Queen, famous faces light up Olympic opening ceremony (REUTERS)

REUTERS - Seven teenagers lit the Olympic cauldron on Friday, at an opening ceremony starring the queen and seen by millions around the world, in a touching finale to a high-octane, musical celebration of British history and culture.

True to the London Games’ motto of ‘Inspire a Generation’, organisers put unknown youngsters in the global limelight rather than established sporting greats in the closing act of a madcap four hours of comedy, spectacle, noise and emotion.

“I declare open the Games of London celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the modern era,” said Queen Elizabeth, the 86-year-old monarch, followed by a fanfare and explosion of fireworks.


The ceremony on a cool, cloudy but dry London night kicks off 16 days of sporting thrills and spills up and down the country, as more than 16,000 athletes from 204 countries vie for the Holy Grail of sport – Olympic gold.

Celebrating her 60th year on the throne this year, the monarch played a starring role in a ceremony which film director Danny Boyle turned into an unabashed celebration of the host nation stamped with an unmistakeably cinematic style.

Early on in the show, which ran well over time, Her Majesty appeared in a short, tongue-in-cheek film also starring Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond.

Wearing his trademark tuxedo, 007 enters Buckingham Palace and the queen, with two corgis at her feet, turns from a writing desk and says simply: “Good evening, Mr Bond”.

The moment drew a huge cheer from the crowd, not used to seeing Her Majesty play such an informal part in proceedings, and coincided with a resurgence in the royal family’s popularity following the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Doubles of Bond and the queen then parachuted from a helicopter above the stadium, built on the Olympic Park in a once derelict area of London’s East End, before schoolchildren sang the national anthem and the Union flag was raised.


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