Day 1 - Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was created by Danny Boyle director of the academy award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.

The title is called Celebrating the Isles of Wonder.

2012 Tour 'D France winner Bradley Wiggins opens the ceremony by ringing the bell.

The ceremony starts out in the Egrarian age with green pastures.

Children's choirs from all parts of the UK sing. Jerusalem was sung in the Olympic stadium, Londonderry Air was sung in Northern Ireland, Flower of Scotland was sung in Scotland.

Kenneth Branaugh quotes from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Drummers usher in the movement from the Egrarian erea to the Industrial Revolution. Smoke Stacks rise from the ground then rings were forged by factory workers. The pastures become a map of London.
5 rings enter the stadium from the top as the smokestacks fade. They are the Olympic rings as they sparkle from above.

Daniel Craig(James Bond) and Queen Elizabeth fly into the stadium and parachute down.
The Union flag was walked down by the British Royal Navy, Army and Air Force and raised to the national anthem God Save the Queen.

The next segment is called Second to the Right - Straight on Till Morning.
Mike Oldfield plays to nurses getting children ready for bed.
The Dancers spell out GOSH and NHS which stands for Great Ormand St. Hospital and National Health Service.
JK Rowling reads from opening paragraph of Peter Pan.
As Children try to sleep english literature villians Captain Hook, Childcatcher, Cruella de Vil and Lord Voldemort haunt their dreams and are chased away by Mary Poppins.

Next the London Symphony Orchestra performs Chariots of Fire with Rowan Atkinson(Mr. Bean).

The next segment is Say Thanks to Tim where the Industrial Age becomes the Digital Age.
This segment describes the love story for the digital age between Frankie and June that includes texting, social media and going out. Children dance to 4 decades of british music.
Tim Bernes Lee who invented the world wide web thanks the crowd.

East London rapper Dizzee Rascal performs.
David Beckham carries the Olympic flame to the stadium on a speedboat.

Next is the parade of nations. The USA has 529 athletes, 268 women and 261 men. USA woman fencer Mariel Zagunis is the flagbearer. China has 383 athletes, Germany 398, Italy 286, France 337 Japan 305 and Great Britain 558 athletes.

Doves riding bicycles to the band the Artic Monkeys followed the parade of nations. A dove on a bike rises through the air.

Soccer star David Beckham hands the torch to Rower Steven Redgrave who passes the torch to 7 young british athletes who each get torches from their Olympic sponsors who are 7 british Olympians. Each of the 7 young athletes lights a copper leaf and then all 200 copper leaves light and then all of them rise up to form the cauldron in the center floor of the stadium.

Lastly, Paul McCartney sings Hey Jude.

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