London Olympics 2012

[Prospero]

Stavros -- too long? Well probably it was... but that's a subjective judgement really. Had I produced it I'd have reduced it somehat (to begin with) and changed lots of stuff. Overall i think he made it work (having missed the first hour because i was seeing a friend do a one woman theatre show). I caught up this morning on BBC 1player.

[rodinuk]

why didn't they get Sean Connery to do it.

1 - Security risk - he's a fierce advocate of Scottish independence

2 - He hasn't aged as well as HM The Queen

3 - He'd want too much money

4 - I agree that he was the definitive James Bond but time passes and Craig is a credible alternative for this century

[Prospero]

Hopefully this won't just become a debate about Bond... but I don't agree about Craig. The original Bond franchise as best exemplified by Connery had wit as well as thrills. Craig is just a dull and thuggish character. That clever balance between the adventure and the laughter has vanished.

[rodinuk]

IMHO the Arctic Monkeys were expendable

[Prospero]

Yes - though the sequence with the winged bicycles as they played Come Together was magical

Also isn't it time paul McCartney retired.

And for me, the saddest image of the night - and one that ran counter to the whole Olympic ideal - was the tragic wreck that Muhammed Ali is today. And that because of the damage wrought by the idiotic sport of boxing. So sad to see such a noble figure brought so low.

[rodinuk]

I agree about Macca but he's a Beatle so recognisable across the World I suppose.

[Stavros]

And for me, the saddest image of the night - and one that ran counter to the whole Olympic ideal - was the tragic wreck that Muhammed Ali is today. And that because of the damage wrought by the idiotic sport of boxing. So sad to see such a noble figure brought so low.

It's much worse than that -Ok so he was Cassius Clay when he won his Gold Medal, but he later spent a lot of time praising a fornicating crook called Elijah Mohamed whose organisation made common cause with the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan in its desperate attempt to stop the civil rights movement and create an Apartheid society in the US. If that isnt bad enough, he was on show shortly after the oaths taken by competitors, trainers and referees in which fairness is a key value -Muhammad Ali regularly insulted and taunted his opponents in and out of the ring, about as far as you can get from Olympic Values. He is a disgrace to sport.

One other thing: NBC who broadcast it with a time delay in the US, censored some of the sections -they did not show the reflective moment when Emeli Sande sang 'Abide with me' as images of loved ones lost since London got the games in 2007, including the victims of 7/7; they showed an interview between Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps instead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...ening-ceremony

[rodinuk]

Team GB makes a strategic decision to rest their fastest swimmer for the Men's 4x100m Freestyle swimming relay semi-final ...

....the team subsequently fails to qualify for the final.

[Prospero]

I noticed that when the Syrian Olympic Team paraded pst the BBC scarcely fond it possible to namecheck them - with otherwise a garbled mention of troubles in their country. Should Syria even be here?

[rodinuk]

The Games are a microcosm of human life, ideally they should be apolitical.

Since Syria are here it gives the team members a chance to defect