Loved it!!! Danny Boyle has an incredible imagination. I loved the "Industrial Revolution" parts particularly - the factory chimneys and all the people bustling around below looked like a Lowry painting, with the music creating such a menacing, glowering atmosphere. How amazing was (profoundly deaf) Dame Evelyn Glennie on drums?
The scale of the whole thing was simply awe-inspiring. How on earth they brought the whole thing together with (I believe) only a couple of dress-rehearsals is beyond me. Can you imagine the behind-the-scenes logistics for that many performers, volunteers, kids, costumes, tv cameras, musicians...?!
Towards the end I started to think someone had made a list of all the most "British" things they could think of and tried to include them all (punk, maypole dancing, James Bond, Mr Bean, a mini...) but I don't care, it was a quirky, exuberant display of all the best things British.
Loved the choices of music by Rick Smith of Underworld who masterminded the music & musical performances.
I was ashamed to see the comments by that (Tory, surprise surprise) MP Aiden Burley saying it was "leftie multi-cultural crap". What a completely out-of-touch tosser. One of the most incredible things about Britain is its multi-culturalism, which was reflected in such an exciting way in the ceremony. The Olympic site is built in an area traditionally occupied by all sorts of different nationalities. It was brilliant to see Dizzee Rascal to represent grime which has its origins in East London. The section dedicated to the NHS was not only cool (jiving nurses & kids bouncing in formation on their beds) but a huge tribute to this country's social welfare system. It might not be perfect but at least we have one, and I for one am glad that Britain is known for having a health service & that this was celebrated.
All in all, brilliant. I'll never forget the (spoof) Queen leaping in blur of pink chiffon out of the helicopter with Daniel Craig. What a sport she is to have agreed to the filming of her part in Buckingham Palace, knowing (presumably) that the next film sequence would show her apparently parachuting into the stadium. The corgis were hilarious!
Fabulous bit of torch action at the end too.
Yay I might even watch it all again...
11 years
