Let The Games Begin

A few people mentioned to me yesterday that they were nervous about the Olympic opening ceremony because they feared something was going to go horribly wrong and we would end up looking embarrassed.
All the must-be-included traditions were there, the athletes parade, raising of the Olympic flag, the speeches and the cauldron lighting which were all observed dutifully which left us to play with the rest of it as we liked.
I may have grumped since we got given the Olympics about the cost, the sponsors, VIP traffic lanes, security and the G4S security fiasco but the opening ceremony made me temporarily mislay my cynical position.
Not all of it worked but a lot of it was bonkers filled with references to things only Brits would understand. I can imagine viewers in every other country asking who the hell Michael Fish is and why is he going on about viewers phone calls but that was what made it so special. We could have had all the British standards that the viewers outside the UK expected to see but the opening ceremony is meant to celebrate the host country and Danny Boyle did that, especially the bit about the NHS which must have made the Conservatives in the crowd a bit uncomfortable.

Apparently the section about British soaps and the lesbian kiss from Brookside was broadcast on Saudi Arabian TV, the first time lesbianism has ever appeared on its screens. Ooops.
Other classic moments were the cameras catching the German dignitary seig heiling his team as they paraded by, the woman who was only supposed to walk with the Indian Team to the mouth of the tunnel and then stop but decided to hell with that and carried on with them around the stadium which led to the commentators stumbling over just who the woman was.
The inspired idea of getting unknown young athletes who's glory days are yet to arrive light the flame and the amazing idea of the flame itself comprising of many smaller flames which lifted up to make one large one.
Wheeling out Macca at the end was a mistake and obviously there were some bits that didn't quite work but that just sums up Britain perfectly, a mixture of the brilliant and inspired and the downright awful.