2012 Opening Ceremony

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Nice to see a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) over Maidenhead Bridge and Marc and Isambard's Thames Tunnel in the opening montage for the 2012 Games.

Good call Danny!

Slightly cheeky and self indulgent to have 'Danny Boy' as part of the opening musical number though.....

[JayMac]

Oooh. I say.

Sir Kenneth Branagh as IKB^▸ (Isambard Kingdom Brunel).

Is the whole opening ceremony going to be a homage to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)? 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Slightly cheeky and self indulgent to have 'Danny Boy' as part of the opening musical number though.....

However, they also featured Roy Williamson's excellent Flower of Scotland, though, to balance things a bit ... 

[Chris from Nailsea]

And, of course, from the Welsh, London 2012: Only Kids Aloud perform Cwm Rhondda 

[JayMac]

I'm pleased that as well as my hero IKB^▸ (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) being referenced, another hero of mine, Freddie Mercury has also been referenced.

Thoroughly enjoying the show. Except for the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) commentary. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

[asdfg]

Thoroughly enjoying the show. Except for the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) commentary. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

For those lucky enough to have the extra channels, no commentary on BBC Olympics 1. 

[JayMac]

PaulW2, I found BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Olympics 1 was available online late in the evening. Too late for me to stop shouting at telly imploring Trevor Nelson to "shut the flip* up".



*Wasn't actually using the word "flip", using another four letter word starting with 'f'. 

[LiskeardRich]

I very much enjoyed the ceremony. I'm not so sure the Queen did, she could have at least smiled at some point!

[paul7575]

Thoroughly enjoying the show. Except for the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) commentary. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Gary Lineker on the Red Arrows?
 
"that's an unusual formation; centre forward, four outside lefts and four outside rights."

Lawrenson: 

"where's the defence?"

 

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Transport arrangements seemed to work pretty well.  A much more solid evening peak was had compared with the previous few days to get people there on time.

Getting people home, the 01:44 to Reading was a 6-car, with the additional HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services at 02:00 to Exeter and 02:30 to Cardiff Central, judging from the reservation lists, loading very well - the former departed 20 minutes late due to the overrun of the ceremony.  Additional Oxford services, calling at Slough, Maidenhead, Reading and Didcot ran at 02:15 (as a 5-car) and 02:45 (6-car).  The 03:34 stopper to Reading was the last option for people which was only a 2-car, so that may have been a little cosy, but I'd expect that most people would have been on the previous trains. 

[Ollie]

The 0334 also ended up being increased to 5. But not sure what loadings were like, as I left on the 0215.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I really enjoyed the show...good job Danny Boyle...I am guessing he is a floyd fan...did anybody spot at least two references to Pink Floyd during the show?

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

It was a first class entertaining show, far superior to the poor BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) coverage of the Thames Pageant. However on the Olympics traffic front the Oxford Mail has reported road traffic problems for Stagecoach services from Oxford to London:

Passengers on the Oxford Tube bus service to London faced delays because of Olympic traffic yesterday.Tube drivers reported changes to traffic light phasing, favouring traffic on routes from the Park Lane area, where Olympic officials are staying.Delays of about 40 minutes were reported. Transport For London monitor traffic from a central control centre and will adjust phasing times to give priority to athletes and officials. Oxford Tube will also be monitoring traffic with on-site controllers based at Victoria and other central locations, and posing updates on Twitter.

Perhaps they should be advocating travel by rail?

[JayMac]

I really enjoyed the show...good job Danny Boyle...I am guessing he is a floyd fan...did anybody spot at least two references to Pink Floyd during the show?

Yep. The flying pig at Battersea and the tick-tock, tick-tock (taken from the Floyd track 'Time') as the camera flew past Big Ben.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I really enjoyed the show...good job Danny Boyle...I am guessing he is a floyd fan...did anybody spot at least two references to Pink Floyd during the show?

Yep. The flying pig at Battersea and the tick-tock, tick-tock (taken from the Floyd track 'Time') as the camera flew past Big Ben.

Well done, BNM but with your excellent taste in music (a fellow Queen fan, IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)) I'm not suprised! Also, IIRC urban myth has it that the pig broke loose and caused problems with Air Traffic Control at Heathrow! Do you remember which Floyd album the pig was assoicated with? (No prizes, just for fun!)