with standard Saturday night piss head "Hello mum!" actions. Jeez, have some self respect.