Was that the lamest Opening Ceremony EVER?

[Eddie Teach]

Yeah, Berkut, you need to stop referring to Habbaku as "Habs". Habsburg is and has always been the "Habs" - you are the only one who refers to Habbaku that way.

I think a lot of people here use that term for a particular hockey team as well.

[Brazen]

The Queen as Bond girl, Tim Berners-Lee and Rowan Atkinson more than made up for the over-long bitty musical sequence and the bloody awfulness of Paul McCartney once again missing his cue and key.

What do you furriners make of having young athletes rather than a sporting hero light the flame? Indecision or a statement on self-effacing Britishness?

[Neil]

Ah.......by Habs you mean Habbaku not Habsburg.............Berkut's opening posts make sense to me now 

I assumed he meant the Montreal Canadiens.

[Kleves]

What sort of reaction did the American delegation get from the Brits? I was trying to watch, but I think I may have been in a diabetic coma after Mary Poppins ("one of the most popular character's in children's literature" - what, like among retirees?) danced Voldemort to hell and the 12-hour epic of 'Boy gives Girl her phone back'.

[Martinus]

The Queen and James Bond part makes it the best opening ceremony ever. It's really the most endearing thing about the Brits - their ability to be self-effacing.

[Sheilbh]

The Queen and James Bond part makes it the best opening ceremony ever. It's really the most endearing thing about the Brits - their ability to be self-effacing.

I also think that and things like the celebration of childhood and our drummer being an amazing deaf percussionist (she used to give concerts at my school because she came from Thurso, not many people do) was quite a nice counter-point to Beijing too.

[Grey Fox]

To the OP : Of course not, do you not remember Atlanta 1996?

[sbr]

What sort of reaction did the American delegation get from the Brits? I was trying to watch, but I think I may have been in a diabetic coma after Mary Poppins ("one of the most popular character's in children's literature" - what, like among retirees?) danced Voldemort to hell and the 12-hour epic of 'Boy gives Girl her phone back'.

It was a very good reception from what I could tell from the NBC feed, second only to the home team.

[Josephus]

Overall I liked it. Love the Bond/Queen bit.
Loved the Michael Oldfield music. I loved the NHS segment with the volunteer children and the kids literature stuff. Thought they needed to fit Enid Blyton there somewhere...what's British Kiddie lit without Blyton?. I liked the musical tribute bit, though I thought it went on too long.

Macca needs some new material.

I was disappointed a bit with the cop out of selecting a group of people to light the torch. I dig that the whole theme was continutiy and future and all that. But still. Cop out.

Overall though...I thought it was a pretty good show.

[Admiral Yi]

I watched a replay of the ceremony late last night.

I'm going to vote no on the Bond bit.  Liz needed some lines.  She might as well have been played by a body double.  Simulating an 85 year old woman, who's entire raison d'etre is to project dignity, parachuting out of a helicopter was tacky and demeaning.  Then when she walked to the reviewing stands she looked like she was dosed with Valium.

Saw a little bit of the doctors and nurses dancing around.  Maybe Shelf is right and the NHS is a revered national treasure but to me it was just bizarre.

What does it say about the UK today when you can't find six service men and women who can march in step?  The big British arm swing made it look even worse.  It looked like Keystone Kops out there.

[Admiral Yi]

Can someone tell me what the people at the front of each national delegation were carrying?  Alien pod?  Gigantic beef liver?

[Grey Fox]

Can someone tell me what the people at the front of each national delegation were carrying?  Alien pod?  Gigantic beef liver?

They called it a petal, it's what became the cauldron later on.

[Warspite]

I was all ready to hate the opening ceremony, but it really impressed me. The Queen/Bond moment was brilliant. Mr Bean could have gone very wrong, but I thought the synth joke was very well played in the end. Mike Oldfield

The music I also thought was good fun. I agreed with one comment on Twitter, that the UK is one of two countries on earth that could fill a four-hour show entirely with home-grown pop music of various genres that a good chunk of the rest of the world will know - the Beatles, Stones, Blur, The Jam, The Prodigy, etc etc. The whole point was to demonstrate Britain's role as a leading cultural producer even after its decline as a industrial power and tie it in with the point about social changes. And they mixed it up with some Elgar, the Dambusters theme, and traditional hymns.

That's also what the NHS bit was about. First the link with British literature - what every Briton who can read is proud of - with a great institution that, whatever its flaws, is also something the Brits are proud of. Even most of the right wing in the country fundamentally agree with the idea of a universal health service free at the point of access for all. Brits who know their history know the abysmal conditions the working classes of the industrial revolution lived through; the NHS was a key part of the deal paying them off for doing the fighting and dying in two World Wars. So it's a pretty big part of British identity, and something definitely meant in the opening ceremony for the domestic audience. You Yanquis may not agree with the idea, so I'm sure you can gloat about the efficiency of your welfare sector come the next US games. :p

On the service personnel who couldn't march in step, I bet they've had a good ear bashing already. Pretty much the only thing the British military is world-class at these days is drill, so this was unforgiveable.

What I thought was done best, however, was the 7/7 bombings tribute (Abide with Me, and the dance). Actually brought a tear to my eye and a whole host of unwelcome memories of that day back. Turns out, however, that US TV cut this out to have a tepid interview with Phelps. A shame, really, because I am sure Americans of all people would have felt a great empathy with Londoners over the attacks and with this tribute.

[Razgovory]

Brilliant?

Not the word I would choose.

They were not respecting the citizens freedom of dying in a gutter from cancer.

[Sheilbh]

What sort of reaction did the American delegation get from the Brits? I was trying to watch, but I think I may have been in a diabetic coma after Mary Poppins ("one of the most popular character's in children's literature" - what, like among retirees?) danced Voldemort to hell and the 12-hour epic of 'Boy gives Girl her phone back'.

It was a very good reception from what I could tell from the NBC feed, second only to the home team.

I think all the Anglo states got a good reception. The US got a big cheer that then ebbed due to the size of the team but came back whenever they zoomed in to someone famous.

Syria got no cheer from what I heard.

Also when I talk about emotional/romantic unionism, that ceremony was roughly it.