And so it starts…

It started with the green and pleasant land travelled past Blake’s dark satanic mills and ended up in the digital age. It’s got to be said that Danny Boyle’s attempt to share Britishness with the world in the Olympic opening ceremony was somewhat surreal and at times moving. Over all, it was rather well done.

Mixed up in the celebration of British music was some Bohemian Rhapsody, Shakespeare, quick burst of Sex Pistols, a little Mike Oldfield, Clash, Dizzy Rascal, colliery brass bands and of course Vangelis Chariots of fire made an appearance.

And then there at the end was Sir Paul…

There were distinctively British stories threaded throughout the evening. I’m not sure how much of it really translated, I got a lot of blank stares from American friends tonight at what I thought were wonderful moments.

The most emotional was during the opening act when the entire thing came to a halt for a moment, the silence broken only by a lone whistle and a call for the crowd to stand to remember the dead “wherever they are”.

At the end of the industrial revolution a forged ring lifted off the stadium floor to join four other rings floating into view to create the familiar logo with sparks raining from the sky against the night. Very, very spectacular.

Then we got the Queens arrival, typically overblown staged pieces. This time mixed with a decent dose of humour as James bond escorted her to the stadium after parachuting into the stadium from a helicopter overhead.

Danny Boyle talked of this being the story of Britishness and the recent history of the country. Knowing there was no way to compete with the Beijing opening ceremony he had the freedom to do something different, something distinctive and something that used the rich history of the country.

And using imagination and creativity by the boatload he did it. He told perhaps the most important story of the last thousand years, that of the industrial revolution and what it means to this green and pleasant land.

We had the parade of athletes, followed by the speeches and then the entry of the torch. Steve Redgrave is perhaps the ultimate British Olympian; he took the flame from David Beckham and into the stadium itself.

There has been massive speculation about who would light the flame, in the end it was done perfectly. Athletes of tomorrow, each sponsored by a British Olympic legend, lit the final cauldron.

Then it was Paul McCartney’s turn…