London 2012: Faster, higher stranger – quirky offcuts of the Olympics | Sport | The Guardian London 2012: Faster, higher stranger – quirky offcuts of the Olympics A sideways look at reaction to the London Olympic Games Kenneth Branagh, top left, starring as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, starring as Abraham Lincoln at the London Olympics opening ceremony. Photo: Paul Gilham/Getty Images Observer Sport staff Saturday 28 July 2012 12.09 EDT First published on Saturday 28 July 2012 12.09 EDT Close THE CEREMONY: BEST INSTANT REACTIONS US viewers reacting on Twitter to Kenneth Branagh's Isambard Kingdom Brunel: "The Olympics lost me ... why is Abraham Lincoln dancing?"; "Is that Abraham Lincoln speaking right now?"; "Why is abraham lincoln at the olympics?" BEST PACE CHANGE NBC – the American broadcaster getting the most out of the ceremony by showing it on delay, chopping it up for ad breaks and replacing the far-too-downbeat segment featuring the "memorial wall" tribute to the dead and Abide with Me with an upbeat Ryan Seacrest interview.

BEST COMEBACK Aidan Burley MP, sacked by David Cameron last year for "offensive" behaviour during a Nazi-themed stag party, apologising for his Twitter verdict on the ceremony ("leftie multi-cultural crap"): "Seems my tweet has been misunderstood." THE BIG FIGURES The biggest ever British TV audiences: ■ 32.3m: 1966 World Cup final. ■ 32.1m: Diana's funeral, 1997 ■ 30.69m: Royal Family documentary, 1969 ■ 30.15m: EastEnders (Den v Angie), 1986; ■ 28.6m: Apollo 13, 1970 ■ 28.49m: 1970 FA Cup final replay (Chelsea v Leeds) ■ 28.4m: Wedding of Charles and Diana, 1981 ■ 27.6m: Wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, 1973 ■ 27m: Olympic opening ceremony, 2012 PLUS: THE CEREMONY'S UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 1.

Just how big is Trevor Nelson's family? 2. Who would have rung the bell at the start if Bradley Wiggins had not won in the Tour? 3. Does Danny Boyle get knighted now or in the New Year? 4. What acting projects does the Queen have lined up next? LAST WEEK'S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Thursday: Five Live's Nicky Campbell asked listeners: "Do you have the Olympic tingle?", then unwittingly read out a tweet from a spoof account in the name of Twenty Twelve character Siobhan Sharpe: "Like totes, for real." DRIVER OF THE WEEK Wednesday, 6pm: a driver on the Victoria line near Kings Cross provoking groans by telling delay-weary London Underground passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen, some Olympic news." Then he told them: "In women's football, Great Britain have beaten New Zealand 1-0!" GUIDE OF THE WEEK CNN – talking American visitors through how to fit in to life in London.

"The secret to blending in with locals lies solely in the use of one word: 'innit' – a colloquial abbreviation of 'isn't it?' Confusingly, although 'innit' implies a query, this uniquely London method of punctuating sentences is a purely rhetorical device. Thus, 'Time for drink, innit?' is wrong but 'I've had four pints and no dinner, innit' is grammatically perfect." Plus: "In some bars you may see something called 'Pork Scratchings' for sale. These are not for you." BEST PUBLICITY MACHINE Boris Johnson: operating in full calculated buffoon mode. Earned some headlines on Thursday with his defence of sponsor McDonald's. "This is bourgeois snobbery … classic liberal hysteria about very nutritious, delicious, food – extremely good for you I'm told. Not that I eat a lot of it myself." APOLOGY OF THE WEEK The Westfield Stratford shopping centre: "sincerely sorry" for creating Arabic welcome banners that were "pretty much unintelligible" to speakers of the language. The error also appeared on staff uniforms.

The Council for Advancing Arab-British Relations said the banners were the equivalent of signs supposed to read "WELCOME TO LONDON" being printed: "N O D N O L O T E M O C L E W." NAME OF THE WEEK Australian eventing horse Allofasudden: called up to the team as a surprise last-minute replacement, and withdrawn injured again days before the competition. WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE DRUNKEN SAILOR? The South Korea Sailing Federation apologising on Friday for its coach Lee Jae-cheol, who was sent home after being caught drink-driving in Weymouth. "Lee Jae-cheol attended a banquet and drank wine and beer on 25 July. It is true that Lee cannot drink well … It is really a matter for regret." MOST CONFUSED The foreign visitors trying to find their way round London's confusing Waterloo area on Friday by asking directions from a group of South Yorkshire police officers drafted in to the capital to help out.

Caliban and Brunel: Kenneth Branagh’s Speech at the Olympics Opening Ceremony | quiteirregular Caliban and Brunel: Kenneth Branagh’s Speech at the Olympics Opening Ceremony Britain , Britishness , brunel , caliban , kenneth branagh , national identity , olympics , performance , shakespeare , sport One of the climactic (and most discussed) moments of the London Olympics opening ceremony was the speech Kenneth Branagh delivered whilst dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In yesterday’s post , I discussed the way the ceremony represented British culture, and I’d like to spend a bit more time thinking about this extraordinary performance in particular. Standing on a green hill as the pounding drums foreshadowed the coming of the Industrial Revolution, just before chimneys grew through the landscape and the turf was sliced away to reveal steel tracks, he declared to the audience and people below him: Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again. As the BBC commentary informed us, the words are from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. On the surface, that was exactly their function: to be stirring words by Shakespeare which include the terms “isle” and “dream”, and conjured up a general sense of Britishness suitable for the occasion. Just as, on one level, the purpose of performing Jerusalem immediately before this speech and Elgar’s “Nimrod” variation during it, was to provide tear-duct-tugging music by British composers to accompany the moment. Part of the ceremony’s function was to offer up some sort of celebration of British culture to the world, and these are all excellent works. Whilst that may be true, there was a lot more going on in this speech. The words are not only Shakespeare’s, they are Caliban’s.

In its original context, the speech is made by the “monstrous” half-human creature to the shipwrecked men who have been tormenting him, as an explanation of the music being played by the invisible spirit Ariel. Caliban has accepted one of the sailors as his master, and has just been trying to persuade him to kill Prospero, when Ariel takes advantage of his own invisibility to stir up arguments and confuse them with his music. Why Caliban? Obviously I can’t say why Danny Boyle chose this particular passage, but the choice is extremely suggestive. It isn’t a speech by one of Shakespeare’s kings or heroes – it didn’t come from the mouth of Hamlet, or Prince Hal, or Prospero, the island wizard. This is rather surprising, given that Kenneth Branagh is a Shakespearean actor in the “heroic” mould (who has himself played Hamlet and Hal) and was dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, an engineer who won second place in the 2002 “Greatest Britons” poll as a heroic symbol of the Industrial Revolution.

Boyle chose not to give Branagh/Brunel a speech which emphasized his dominance and cast him as a superhuman about to conquer nature, but a passage which stressed the wonder and uncertainty of the world. Caliban’s words do not seek to define or dissect the mystery he experiences, but admit his own inability to comprehend them. The speech sets Brunel amongst the people he’s speaking to: not a visionary who bent the world to his will, but a human who was amazed and even frightened by the forces which surrounded him. Given Boyle’s borrowing of Lord of the Rings imagery to present industrialisation during the ensuing sequence, it’s telling that Brunel speaks as the wizard’s servant, not the magical master. This makes more sense if we turn to the notes Boyle wrote for the ceremony programme . They begin: At some point in their histories, most nations experience a revolution that changes everything about them. The United Kingdom had a revolution that changed the whole of human existence. Boyle links together the Industrial Revolution and the digital revolution (both sparked by British men, in his account) as events which had the potential to change the world for everyone.

He ends the notes with this: But we hope, too, that through all the noise and excitement you’ll glimpse a single golden thread of purpose – the idea of Jerusalem – of the better world, the world of real freedom and real equality, a world that can be built through the prosperity of industry, through the caring nation that built the welfare state, through the joyous energy of popular culture, through the dream of universal communication. A belief that we can build Jerusalem. And that it will be for everyone. So Boyle’s choice of Caliban’s speech seems part of a wider attempt to reflect on particular events in British history (the Suffragettes, the founding of the NHS, the Windrush) and to suggest how we might glimpse universal values through the historical turmoil. Certainly his direction of the Industrial Revolution sequence (for which he borrowed the name Pandaemonium, the hellish city in Paradise Lost) refused to imagine it either as the triumph of science over hostile nature, or the obliteration of the one true organic community. For this show, the Industrial Revolution wasn’t something that Britain did for/to the world, but something which Britain experienced along with the world, in all its dislocation, horror and possibility.

In this imagined history, Caliban’s words coming from Brunel can offer comfort and reassurance, because they come from someone who is also afraid, also being worked on by forces he can neither understand nor control. This is all immensely appealing to me, but I’m also aware that it involves a certain recasting of history – literary history as well as political history. The Caliban of The Tempest is not simply an odd creature on an island, he is a half-monster, half-man who lived on the island until Prospero arrived, attempted to rape the wizard’s daughter, and has been subjugated as a result. His name has echoes of Montaigne’s On Cannibals, and his character reflects the attitudes of European travellers to indigenous peoples at the beginning of the colonial era: he appears deformed, subhuman, sexually rapacious, violent, cringing and ignorant. Caliban and Ariel both provide a continual focus in Shakespeare studies for postcolonial readings, and reflections upon the intersections between colonisation, resistance and culture – Caliban’s Voice: The Transformation of English in Postcolonial Literatures is a representative title.

Giving Caliban’s speech to Isambard Kingdom Brunel might seem to be robbing him once again, co-opting his words uttered in resistance for the purposes of reconciliation. Because the Industrial Revolution wasn’t experienced in the same way by everyone it affected, and certainly some countries suffered vastly more negative effects than others, whilst Britain some classes suffered whilst others benefited. Using a heroic actor dressed as an icon of industrial capitalism to speak the words of a colonised Shakespeare character might smack of a hurried assertion that we’re all equal now and everyone suffered in the past so let’s not trouble ourselves about it. That wasn’t how I experienced the performance. I felt it was so deliberately fantastical, such a consciously impossible mix of fictional characters and historical events, that Boyle was setting up a fantasy space. Within that space Brunel could speak Caliban’s words in a subjunctive mood, a “what-if” reverie which recognised the incongruity between his image as a “Great Briton” (who only lost the top spot to Winston Churchill) invoked by those who complain that we don’t make anything in this bloody country anymore, and this moment in which he shared the anxieties of people who saw their world being destroyed by the factories.

It felt to me like a conscious wrestling with the historical traces and cultural memories being invoked, with Boyle refusing to reconcile them easily into a single image. His stress on “dream” and his insistence that dreaming is a necessary, constructive process might well make him shy away from anything which suggested a single “true” British identity, so this visible tension between the figure and the words seems to embody the ideas expressed in the programme note. But I am still aware that, for some spectators, it might have been less a visible tension and more an appropriation which made Caliban as invisible as the noises he marvelled at. Share this: Caliban’s words were picked up towards the end of the evening by another artist: “I wake up just to go back to sleep” from Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal. Coincidence? Kenneth Branagh At 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Was Branagh Dressed As Abe Lincoln? Kenneth Branagh At 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Was Branagh Dressed As Abe Lincoln?

07/27/12 AT 9:59 PM Close Sir Kenneth Branagh dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the 2012 Olympics in London and read Caliban's speech from "The Tempest," but Americans who are unfamiliar with Isambard Kingdom Brunel got him confused with one of the most famous of U.S. presidents, Abraham Lincoln. The famed actor Sir Kenneth Branagh is best known for playing Shakespearean characters and for playing Gilderoy Lockhart in the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." On Friday, he played a new role at the London Summer Olympics. Branagh clenched a book and spoke to others dressed in similar garb on a rural set that was thought up by award-winning movie director Danny Boyle. [[nid:733489]] American Twitter users who are clearly unfamiliar with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the man who was responsible for England's Industrial Revolution, thought Branagh was dressed as "Abe Lincoln." @figgy999 asked: "I am on tape delay. ...

Can someone tell me why Kenneth Brannah was playing Abe Lincoln in London?" ‏@nprscottsimon also questioned: "I love this opening ceremony. But why is Kenneth Branaugh dressed like Abe Lincoln?" @Brunette__Mafia knew that the scene centered on the Industrial Revolution, but then questioned who Branagh was dressed like, asking, "Why is Abe Lincoln walking around the industrial revolution?" @JuliaMasera noted that there was more than one Lincoln impersonator, "This excessive amount of Abe Lincoln look-a-likes is a bit creepy. #olympics." British Twitter users were quick to correct them, though. @EnglishFolkfan scoffed: "Reading twitter US folks just watching the #openingceremony is hilarious, not understanding UK history, some think Branagh was Abe Lincoln!" @colugo laughed: "OMG. Reading the American's tweet about the #olympicceremony is hilarious!! Abe Lincoln??? Really?

#NeedAHistoryLesson #ProudToBeBritish" Others also questioned what Branagh was reading at first, but SB Nation joked that the actor wasn't reading "The Tempest" at all, and instead joked that it was a book one would read when in the bathroom. Read its take here. Americans also took to Twitter to sort out their confusion when "God Save The Queen" was played, considering it is to the same tune as "My Country, 'Tis Of Thee." Unsure whether this was a joke, but some Americans tweeted posts similar to that of @theisb, who wrote, "I don't want to embarrass my British pals, but you guys are getting like every single word of "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" wrong." Olympics Opening Ceremony Review: London Goes Wild - The Daily Beast Leon Neal / AFP / Getty Images Game Time Olympics Opening Ceremony Review: London Goes Wild The Olympics host held back nothing for tonight’s opening ceremony, which featured cameos from the Queen, James Bond, and Mr. Bean. Tom Sykes reviews the spectacle. Plus, photos.

Tom Sykes 07.27.12 9:50 PM ET The Queen and James Bond jumped out of a helicopter in Union Jack parachutes! Mr. Bean played “Chariots of Fire!” There were UFOs! It was a quirky and bizarre opening ceremony for London’s Olympic Games tonight, taking the form of a visually spectacular if at times uneven odyssey through British history and culture. There were some early cringe-worthy scenes of pre-industrial Britain: maypole dancers, thatched cottages, mustachioed beekeepers, and a hirsute Kenneth Branagh dressed up as British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel orating from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. But the visuals picked up a gear when the green and pleasant landscape—complete with chickens, goats and cows—gave way to the age of industry, with factory towers rising out of the earth and the greenery being paved over and flooded with a fiery river Thames of molten iron.

It is debatable whether creative director Danny Boyle—of Slumdog Millionaire fame—really needed to have an oak tree physically uprooted in a cloud of dry ice, from the roots of which poured forth thousands of coal-smutted workers of the Industrial Revolution, but Olympic opening ceremonies do seem to have a habit of making pedants of even the most lateral thinkers. Indeed, while Boyle’s opening sequence, which featured a camera racing up the Thames, recalled the opening credits of his first film Shallow Grave and key scenes from Trainspotting, the show then raced through a heavily stylized version of British history. There were suffragettes, tributes to the war dead and the MV Windrush (the ship which brought the first West Indian immigrants to Britain after World War II), and, of course, the Beatles. But the highlight for many came with the playing of a short film, “Happy and Glorious,” which showed James Bond arriving at Buckingham Palace. Daniel Craig walked into the Queen’s private rooms to find her sitting at a desk. She turns to him and says, “Good evening, Mr.

Bond.” Bond replies: “Good evening, Your Majesty.” Then the dapper pair climbed into a chopper, which was shown flying under Tower Bridge in a stunt filmed last month, before they appeared to parachute into the stadium. (Stuntmen, of course, took the place of Craig and the Queen for the final descent.) The real live Queen then entered the stadium, on foot, with her husband, Prince Philip. Daniel Craig had vanished. Another visual highlight came when five glowing Olympic rings floated over the stadium like mysterious UFOs before joining together and raining fire. But the clincher for many viewers was Rowan Atkinson’s performance of “Chariots of Fire,” in which, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the star of countless Mr. Bean movies fiddled with his smart phone and distractedly day-dreamed that he was running on a beach with star athletes from the British Olympic team. Other Great Britons honored amid pageantry included cyclist Bradley Wiggins, who rang a giant bell to formally open the £27 million, ($42.5 million) event, and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

Britain’s greatest Olympian, rower Steve Redgrave, had the honor of carrying the flame into the Olympic stadium, but the task of lighting the cauldron itself fell to a group of seven young athletes nominated by British Olympic heroes. In the final moments of the ceremony, to the accompaniment of amazing pyrotechnics and fireworks and after the two-hour parade of athletes had concluded, the boxer Muhammad Ali appeared on stage, as a speedboat carried the Olympic torch on the final leg of its journey up the Thames, accompanied by David Beckham. Beckham handed the torch to Redgrave, who carried the torch into the stadium through a tunnel packed with some of the construction workers who built the stadium. The torch was then run around the stadium, while being passed between a corps of young athletes nominated by Redgrave and others. For the grand finale, the seven youngsters lit torches from each other and then simultaneously lit the cauldron which will burn for the duration of the games.

The show concluded with a dazzling fireworks display to the accompaniment of the song ‘Eclipse’ better known as the final track on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, followed by a solo performance of Hey Jude by Sir Paul McCartney, proving once again that no British event is complete without Sir Paul. READ THIS LIST At Olympic Opening Ceremony, Britain Journeys Through Past - The New York Times The New York Times Olympics |In Ceremony, Britain Jests in Journey Through Past Search Continue reading the main story They called it the “Isles of Wonder,” but it was really a parade of British whimsy: sheep and milkmaids, factory workers, the Internet, Mary Poppins, the queen and a snippet of the Sex Pistols’ rendition of “God Save the Queen,” and, oddest of all, doctors and nurses jitterbugging on hospital beds in a tribute to the National Health Service. The opening ceremony of the London Olympics on Friday was a tableau of national pride that studiously avoided bathos and easy excesses of patriotism.

The show opened with music from “Chariots of Fire,” a movie about two principled British runners in the 1924 Olympics, but it was not the famous theme by Vangelis ; the creators instead chose the classic hymn “Jerusalem.” The Vangelis song came later, as a joke by Rowan Atkinson in his Mr. Bean persona, comically bored and distracted while playing the synthesizer with the London Symphony Orchestra. In a video, even Queen Elizabeth II and her corgis did their bit, greeting Daniel Craig as James Bond in Buckingham Palace (“Good evening, Mr. Bond”). Then the queen, festive in a sparkling pink gown and pink-feathered headpiece, pretended, via a body double, to parachute into the Olympic arena at his side. It’s hard to imagine any other nation willing to make so much fun of itself on a global stage, in front of as many as a billion viewers. It takes nerve to look silly; the cheesy, kaleidoscopic history lesson that took Britain through its past, from pasture through the workhouses and smoke stacks of the Industrial Revolution to World War I and, of course, “Sgt.

Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” was like a Bollywood version of a sixth-grade play. But bad taste is also a part of the British heritage. The imagery mixed the glory of a royal Jubilee with the grottiness of a Manchester pub-crawl. Britain offered a display of humor and humbleness that can only stem from a deep-rooted sense of superiority. Advertisement Continue reading the main story People said Beijing’s opening ceremony was the hardest act to follow, but for Britain, it was the easiest. The Chinese government had so much to prove. The 2008 extravaganza, with all those waves of drill teams, dancers and drummers, thousands of anonymous performers synchronized to represent the invention of movable type printing, was a paean to regimentation, discipline and collective self-effacement that was magnificent, awe-inspiring and unenviable. (It didn’t help that the adorable little girl in a red party dress who sang an ode to the motherland later turned out to be lip-syncing with the voice of a child who sang better but wasn’t quite as perfect-looking.) Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Privacy Policy Britain confidently opted for a celebration of individuality, idiosyncrasy and even lunacy. The showmanship was entrusted to the British filmmaker Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”), and he favored pop music, movies, make-believe and Britain’s top export commodity: celebrities. David Beckham drove a bearer of the Olympic torch to the arena in a speedboat. Kenneth Branagh, dressed as the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, recited lines from “The Tempest,” and J. K. Rowling, the creator of “Harry Potter,” read from “Peter Pan.” Paul McCartney closed the evening with “Hey Jude.” NBC didn’t share the British art of playfulness. Even though the ceremony was shown with a time delay (no live streams allowed), the network prefaced the opening ceremony with its own opening, a solemn and pompous video celebration of the Olympics, narrated by the actors Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. Ryan Seacrest came next, interviewing two members of the American gymnastics team. Later, Seacrest returned to ask the swimmer Michael Phelps whether he could emerge from these games as the greatest Olympian of all time.

Phelps shook Seacrest off like a leg cramp. The NBC anchors Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira did their best to get in the spirit of British nuttiness, but at times their energy flagged, and their bewilderment became obvious. After a hospital sketch that morphed into a children’s nightmare — and a giant fake baby floating on a bed — Lauer said, “I don’t know whether that’s cute or creepy.” The whole show veered from cute to creepy and from familiar to baffling, including a pop music tribute to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Most of all, it showed a love of movies that celebrate British eccentricity. “Isles of Wonder” seemed most inspired by a scene from the movie “Love Actually,” in which Hugh Grant, playing the prime minister, explains that Britain is still a great nation because it is “the country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter , David Beckham’s right foot.” Correction: July 30, 2012 The TV Watch column in some editions on Saturday, about the broadcast of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, misidentified the person portrayed by Kenneth Branagh.

He was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a prominent British engineer in the 19th century, not “a Dickens character.” A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2012, on Page D6 of the New York edition with the headline: In Ceremony, Britain Jests In Journey Through Past. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Northern Ireland shines in 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony - BBC News BBC News Northern Ireland shines in 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony By Peter Coulter BBC News 28 July 2012 Close share panel Image caption Belfast actor Kenneth Branagh played Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the ceremony Northern Ireland has had its own starring role to play in the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics. Local athlete Katie Kirk had the honour of lighting the official Olympic cauldron along with seven other young athletes from around the UK. Dame Mary Peters symbolically passed an Olympic torch to her during the final stages of the three-hour ceremony. Belfast-born actor Kenneth Branagh also took part, along with local musicians and children from several NI schools. Over one billion people from across the world tuned in to watch the spectacle live from London.

Dame Mary Peters nominated runner Katie Kirk for the honour. The passing of the torch from some of the UK's most successful Olympians to the young athletes was a symbolic gesture to inspire a generation. Giant's Causeway The show which was directed by the Oscar-winning film director, Danny Boyle, cost around £27m. Image caption Bangor musician Alex Trimble, from Two Door Cinema Club, sang as the cauldron was lit Nine local schools also took part, forming a Guard of Honour for nine international teams. Bangor musician Alex Trimble, from Two Door Cinema Club, performed during the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. A track called I heard Wonders, by Belfast-born music producer and DJ David Holmes, was played during the final stage of the torch relay and he later expressed his appreciation by contacting Danny Boyle on Twitter. He tweeted: "thank you for using my track in your amazing ceremony danny! it was a lovely surprise! and a great honour sir! one love!". A group of Northern Irish youngsters appeared in a video that formed part of the opening sequence of the ceremony. The Phil Kids' Choir were filmed at the Giant's Causeway for part of a montage of singers from around the UK.

The group performed the popular song Danny Boy. Part of the ceremony charted Great Britain's rise during the industrial revolution, with Belfast-born actor Kenneth Branagh playing the leading role. Branagh played Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the ceremony, speaking Caliban's lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest. "Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises..." Brunel was world-leading engineer of railways, steamships, bridges, and tunnels. Image caption Lynne McDowell from Ahoghill performed at the ceremony. Ahoghill dancer Lynne McDowell, from Ahoghill in County Antrim, participated in the ceremony in a segment charting British music through the generations. The communications manager was one of thousands of volunteer performers who spent about 150 hours in rehearsals for the performance. Afterwards, Ms McDowell said: "Performing at the opening ceremony was an experience like no other. It was a real dream come true." Fourteen athletes from Northern Ireland will be competing for Team Ireland. They were led into the stadium by boxer Katie Taylor. Team GB was led into the stadium to huge applause by Sir Chris Hoy. Around half of Team GB's 514 members took part in the ceremony.

Some of the local members of Team GB include rower Alan Campbell, Peter and Richard Chambers, table tennis player Na Liu, hockey player Iain Lewers and cyclist Wendy Houvenaghel. Image caption Team Ireland enter the Olympic Stadium during the Opening Ceremony. Nine local schools also struck gold with the chance to join in the celebrations by forming a Guard of Honour for teams of athletes en route to Olympic Park. Sri Lanka - St Patrick's and St Brigid's Primary School. Suriname - St Catherine's College, Armagh. Swaziland - Ballee Community High School, Ballymena. Sweden - Christ the Redeemer Primary School, Belfast. Philippines - Dundonald Primary School. Jordan - Belfast Boy's Middle School. Jordan - Oakgrove Integrated College, Derry. Kuwait/Saudi Arabia - Park Hall integrated College, Antrim. Philippines - Orangefield High School, Belfast. Fionnuala McGrath, PE teacher at St. Catherine's College, Armagh said the evening had been a dream come true. "Mary Peters is the reason I became a PE teacher, when I watched her in 1972 I knew I just had to do that.

I hope this evening will just inspire the children and leave a great sporting legacy." Peters, who won a gold medal during the Munich Olympics, is an ambassador for the 2012 Olympics. Pupils from Ballee Community High School in Ballymena had also been learning some traditional greetings from Swaziland so they could welcome the athletes they are supporting. Image caption Team GB arrive in the Olympic Stadium. In London's Hyde Park, a concert was held celebrating music from across Great Britain. Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody took part in the concert, representing Northern Ireland. The opening ceremony was shown on big screens in Northern Ireland. Hundreds of people turned up to watch the show at Belfast City Hall and at Waterloo Place in Londonderry. The artistic director of the ceremony, Danny Boyle, has his own links to Northern Ireland. He began his career working for BBC Northern Ireland as a television producer before moving on to produce hit movies such as Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire.

Olympics 2012: 'Bloody brilliant': Critics, athletes and celebrities all hail Danny Boyle's 'amazing' Opening Ceremony | Daily Mail Online comments Danny Boyle's 'bloody brilliant' opening ceremony featuring a vast array of British stars and young talent was hailed as a triumph tonight. The event, which featured a diverse cast including James Bond star Daniel Craig and JK Rowling, soared through the history of Britain to the modern day. Wallander star Kenneth Branagh featured as the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, reading from Shakespeare's The Tempest in the historical section. Click here to watch highlights from the opening ceremony Spectacular show: Athletes, British stars and viewers at home took to Twitter to express their joy at the opening ceremony Celebration across London: Fireworks light up Tower Bridge as the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony takes place in Stratford Arriving in style: David Beckham passes under Tower Bridge driving a speedboat named 'Max Power' which carries the Olympic Torch and its torchbearer Historian Tom Holland tweeted: 'Shakespeare. Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Nimrod. Lots of Victorians in top hats. The Industrial Revolution.

If only sport was always like this.' Athletes, stars and viewers at home took to Twitter to express their delight at the 'amazing ceremony' that was also packed with music, dance and special effects. RELATED ARTICLES Share Runner Paula Radcliffe @paulajradcliffe wrote at 9pm: 'Nobody does it like Britain - nobody!' The world-wide audience was treated to a greatest hits medley of British pop over the decades with bursts of the Beatles, the Jam, Sex Pistols and Dizzee Rascal. There were also excerpts from the Kinks, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Mud's Tiger Feet before Emile Sande sang the cup final classic Abide With Me. The Morecambe-born founder of Red or Dead, designer Wayne Hemingway, said: 'It just makes me so proud. Runner Paula Radcliffe gives her verdict on the Olympic Games opening ceremony There was a lot of approval for the music playlist during the ceremony The comedy sketch involving The Queen and Daniel Craig was another favourite part of the show 'Watching it made me proud to be a Lancastrian.

Danny Boyle is from just down the road to me and so much of my life was in this, everything I believe in, the history from the industrial revolution right through to the NHS.' Hemingway added: 'The musical bit was perfection from the wit and the guts to put Tiger Feet among the Beatles and the Who and then to give pretty much the whole of Pretty Vacant. 'Normally it would be brushed over, but the punk spirit which is in Britain was written through the ceremony. 'Anyone cynical about this has no lust for life, it's just bloody brilliant. 'I don't think anyone could find a fault. He deserves a knighthood.' Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg agreed, tweeting: 'Impressive though #openingceremony in Beijing was, they didn't have any great pop music to play, did they?' The comedy sketch with James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Britain's Queen Elizabeth was a big win with the audience. In the tongue-in-cheek film Craig wears his trademark tuxedo and enters Buckingham Palace. The 86-year-old monarch with two corgis at her feet and in her cinematic debut, turns from a writing desk and says simply: 'Good evening, Mr. Bond.

Hello Mr Bond: The comedy sketch involving The Queen and Daniel Craig proved to be a big hit Secret stunt: An actor dressed to resemble Britain's Queen Elizabeth II parachutes into the stadium after the short film was played Spoonful of sugar: Actors dressed as Mary Poppins perform during the Opening Ceremony The moment drew a huge cheer from the audience, not used to seeing Her Majesty play such an informal part in proceedings, and coincides with a resurgence in the royal family's popularity following the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Doubles of Bond and the queen then parachuted from a helicopter above the stadium, built on the Olympic Park in a once derelict area of London's East End, and the national anthem sang by schoolchildren and Union flag raising followed. At 9.30pm, Gary Lineker ‏@GaryLineker tweeted: 'The Queen with James Bond was unquestionably a moment of utter genius. Take a bow Mr Boyle!' Mr Boyle, the mastermind behind the ceremony, received praise from all corners for the show with famous names tweeting their congratulations.

The official twitter account for Downing Street, @Number10gov tweeted a message from the Prime Minister reading: 'The Opening Ceremony has been a great showcase for this country. It's more proof Britain can deliver.' Television presenters Ant and Dec wrote: 'You can't not be proud to be British tonight. A triumph. Hats off to @DannyBoyleFilm.' Moment of glory: Sir Chris Hoy acts as flag bearer leading the Great Britain team A stunning array of fireworks descended as Team GB completed their tour around the stadium Rocking show: After a show packed with classic tunes from across the decades, the Arctic Monkeys gave a live performance Footballer Frank Lampard tweeted that Mr Boyle had created 'the best Olympic ceremony of all time'. Four-time Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy, the flagbearer for Team GB, also responded to good luck messages on the networking site, tweeting earlier: 'So many messages... Thank you for all the kind words. Tonight is going to be something special, hope you enjoy it!' But not all the feedback was positive with many complaining that the announcements were made in French first rather than English. Quint. S.

Henschall, from Norwich, wrote on the Mail online: 'This is meant to be London Olympics, so whats with the French commentary, why, why, why!!' James M from Devon commented: 'Tired of hearing French first, ceremony should be presented English first, when a ceremony is being held in an English speaking Country, what an insult.' Another, Dan from the UK, wrote: 'I didn't realise Britain had been conquered by Napoleon, We speak English here my announcer.' But many other viewers pointed out that all Olympic Games have used French as the first language. Novelist and journalist Tony Parsons hit back at critics: 'Sneering at the Olympics is like sneering at Christmas. Do you want to be with Danny Boyle or Mitt Romney? Time to stop synchronised moaning.' FOLLOWING THE OLYMPIC CEREMONY IN TWEETS 2pm: @DannyBoyleFilm: 'Wish me luck for tonight! #Olympics #Opening #Ceremony' 7pm: @Jeremy_Hunt: 'Tonight’s the night. The world will be blown away by Danny Boyle’s #OpeningCeremony.

I can’t wait to see it - and everyone’s reaction' 7pm: @SallyBercow: 'Surely a former Olympian will light the flame? Not that I’d object to another opportunity to ogle David Beckham, obvs :)' 7pm: @SallyBercow: 'Maybe Ronald McDonald in lycra?' 7pm: @aimee_willmott: 'The greatest show on earth starts tonight and proud to be part of it. Amazing experience, so lets bring it tomorrow!! 7pm: @JoeRoebuck: 'Just finished shaving down. Feeling ready now!' 7pm: @Amanda_Holden: 'Go @TeamGB. So excited!! At Opening ceremony with my Mum!!! #ourgreatestteam' 7.30pm: @CharlUnsworth: @LauraUnsworth4 champers is flowing.... 8pm: @LiamTancock: 'Red Arrows over the Olympic Park!!! Amazing!!! #London2012 :-)' 8pm: ‏@IAMKELLYBROOK: 'Can’t believe I’m here!!

So special can’t wait for the show' 8pm: ‏@Mo_Farah: 'So excited to watch the opening ceremony..!! Can’t believe the olympics are in my home town.!!! Shabba!!!' 8.15pm: @BeckAdlington: 'Wow the Red Arrows were amazing!!!!!!!#' 8.15pm: @HollyBleasdale: 'Watching the opening ceremony is giving me goosebumps! So proud to be British right now!!!' 8.30pm: @frankieboyle: 'A British countryside scene. Halfway through a woman walking a dog discovers a body.' 8.45pm: ‏@kylieminogue: '#olympicceremony I. CAN’T. WAIT. London is BUZZING!!!' 9pm: @paulajradcliffe: 'Nobody does it like Britain - nobody!' 9.05pm: @HollyBleasdale: 'One word!!!!

AMAZING!!!!' 9.10pm: @SallyBercow: 'Why the horse-drawn Harrods van?' 9.10pm: @EilidhChild: 'Loving flower of scotland being played at opening ceremony!! #london2012' 9.25pm: @BeckAdlington: 'Love the Queen!!! Ahhhhhh!' 9.25pm: ‏@hollywills: 'And now I’m crying!' 9.30pm: ‏@ColeenRoo: 'Goosebumps!!!!' 9.30pm: '‏@daraobriain: 'Well done, Opening Act! History shall long remember your name!' 9.30pm: ‏@GaryLineker: 'The Queen with James Bond was unquestionably a moment of utter genius. Take a bow Mr Boyle!

9.40pm: ‏@davidwalliams: 'James Bond & Her Majesty the Queen = best thing I have ever seen.' 9.30pm: @kylieminogue: '#olympicceremony AMAZING AMAZING AMAAAAAZING!!' 9.45pm: ‏@clarebalding1: 'Mr Bean is absolutely huge in China. They will love this. #2012OlympicCeremony' 10pm: ‏@CliveWoodward: 'truly great night @TeamGB and Britain #olympics so important to have your sport in Olympics - loved to have played or coached in this 10pm: @SallyBercow: ':-))) this is so fabulous! Give Danny Boyle a knighthood now. We’re all dancing round like mad things (except Mr B obvs' 10pm: @WayneRooney: 'Yes the beatles. Hope paul mc is singing later. Representing liverpool. Best band ever' 10.05pm: @laurenlaverne: 'Dear anyone who is moaning about this, Please f*** off, forever.

Love, Lauren x' 10.10pm: @DannyBoyleFilm: 'I love you all!' 10.10pm: @paulajradcliffe: Danny Boyle reminding us all what is so great about Great Britain. 10.10pm: @DannyBoyleFilm: 'Proud to be British.' 10.20pm: @WayneRooney: 'Becks smile on the boat was so funny' London 2012: breathtaking, brash and bonkers...an utterly British Olympic opening ceremony - Telegraph Olympics News London 2012: breathtaking, brash and bonkers...an utterly British Olympic opening ceremony The Olympic rings reached new heights as they were sent into space to capture the astonishing London 2012 opening ceremony.

The BBC has lost control of TV coverage of the Olympics Photo: AP Image 1 of 17 Understated: David Beckham passes under Tower Bridge driving a speedboat named 'Max Power' which carries the Olympic Torch with its torchbearer Photo: GETTY IMAGES Image 1 of 17 The Olympic rings are illuminated with pyrotechnics as they are raised above the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics Photo: AP Industrial workers in a scene during the London Olympic Games 2012 Opening Ceremony Photo: PA Image 1 of 17 Understated: David Beckham passes under Tower Bridge driving a speedboat named 'Max Power' which carries the Olympic Torch with its torchbearer Photo: GETTY IMAGES Image 1 of 17 Buzzing the tower: The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force aerobatic team fly over the stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games Photo: GETTY IMAGES Image 1 of 17 Yellow jersey: Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins rings a giant bell during the Opening Ceremony Photo: GETTY IMAGES Apparate: Harry Potter author J.K.

Rowling takes part in the opening ceremony Photo: AFP Fireworks fall from the Olympic Rings Photo: PA Performers in the role of Mary Poppins float inside the stadium Photo: GETTY Huge chimneys emerge from the ground to symbolise the industrial revolution Photo: AFP A female drummer performs Photo: AFP The Olympic rings float above artists Photo: AFP Image 1 of 17 Monarch: An actor dressed to resemble Britain's Queen Elizabeth II parachutes into the stadium Photo: AFP Risen: freshly forged Olympic rings rise into the air Photo: AFP Image 1 of 17 Ring of steel: A general view of the Opening Ceremony as artists perform a scene showing the Industrial Revolution Photo: GETTY IMAGES Glitter: Artists perform during the opening ceremony Photo: AFP By Gordon Rayner , Chief Reporter, at the Olympic Stadium 11:46PM BST 27 Jul 2012 Follow Brilliant, breathtaking, bonkers and utterly British. Danny Boyle captured the spirit, history, humour and patriotism of an expectant nation last night as he pulled off an Olympic opening ceremony like no other.

From a bucolic vision of our green and pleasant land to a riotous medley of Britpop’s greatest hits, Boyle’s tour de force was a love letter to his homeland that left 65,000 spectators choking with pride. To cap it all, London 2012 literally reached stratospheric heights as five Olympic rings were lifted by giant balloons from the stadium into space. Pity the person who has to try to better this in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Where Beijing 2008 had precision, uniformity and control, London 2012 had James Bond, 600 NHS nurses and 40 live sheep. Related Articles Cauldron designer reveals inspiration 28 Jul 2012 Boyle’s £27 million creation crackled with wit; the sight of a stadium full of people wearing 3D glasses and head-banging in time to the Sex Pistols’ Pretty Vacant was certainly not one the organisers saw coming when London was given the Games seven years ago, but it was gloriously madcap nonetheless.

Following pre-show entertainment that included a Red Arrows flypast timed at 20.12, a worldwide TV audience of up to a billion tuned in at 9pm for what promised to be the greatest show on earth. The Red Arrows flew over the stadium before the ceremony The Isles of Wonder Boyle’s Isles of Wonder theme for the evening began with a film of ships approaching the coast, played to the strains of Elgar’s Nimrod, that grabbed the audience by the heart and refused to let go. Next came a dazzlingly fast-paced journey down the Thames from its source in Kemble, Glos., to the east end of London, taking in Ratty and Mole, village cricket, rowers at Henley and the London Underground, backed by a pulsating procession of British music, from the Clash’s London Calling to the Sex Pistols and the theme from EastEnders. JK Rowling reads from Peter Pan As the countdown neared its end, a set of Olympic rings attached to four balloons were released from the top of the stadium, with a camera attached, in the hope that they would beam back pictures from the stratosphere at the end of the night.

Then, once the clock reached zero, man of the moment Bradley Wiggins, Britain’s Tour de France hero, rang Europe’s largest tuned bell, forged for the Games in Whitechapel. Not bad for starters. Bradley Wiggins rang the Europe's biggest bell to ring in the opening ceremony A green and pleasant land Danny Boyle’s decision to use live animals in a recreation of rural Britain in the early 19th century had raised eyebrows, but on the night the 40 sheep, 3 cows, 9 geese, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks and 12 horses were as well-drilled as any of the human performers. Built around a cottage with smoking chimneys, a vegetable patch and beehives, this was an unashamedly romantic view of country life, complete with cricket on the village green, a working water wheel, maypole dancers and women picking barley and kneading bread on their smallholding.

Evelyn Glennie lead an band of drummers This, said Boyle, was the Britain of Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh, where sheep obediently grazed real grass in their pen under the watchful eye of a sheepdog and a horse-drawn omnibus circled on a “road” built over the running track. Opposite the giant bell, the other end of the stadium was swallowed up by a Glastonbury-style tor, criss-crossed with pathways and with an English oak tree on its summit. Overhead, four clouds (which admittedly looked a little bit like something knocked up by the presenters of Blue Peter) were walked around the stadium by people holding their strings, and even brought that essential element of any British outdoor event, a passing shower. To ensure lumps in the throats of every corner of the United Kingdom, choirboys sang the “national anthem” of each of our four countries: Jerusalem, sung from the stadium, Londonderry Air, sung on the Giant’s Causeway, Cwm Rhondda, from Rhossili Beach and Flower of Scotland from Edinburgh Castle.

But things were about to change forever, as Kenneth Branagh appeared as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, reciting Caliban’s speech from The Tempest: “Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises.” Kenneth Branagh appeared as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Pandemonium (John Milton’s capital city of Hell) The peace and tranquility of the British countryside was shattered by the sound of 965 demonic drummers pounding a mechanical beat, led by the deaf drummer Dame Evelyn Glennie, as the industrial revolution ripped up the landscape. The 7,346sq m of real grass was stripped away piece by piece to reveal the streets of London and the River Thames. With 50 Brunels looked on approvingly, six smoking chimneys rose up to tower over the stage, beam engines pumped water out of unseen mines and the oak atop the tor was ripped from its firmament until its roots dangled in the air. Drawing heavily from Danny Boyle’s working-class Lancashire upbringing, six giant looms thrashed away, powering Victorian Britain’s economic prosperity, and operated by actors whose costumes had been “broken down” for four months to give them an authentically worn look.

Pandemonium as envisaged by Danny Boyle All around the stadium, the nation’s identity was forged in front of our eyes, from the Grimethorpe Colliery Band to Chelsea pensioners, pearly kings and queens and an army of Beatles, complete with two floating yellow submarines. Boyle’s strong Labour leanings surfaced here as he celebrated the right to protest, with appearances from Helen and Laura Pankhurst, from the great Suffragette’s family, and Jarrow Marchers, including Lizi Gray, one of their descendants. Never afraid to introduce sudden changes of mood, Boyle switched attention to a war memorial of the “Accrington Pals” battalion, wiped out in the Somme, and soldiers standing in a poppy field in the stadium. The actors on stage and the spectators in the stadium stood silently to honour sacrifices made in times of war to protect our freedom. Then came perhaps the most spectacular moment of all, as workers in a furnace produced a crucible of “molten metal”, poured down a channel and into a circular mould to forge an Olympic ring.

An Olympic ring is forged in the opening ceremony From the four corners of the stadium’s roof came four more rings to join it, which united in mid-air to form the Olympic rings which crackled and then showered sparks onto the stage below. The name’s Bond, James Bond The Queen has never made an entrance like this. In a five-minute film made in total secrecy in March, Daniel Craig’s James Bond arrived at Buckingham Palace an embarked on a secret mission in which the pair parachuted into the Olympic stadium. The Queen could then make her entrance, taking her place in the Royal Box alongside the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. 'The Queen' parachutes into the Olympic stadium Members of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force were chosen to carry the Union flag to the flagpole part-way up the grassy tor and raise it, where it will stay until the closing ceremony on August 12. The honour of singing the National Anthem was given to the Koas Signing Choir of deaf and hearing children, from a London-based charity that gets hearing-impaired children involved in the visual and performing arts.

The Queen with James Bond at Buckingham Palace Second to the Right, and straight on till morning To a live performance of his classic album Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, 600 NHS nurses and patients from London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for children were due to take over the arena. Have a Spotify account? Listen to all the songs from the opening ceremony with our playlist Boyle had decided to use his global platform to give the watching David Cameron a clear message: Hands Off Our NHS, and his decision to make such a bold statement about public services had caused nervousness at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. To their credit, however, ministers did not try to interfere, and the result was expected to be the most splendidly surreal section of the entire evening. As children bounced on 320 beds in their pyjamas, the nurses manoeuvred them into position to make the Great Ormond Street logo and to spell out NHS, with each bed appearing to be magically lit from under its sheets.

Children bounced on beds in an homage to Peter Pan Doctors and nurses jived around the beds and partied with the children, before bedtime approached, and a little boy read Peter Pan by torchlight under the covers, its words spoken by Harry Potter author JK Rowling. But his sleep was troubled as the stuff of nightmares: Captain Hook, the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cruella de Vil and Harry Potter’s nemesis, Lord Voldemort, all invaded the stadium. Would evil win out? Not when Mary Poppins is about. Children in the stadium squealed with excitement as dozens of Poppinses flew down from the roof to shoo away the nightmares with illuminated brollies. Chariots of Fire In a tribute to British cinema, the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, was hired to play the theme to Chariots of Fire as clips of all-time classics including A Matter of Life and Death, Kes, Gregory’s Girl, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Mr Bean’s Holiday were shown on screen. Mr Bean 'performed' with the Royal Symphony Orchestra Then Mr Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, was to due to appear in the orchestra.

In a superb send-up of the opening sequence of Chariots, he was to imagine himself running alongside a beach with the actor whoplayed Eric Liddell, in a sequence filmed in secret at St Andrew’s. Frankie and June say… Thanks Tim Having begun the night in the pre-industrial age, the show was due to enter the internet age. Sneak previews to journalists showed housewife Carly Enstone driving into the stadium in her Mini, grabbing her keys and her bags of groceries and let herself into her house in time to listen the The Archers. Quite what viewers in Shanghai or Vladivostok were making of it by this stage is anyone’s guess, but they were about to witness a madcap mash-up of Britain’s favourite music, television shows and films that took us from the 60s right to the present day. It began with the family inside the house gorging on a feast of telly, including Blackadder, Monty Python and Harry Hill. Even Michael Fish even made an appearance with his famously wrong reassurance that reports of hurricanes were wide of the mark.

For teenage sisters Frankie and June, played by 19-year-old Henrique Costa and 18-year-old Jasmine Breinburg, it was time for a night out. A young man who glimpsed June on the Tube picked up her lost mobile phone, and love eventually triumphed as he chased her on a full throttle musical journey through nightclubs in the 60s, 70s, 90s and today. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks all filled the stadium, and when David Bowie’s Starman came on the jukebox, spacemen with neon jet-packs soared into the air. Everyone in the stadium had been given 3D glasses for a segment of the projection show that Boyle had filmed in 3D, and Olympic volunteers conducted them in a session of synchronised head-banging to The Sex Pistols’ Pretty Vacant. Audience participation has surely never been quite so anarchic. As the girls partied, they invited their friends back home using social media, given to the world via Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the world wide web.

Then came another step-change with the Memorial Wall: ticket-holders for the opening ceremony were invited to send in pictures of loved ones who are no longer with us, which were displayed on screen as Emeli Sande sang Abide With Me and 50 dancers dramatized the struggle between life and death. Enter the Athletes Led by Greece, the birthplace of the Games, the parade of 204 nations was to be led by a placard bearer wearing a dress made up of pictures of Londoners who auditioned for the opening ceremony. A helicopter was due to drop seven billion tiny pieces of paper – one for every person on the planet – and music including the Bee Gees’ Stayin Alive was to be played at 120 beats per minute to encourage the athletes to walk a little quicker. Team GB, led by flag-bearer Sir Chris Hoy, was to feature 241 of the 542 due to compete, as some are still abroad at training camps.

Australian athletes arrive at the stadium It was to be followed by “Bike a.m.”, a parade of 75 “dove bikes” to represent the doves released at the start of the ancient Games and to celebrate Team GB’s cycling success. In typically anarchic Danny Boyle style, their musical accompaniment was provided by the Arctic Monkeys. Let the Games Begin The ceremony was due to finish with the Queen officially declaring the Games open, and the cauldron beng lit by the final torchbearers. Their identity, and the design of the cauldron, remained a closely-guarded secret even as the ceremony was underway. They would be followed by a spectacular fireworks display and a live performance by Sir Paul McCartney, singing a new song, The End, and Hey Jude. Beat that, Brazil. Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony: madcap, surreal and moving | Sport | The Guardian Olympic Stadium Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony: madcap, surreal and moving Inventive effort to tell a thousand small stories in event expected to be watched by 1 billion people worldwide A NHS themed scene from the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

Photograph: Workers' Photos /Rex Features Friday 27 July 2012 17.00 EDT First published on Friday 27 July 2012 17.00 EDT Close This article is 4 years old From a bucolic green and pleasant land via the belching chimney stacks of the Industrial Revolution to the internet age, Danny Boyle's attempt to define Britishness in the opening hour of his Olympic opening ceremony was a madcap, surreal, moving and often confounding affair. An "industrial parade" of Jarrow marchers and colliery bands, hundreds of dancing nurses accompanied by Mike Oldfield, the Queen's encounter with James Bond as well as a nightmarish sequence of childhood terrors – they all featured. When Dizzee Rascal , tiny among the armies of volunteer dancers around him, appeared to sing Bonkers at the climax of a third act that starts as a love story and becomes a riotous celebration of British music through the ages, it felt curiously appropriate. It was typical that the arrival of the head of state, usually an overblown affair, is instead preceded by a film in which the Queen met Daniel Craig's James Bond at Buckingham Palace.

Although Boyle said that he consciously avoided trying to compete with the scale of Beijing, based on the dress rehearsals this week there were moments of jaw-dropping wit and invention. But there was also an effort to tell a thousand small stories, amid a jumble of ideas that may or may not have translated to the expected international audience of up to 1 billion. One of the show's recurring themes, juxtaposing Britain's past with its present, was set in the opening two-minute film directed by Boyle and made by the BBC. It chased the Thames from its source in Gloucestershire to the heart of the stadium, to a soundtrack featuring Big Ben, the Sex Pistols, the EastEnders theme and the Clash's London Calling. The green and pleasant land set, which had already been unveiled by Boyle, with real horses tilling real soil and gangs of country folk playing cricket and football amid water wheels and cottages billowing smoke was revealed during the "pre-show" that kicked off at 8.12pm, with Hugh Edwards presenting the BBC's coverage live from the lush meadows. But after the giant bell at the end of the stadium was rung to begin the show, the pastoral atmosphere didn't last long.

The sheep and geese were herded off just before the show began to a chorus of national songs from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. And following a reprise of Jerusalem, Kenneth Branagh appeared as Isambard Kingdom Brunel to usher in the "dark satanic mills" flipside to the opening "green and pleasant" land. Once Branagh delivered Caliban's speech from the Tempest – "Be not afear'd; the isle is full of noises" – all hell broke loose. At the opening of the second act, named Pandemonium after John Milton's invented word for hell in Paradise Lost, the oak tree on Glastonbury Tor rose from the ground and hundreds of people streamed out from beneath to start dismantling the green and pleasant land. The "clouds" that were being pulled around the edge of the arena on lengths of string are packed up and put away. Amid sparks and smoke, seven huge industrial chimneys rise from the ground. Meanwhile, around the edge of the stadium on the circuit dubbed "the M25" by Boyle an "industrial parade" of Britishness past and present marched by.

This is where the Jarrow marchers and colliery bands make an appearance, accompanied by marching Chelsea Pensioners, Sergeant Pepper-era Beatles pulling inflatable yellow submarines, pearly kings and queens, and hollering newspaper vendors. At the end of the act, five flaming Olympic rings floated into view, sparks falling from the sky against the night – providing the first big photo opportunity. After the arrival of the Queen, it was time for the next act – Second on the Right and Straight on Until Morning. Boyle's homage to the NHS featured hundreds of real nurses who volunteered to be part of the 10,000 strong cast, including staff and patients from Great Ormond Street Hospital, with its links to JM Barrie, and the Harry Potter author JK Rowling reading from Peter Pan. Following a song and dance routine with nods to Benny Hill and Carry On, the kids are tucked up in bed and a nightmarish dream sequence begins – featuring child catchers, the Queen of Hearts and witches. Here, the pixellated paddles on every seat that had been used up to now to effectively turn the entire arena into a big screen came into their own as sinister blinking eyes.

Then the nurses collectively delivered a giant baby, the London Symphony Orchestra played Chariots of Fire in tribute to the British film industry and Michael Fish ushered in the next act. It was that sort of show. Who knows what they will make of it in Beijing. The final act – Frankie and June say Thanks Tim – was more straightforward. A love story set in a suburban house that pays tribute to the British inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, to a soundtrack of big British music, TV and film moments. From Gregory's Girl to Four Weddings, the Beatles to the Stones, the Jam to the Who, Monty Python to Harry Enfield and Amy Winehouse to Tinie Tempah it was a condensed greatest hits of British popular culture. Inevitably, Born Slippy also features – a nod from Underworld, who composed the score, to Boyle, who featured it on his Trainspotting soundtrack. The lights on the seats turned into graphic equalisers and spell the message: "This Is For Everybody!" Although the ceremony cost £27m, large parts of that clearly went on the technology, the flying rigs and the pyrotechnics.

Plenty of audience interaction was encouraged, perhaps in hope more than expectation given that only half the tickets available were on general sale. Stewards known as "mechanicals" encouraged the crowd to hold their pixellated paddles aloft, to stand in the appropriate places and pass large silks of blue cloth down from the top of the stands. Two hundred lucky ticketholders became part of the action, watching from a "mosh pit" and a "posh pit" at either end of the arena and waving banners and flags in an echo of Glastonbury. Boyle, who said on Friday morning that he wanted the audience to be moved as well as impressed, also built in moments of genuine reflection to the hour-long show that preceded the parade of athletes from the 204 competing nations. In one brief sequence during the Pandemonium section, first world war-style soldiers removed their hats and the only sound was a lone whistler. The crowd were motioned to stand to remember the dead "wherever they are".

At the end, as if to bring the audience down before the athletes parade, there was a moment of silence for "friends and family who can't be here tonight" and an Akram Khan dance piece to Abide With Me by Emeli Sandé. And then, after all of that, the part of the evening that Boyle insisted was the main event – the athletes' parade and the protocol of the anthems and speeches – began. And there was still Paul McCartney to come. Rick Smith of techno duo Underworld reveals how they tackled the soundtrack to the London Olympics opening ceremony – and how it left him with an 'absolutely beautiful feeling' Published: 2 Aug 2012 Robin Turner: Those who dismiss the British dance duo as stadium techno haven't been paying attention. Their ambitious projects make them a perfect fit for the Olympics opening ceremony Published: 7 Dec 2011 Richard Williams on the greatly enjoyable - and occasionally bemusing - spectacle of the first night Published: 27 Jul 2012 Seven young athletes lit the Olympic Cauldron at the end of a dazzling and very British ceremony Published: 27 Jul 2012

Question: Who played the part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony?
Answer: Kenneth Branagh