It was a night featuring the likes of James Bond escorting Queen Elizabeth to Olympic Stadium in a helicopter, Sir Paul McCartney singing a Beatles tune and David Beckham racing across the River Thames in a high powered boat carrying the Olympic flame.
Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle produced the extravaganza that featured the Industrial Revolution, lots of activity involving children, various decades of British pop culture and a decidedly entertaining performance of ‘Chariots of Fire’ by the London Symphony Orchestra and Mr. Bean.
Reaction was mixed. The British Times called it “a Masterpiece” and The Daily Telegraph said it was “brilliant, breathtaking, bonkers and utterly British.” The New York Times said, “With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric, and the frankly off-the-wall.”
Check out the very entertaining British comedian Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean below:
Photos: WENN