The Olympic Glory Thread!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

That could be worth a look but having seen the very brief video clip of the 11 Doctors on the technical rehearsal video before it got taken down I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to buy the video just for that!

I'm not going to suddenly start watching sport every weekend but I hope the current spirit of pride in being British that the Games have brought with them will stay with us for a little while.

I'm also looking forward to carrying on my own cultural olympiad with several theatre trips in the offing.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I hope there's a decent ceremony for the opening of the Paralympics on the 29th!

I think we deserve it!

[Si Hunt]

Could they not have made the opening and closing ceremonies surround both the Olympics and Paralympics and used the £200m saved on an additional opening/closing ceremony to build a new hospital or something?

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I don't think they spent anything like that amount of money on the ceremony last night. I believe Sir Ian McKellen and most of the other performers all gave their time voluntarily.

I loved all the Tempest stuff but the sequence after the Parade of Athletes (which had massively overrun) seemed a bit long especially when we'd already had the opening speeches (well done to Philip Craven and thank goodness Seb Coe clearly had a better speech writer this time around) and the arrival of the flag carried by the under 22s wheelchair basketball team to the sound of Jupiter from the Planets (or "I vow to thee my country" if you prefer) which was probably the most moving part of the ceremony for me.

That said I was glad I waited up for the eventual arrival of the flame carried by paraplegic former royal marine and 2016 paralympic hopeful Joe Townsend on a zip wire from the Orbit.

The ceremony concluded with Beverley Knight leading a rousing chorus of "I am what I am" although if we had to have that song then I would've personally preferred to have had the Barrowman do it as I didn't like the Gospel style performance arrangement.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Two things I didn't mention one good and one not so good:

Professor Stephen Hawking also featured prominently during the ceremony.

Advert breaks - although these are obviously inevitable on a commercially funded station that's paid three times what the BBC offered to be able to broadcast the Paralympics.

[Simon R]

I bet Emili Sandi is gutted that Beverly Knight got that gig ahead of her.

[Si Hunt]

She's the voice of soul. Albeit one with no hits.

Si.

[Larry]

Two Advert breaks - although these are obviously inevitable on a commercially funded station that's paid three times what the BBC offered to be able to broadcast the Paralympics.

have to say I've not watched any of it simply because I can't stand the awful coverage by Channel 4 the constant addvert breaks are bad enough but to me the whole thing just seems so amateurish compared to the excelent coverage of the Olympics by the BBC and why are the presenters stuck in some soleless studio and not at the Olympic Park.