BEVS

I'm not at all sure about the Jimmy Saville shell suit type for Team GB . I particularly didn't take to the gold bits right by the armpits.

Loved the fiery flame dance thing & think the Olympic flame cauldron is superb.

Great idea to focus more on the young up and coming.

sparkie down under

well it kept me sat at the TV for the 3 odd hours, even during the annoying ads, so it must have been something.

I loved the spectacle - in fact I wish I had been there.

And yes - the british teamware - it might just have well been a shell suit - who knows perhaps that what they were expecting.

Only down part was Maccas - -time to give up now Paul

Bo-Jangles

I thought it was all great apart from the annoying adverts and Macca. I left the room at one break and came back at the point Daniel Craig was at the Palace and thought it was still on the adverts.

I love Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and glad he got a good outing as we don't get to see him very often. I loved all the little subleties in the background, the clips from Kes and Gregory's Girl that I guess were lost on many though and I daresay much was missed by us. If there's a DVD I might buy it, if only for the soundtrack.

The gold and white blinging ABBA tracksuits, hmm yes was a bit of a shock but I have seen that get up elsewhere, maybe on David Beckham or some boyband or (c)rap group.

The only real sad act for me was Mr McCartney.

MrsFychan

I agree with the Paul McCartney comments, cringe worthy, think Elton would of been a better choice.

As for the ceremony thought it was very good with the interaction of the videos, wonder how it actually came over in the arena though?
Shame that every time they shot to the Queen she was looking miserable and think they could of got William and Harry to do something, maybe a jousting session

BEVS

Me and him rather felt that The Queen looked a bit poorly . She was rather quavery at the start of her opening words.

Catchafire

My two year old watching the ceremony

"Papa, who's that?"
"That's the Queen of England sweetheart."
"She looks grumpy!"
"She sure does."

cappuccino

I was watching it on Prime and only realized the broadcast was lagging by half an hour when my UK friends were commenting on FaceBook about things that I hadn't seen. I knew long before the end here that Maccy was gonna ruin Hey Jude!

hazeandsteve

Apparently the multi cultural society is a new thing in UK. Every camera seemed to keep zooming onto every available non white.
Also loved the bit where in reflecting on major parts of British history, the West Indian migration to UK was referred to as Trade Unionists.
Now, before you bite me, I'm not a racist. I abhorr racism in every form, and am of migrant stock to UK before I migrated here. I just think that an over emphasis on that scale is self cancelling. It's all part of history, you can't rewrite what's been and gone.
As for the rest of it, missed it. Went to a garage sale. Haze seemed unimpressed by the whole event, and got grumpy with the "watch for the surprise" commentary leading up to Mr Bean.

Expat Kiwi

forgot it was on! been on a short break up north and didn't set the planner to record.

love30stm

Arctic monkeys were good!

Jaydi

Loved the history..green and pleasant land, satanic mills etc. Brilliant..

The cauldron looked great but such a shame that an iconic feature of the games is not visible from outside the stadium. Seems people were flocking there on Saturday hoping to take photos and were searching for it in vain.

I know we can only see it on tv here but seems a bit lame to be telling Londoners that's the only way they can see it as well (unless they're lucky enough to get a ticket!)

simonsi

Same here, just seemed odd and subliminally wrong...

scrubbedexpat094

Loved it apart from Macca. Give up lad, please. Don't think Mr E John would've been any better Mrs F. His performance at Queenie's do was dire. Tom Jones would have been the best choice

I liked it when Queenie was checking her nails. So glad we were able to watch this on Sky & not on Prime with the ads

pricklykina

loved it, loved it.
Did think it was a bit English though...the scots, welsh and Northern Irish were underrepresented...apart from right at the beginning.
Sometime I generalise all that I know to be British, but actually it's English.
That aside, I loved it.

Loved that it was about the common man in GB. Not colonisation, not imperialism, not royalty but about the people we know engaging in and changing the landscape and each other. It was quirky and mental and self-deprecating and a bit grubby and was brilliant for all of that.

The music was spot on....I even forgive Macca as it's such an easy singalong song. It spoke to us brits but wondered whether it might be a bit baffling to the rest of the world.

Chris-Napier

I think it was really good, typically British! Can't imagine how long that took to plan and get together. You will never please everyone but it was a job well done. Agree with other comments about Paul Mac - he was dreadful. It was the same at the Jubilee concert. He has lost it and retire gracefully. They should have had Tom Jones - at least he can still belt them out! Saw the report about all the empty VIP seats - thousands of them! Same old story - it is the same at Wimbledon - VIP seats are never full as they are in the champers tent. About time tickets are sold to the people who are actually interested.