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Ongoing chat.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 30 Jul 12 at 01:31
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Why announcements are made in French before English??
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Because the French can't master football.
Nice of them to sponsor a drivers of a certain German car manufacturer with car lanes or three weeks though. Not BMW, I was thinking the Audi ringed lanes.
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>>Hope they cleared the rights to the Potter characters
I'd suggest that's a given since Joanne Rowling was reading a bit of J.M.Barrie.
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The question also included Mary Poppins as a question of getting rights. I'm sure they are not that stupid.
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The very first bit was technically interesting and quite spectacular, but it was pretty obvious that the director of the show was pushing his own multiculturist agenda at the expense of everything else..
The hospital bed stuff was mawkish in the extreme.
Embarrassing stuff.
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>> The very first bit was technically interesting and quite spectacular, but it was pretty obvious
>> that the director of the show was pushing his own multiculturist agenda at the expense
>> of everything else..
Multiculturalism? at a global event? How inappropriate.
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I thought it was rather good... promoting the UK etc. Better than some other opening ceremonies but then I could relate to more of this one.
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And it's looking interesting after the boring bit.
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Why does Seb Coe remind me of Harry Enfield's Toryboy???
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Lots of comments on Twitter suggesting Boyle has put a socialist tint on events - lots of focus on industry, NHS, etc.
Being based in London, no mention of their big industry - Banks and Finance. Wonder why??
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I like the cauldron, thats clever and artistic.
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Agreed, very well done - and now Pink Floyd! Brilliant!
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Well we should have won our first Gold medal - in tedious tripe! and to think I bought three lottery tickets to help fund it!! - No wonder "Her Maj" didn`t look amused and Philip seemed to fall asleep!
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We will see what the world thinks tomorrow or so. Perhaps it will understand the ceremony better than we did.
Zero's description of the dress rehearsal wasn't bad at all. The first hour had me riveted and frequently rolling on the floor with laughter, but moved too, a bit. Kenneth Branagh as I K Brunel declaiming a Shakespeare soliloquy... just fabulous. And fairly demented.
Popular history in two takes: pastoral Britain without Norman lords or Robin Hood, followed by the industrial revolution and the proletarianization of the peasantry... a bit elided really but there was only an hour before the endless parade. But apart from the screamingly funny clips, references and asides, what about the special effects, from bleating meadows to dark satanic mills in two minutes... where did those factory chimneys come from? Fabulous.
Very sporting indeed of the monarch to agree to act (only one short line, 'Good evening Mr Bond'), but walking down the corridor with him and the corgis and allowing a substitute to jump out of the helicopter and pretend to parachute down into the stadium. Very sporting indeed. My son-in-law was in the camera crew for that bit and I have had a hard time keeping shtum here.
We will see what the world thinks. Hope it liked it. The naff schlock music culminating in Sir Ken Dodd mumbling Hey Jude will probably have kept it happy.
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Well, I stayed up until 1am to watch it, and I feel it was well worth it.
I was up again at 2.45am so it's bleary eyed today.
Something we should all be proud of, apart from Paul McCartney singing totally out of tune.
Pat
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Watched it last night on a big screen with about 3000 other people at a "party in the park". The industrial revolution part lost much of its impact on TV as the sheer depth of the noise and the ability to see it in scale.
As I said, it was a curates egg, swinging wildly from brilliant to dumb.
Pau Mc should be put out to grass tho
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 28 Jul 12 at 07:45
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We loved it, especially the first hour. Evelyn Glennie leading the drumming was fabulous, and as AC notes, the pastoral-to-industrial transition was superbly done. And I thought the hospital beds and dancing nurses were entirely appropriate: Britain led the world on providing free health care too, so why not celebrate that - and remind a watching PM of its value at the same time?
The procession was, inevitably, far too long, although of course, if one athlete deserves to be seen, they all do. We passed the time by grading their uniforms; my favourites were the flowing white of Nigeria and the amazing fiesta colours of Mexico. We awarded two wooden spoons: Canada, for ill-fitting beige chinos and red blousons with 'Canada' on them, and Poland, for not realizing that a parade of white skirts graduated to red looked like the result of a hideous gynaecological accident.
Post-procession, it got a little disjointed, cramming in the Arctic Monkeys and Paul McCartney for no obvious reason, but the cauldron design was stunning, and the humility of the Olympic heroes in nominating young athletes to light it in their place was striking too.
Overall, too long but a tremendous piece of theatre - and not a red bus or a jolly policeman in sight. Bravo!
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What about the Czech Rep.'s wellies ?
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Redeemed by their matching sparkly blue umbrellas. I wondered if it was a sly dig at the British weather.
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>> Something we should all be proud of, apart from Paul McCartney singing totally out of
>> tune.
>>
If one good thing comes out of the Olympics it'll be Macca's realisation that he's past it.
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I didn't see it from the start, but as soon as they showed the beds I retired to mine.
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The War cropped up several times in several places, but I think we got away with it
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i missed it last night after working for the afore mentioned games, so what's the verdict worth watching the highlights?
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Some good photos in the Mail, who liked it: tinyurl.com/bog9zs7
I should think that whoever took the decision to hire Danny Boyle is pretty happy; and relieved.
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>>Danny Boyle is pretty happy; and relieved. - As well!!
Every time I hear his name I want to burst into song! - the pipes must be calling!
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er, difficult to say. I think it would have been good being there but it was all a bit odd really.
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I thought it was fantastic and well worth staying up for.
Made me proud to be British
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I had to bail out halfway through the parade. Nagged myself into fielding a squillion unanswered work emails :-(
Up until then there had been no sign of Boris. Did he turn up at any point?
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You one of the "blue" teams? We have your mob doing security at my venue
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Yes doing security, but we aren't at any venue. Hope our mob are doing the business at your venue.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sat 28 Jul 12 at 11:25
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Yea doing a good job -all cheerful apart from one who looks and acts like he's had his stripes taken away -miserable sod
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Good to hear, well there's always one!
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The old girl and I watched it through to the end and mostly enjoyed it. Highlights for me were the chimneys rising and the parade of nations. We had a little guessing game to name the next country in the queue. Some were not so obvious.....a few new names there.
The display of photos of the 7/7 victims was poignant. The raising of the flames to become one big one was clever and stunning.
Not too keen on McCartney or the hospital scene but the carrying in of the flag by Bank Y Moon, Chakrabati, Barenboim, etc was interesting.
Treated mesen to a small Ardbeg at 0100hrs and went to bobos.
Ted
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>>>Highlights for me were the chimneys rising<<<
Brings back memories ? :)
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>> worth watching the highlights?
Mail's picture highlights here: tinyurl.com/csecbr9
(not the same as previous link I posted)
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A surprise after Boyle's films. He must have been inspired by the 2001 "Moulin Rouge" with its overpowering music and over-fast, over-rich, over-many flashy scenes and images, all confusing aurally and visually. In addition, I couldn't see why so much time proportionally was spent on the NHS and I am waiting for someone to assure me that the cheap gimmick featuring the Queen used a lookalike for her.
Yet looking at the huge scale of the production, I am full of admiration for the direction, production and sheer management of such a large cast and so many sets. I would like to see a documentary devoted to the logistics of getting all of the people and kit into the right places and on cue. Oh, and Boyle and his team switched to managing the economy.
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They reckon 26.9 Million watched it last night, how do they calculate the figures?
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>> They reckon 26.9 Million watched it last night, how do they calculate the figures?
Don't they just have a statistically significant number of boxes in homes which record who's watching what, then extrapolate?
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Possibly use "spy-tactics", thats why I took the telephone line out of mine! ;-)
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How did those drummers manage to keep going for so long, or were they rested/replaced off camera and how did they manage to co-ordinate them all in the same rhythm?
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How did the whole thing work without any obvious hitches (ok a few of the ballons didn't pop during the countdown, but that's nitpicking). The logistics are mind-boggling.
Last edited by: Focus on Sat 28 Jul 12 at 14:29
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>> How did the whole thing work without any obvious hitches
Yes, it was brilliant, but people need to remember that movies involve a lot of skilful faking - no one thinks those factory chimneys were really made of stone surely? - and a director who is good at crowd scenes, apart from using lots of cameras, is going to be able to improvise a lot in the editing phase, using anything that seems to work and abandoning the rest.
Ever since March I have been worrying that the famous Queen/James Bond sequence might end on the cutting-room floor as a result of second thoughts from the powers that be. My son-in-law had been quite surprised when told to turn up for work in a suit with collar and tie: real feature-film camera crew do work which is artistic and highly skilled, but also involves humping a lot of heavy gear around, so normally dress like manual workers. He said the corgis had been very good and well-behaved... I hope people noticed two of them on the palace step gazing longingly up at the departing helicopter? The SiL is shooting a movie in Hungary at the moment, but has been rewarded with paddock and pit passes for the Hungaroring this weekend, being a true and genuine car freak. May the right guys win!
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>> Yes, it was brilliant, but people need to remember that movies involve a lot of
>> skilful faking
But not 'live', that's what was so impressive.
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>> But not 'live', that's what was so impressive.
I agree Focus, he got away with it in no uncertain fashion. Even so some of the sequences had been shot in advance, but choosing which bit of image to use at which moment, sewing the live stuff and recorded clips and asides together on the hoof so to speak, verged on genius I thought.
Apart from the nazi MP for Cannock, who has incensed his constituents by making curmudgeonly remarks, a bien-pensat intellectual of my close acquaintance scowled throughout, said it was ghastly and eventually complained that 'there wasn't any cricket before the industrial revolution'. My impression is that there was, actually, although to different rules. But in any case that wasn't the only anachronism in the piece by any means. They were obviously deliberate, done to squeeze a version of our social history into an hour and a bit, and only a po-faced dunderhead would give a flying stuff.
Yes, it was weird, but it wasn't nasty, and we are a bit weird after all. Or so the foreigners keep telling us.
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>> >> But not 'live', that's what was so impressive.
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>> I agree Focus, he got away with it in no uncertain fashion.
Mrs F was watching an interview with one of the participants this morning (I think it was 'This Morning', funnily enough) and they said they'd rehearsed it 200 times. By the time it came to the actual performance they could do it on auto.
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>> said they'd rehearsed it 200 times. By the time it came to the actual performance they could do it on auto.
Yup yup yup.
I understand even the monarch had to do a couple of takes.
Old joke of mine:
'Great, brilliant, wonderful, almost perfect in fact. But just in case, your Majesty/Excellency/Holiness...' (strike out titles that do not apply) '... would you mind awfully falling down the long stone staircase again?'
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>> (I think it was 'This Morning', funnily enough)
(Actually having looked at the TV listings I don't know what it was; possibly BBC Olympic Breakfast. She's away at the moment on family business.)
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I guess on the whole it was easier to watch than Danny Boyle's last film "127 hours". Nobody had to cut their arm off with a blunt knife to get away.
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>> that's what was so impressive.
We weren't able to watch it last night, but from what we've heard from others it was truly spectacular. Mrs CS has it taped, so I'll be opening a bottle of Merlot within the next hour or so.
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>> Nobody had to cut their arm off with a blunt knife to get away.
Hopefully no drinking of urine either.
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Certainly not - Coca Cola only.
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Other beverages are allowed. Fanta ® for example
® The Coca Cola Company
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If you really fancy urine there is of course Heineken. It's pretty similar.
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It's bit warm sir, but there's a lovely head on it...
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I thought the ceremony was brilliant, but McCartney was an anti climax after the lighting of the torch and the fireworks.
The blue neon boat powering up the Thames was beautiful and inspired.
I think it's amazing how they can get such a large operation to work so well.
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Mrs L and I loved the opening ceremony. We were worried beforehand that it might be a damp squib, but we very pleasantly surprised. Wasn't it great that it included some humour? It would have been a bit too pompous to take itself too seriously all the time.
We were treated to a special prelude as well. Shortly after the Red Arrows flew over the stadium I head a distant roar getting closer. I went into the garden to be treated to the stirring sight of 9 Red Aircraft flying not more than 200 yards away. They passed with an exciting roar and I felt 11 years old again.
Being an old softie, the part where the individual petals containing the Olympic flame rose up to become one united flame had me in bits on the floor.
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First one I've ever watched - after I taped it. Yes the VCR is still in service.
I thought Brunel was traduced. He wasn't a capitalist hyena, he was an infrastructure man. And, coincidentally, eventually done over by swindling business partners. Also his cigar wasn't big enough and his hat wasn't tall enough - he wore a 'stovepipe' because he was very little. I guess his ego and Branagh's were pretty much on a par though.
Other than that, what I understood of it seemed pretty good to me and a masterpiece of organisation. I never believed that in the history of the universe there would ever be a time when I thought Mr Bean's presence would be appropriate, but I think it worked. The rest of the world doesn't understand how we take the wee, but even the French think he's funny.
Simon Rattle made me feel a bit ancient. I remember seeing him conduct the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra well over 30 years ago and saying 'he seems promising'.
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Sat 28 Jul 12 at 17:45
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Smelting Olympic rings and the petals forming the Olympic flame were the best bits.
As to the GB team during the opening ceremony. What a bunch of chavs. Mind you it is a British modern trait. Apart from the welly wearers, they were the most poorly dressed athletes there. Dressed like ordinary chav folk on a day out. Just missing the baseball caps to round it off. Why couldn't they be kitted out like many others in nice suits etc. The host nation as well. A black mark against an otherwise okay opening ceremony.
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I enjoyed it very much overall. I was amazed that nothing appeared to go wrong with the huge amounts of technical stuff - the chimneys, the 20 + flying Mary Poppins, the big ring being raised to meet the other 4 - truly amazing. I am not overly bothered about any political slant on the events, it was quirky, entertaining and brilliantly produced, managed and delivered IMO.
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>> What a bunch of chavs. Mind you it is a British modern trait. Apart from the welly wearers, they were the most poorly dressed athletes there.
Well, we know whose side you aren't on X.
"Nice suits" indeed. What's wrong with a lot of winsome blondes waving at the camera and yipping Hello Mum?
Obviously you'd have preferred it if they all had identical scowls and were goose-stepping in exact time.
I have sometimes thought you might be all right in a dumb sort of way, but you are back in my bad books for the moment. Don't bother to tell me you don't care. I know. It's your right after all.
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He's right though AC - they looked as if TKMaxx or Matilan were sponsoring them somehow...:-)
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To tell the truth I wasn't too keen on the sub-Michael Jackson gear. Those damn McCartneys have a lot to answer for, those who can manage more than a croak...
Even so, 'chavs'? Ought to be on the swear filter.
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It's only clothes A.C.We enjoyed the show what a performance.Diana turned the telly off when Paul came on.She says he can't sing.>;)
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Hmmmm, 63 posts on the opening ceremony and no mention of sport at all.
Great road race today, shame GB couldn't get a medal but a cracking event with a terrific atmosphere.
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Be fair - there hasn't been any sport to speak of yet - apart from low grade football for which they couldn't sell many tickets or even give them away
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Sport? What that?
Oh yeah, there is some running and jumping and posturing promised. I'd forgotten.
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>> Oh yeah, there is some running and jumping and posturing promised. I'd forgotten.
And you can go and support Meldrew in his discussion with the judo players :)
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>> Be fair - there hasn't been any sport to speak of yet
Try telling some of the judo players that :)
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Yeah, shame the GB team went from being the team in control and virtually guaranteed gold to not even being in the final sprint(s). Good interview with David Millar later, who kept a stiff upper lip and agreed that it was pretty much UK vs. the world. It's frightening the speeds they go - on the flat, never mind coming down Box Hill.
Lots of other events live on iPlayer - I was watching Judo on the laptop while the cycling was on TV.
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>> Good interview with David Millar later,
>> who kept a stiff upper lip and agreed that it was pretty much UK vs.
>> the world.
Oh dear - just caught a bit of BBC news showing a post race interview with an upset Cavendish, where he told the interviewer to 'stop asking stupid questions'. He only said what we're all often thinking :)
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>> Hmmmm, 63 posts on the opening ceremony and no mention of sport at all.
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>> Great road race today, shame GB couldn't get a medal but a cracking event with
>> a terrific atmosphere.
Suspect they'd hoped for more co-operation from others. Lack of team structure, or indeed teams of any kind for some nations, stymied that.
Let's see how the ladies do tomorrow.
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Watched almost all the rowing on the Internet - net book with VGA cable to tv and sound on iPod dock. I couldn't bear the bbc1 talking heads, the jumping around from one thing to another and the moronic jake humphreys doing pointless time wasting on a bike among other non-expert time wasters. The rowing coverage was good on the dedicated stream and I might do likewise tomorrow.
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Oxbridge bumps - between the colleges - used to be quite fun. In my day people rode bikes along the towpath shouting things like 'Well rowed, Nose!' and firing blanks from old service Webley .45s before, from time to time, riding into the river in the general excitement.
I bet the Webleys are banned these days. Everything gets worse as you age.
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>> Oxbridge bumps - between the colleges - used to be quite fun.
>> In my day people rode bikes along the towpath shouting things like 'Well rowed, Nose!' and firing blanks from old service Webley .45s before, from time to time, riding into the river in the general excitement.
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>> I bet the Webleys are banned these days. Everything gets worse as you age.
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Yes Torpids and eights are still entertaining. Bikes on the towparth are a real hazard.
They still use a canon to start the Torpids. There was some irate "local?" yelling across the river threatening that she would complain further cos she claimed the noise of the canon was afecting foaling. The polite responses included " Maam this has been going on for xx years and the last canon will be at 1800 and we then all go away. So still lots of fun!
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Haven't been to college bumps on the Cam for nearly 10 yrs since sprog left, but the atmosphere was still good, as it is for town bumps which I go over for the odd evening of if I can.
No shooting though. Apart from the little cannon at the start which they now let off more or less under the A14 bridge.
College bumps are usually more entertaining as the standard is so variable - most being not that good. Daughter took up rowing in her second year, when she realised she wasn't going to be chucked out and relaxed a bit academically. After 6 weeks she was very proud that they had got all 8 crew rowing at the same time without the boat capsizing or hitting the bank. It helped that they had shortly before then swapped the cox, also a novice, who it turned out had a left/right confusion problem.
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Re. the cycling: if I'd been in charge of 'security' I'd have been having kittens - all that opportunity for some nutter to cause chaos, or worse, but all that happened (from what I saw) was a dog running into a gap between the riders. Perhaps there's hope for the human race after all.
Last edited by: Focus on Sat 28 Jul 12 at 20:11
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The road race looked great on the TV, real "Le Tour" levels of enthusiasm, and my missus said the atmosphere on the ground was fabulous.
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Probably helped that they got to see the riders 9 times!
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Watching the swimming I was hoping for a medal from the GB girl.
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>> The road race looked great on the TV, real "Le Tour" levels of enthusiasm, and
>> my missus said the atmosphere on the ground was fabulous.
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I was not able to see the early part over Hampton Court Bridge but did see them coming through the Scilly Isles at Esher.
I had to time my visit with minimum "out of house" time as SWMbO is recovering from a planned new knee so I am chief cook n bottle washer.
Just as well I went with a pair of steps under arm as the crowds were certainly xx deep all along the route
Even some of the BiB on their bikes were joining in. Riding slowly with a hand out to touch the outstretched hands and getting a big cheer for it. Great stuff.
It seemed strange strolling along a deserted Kingston Bypass dual carriageway on a sunny afternoon and no cars just bikes.
I know the Box Hill circuit very well and it was good to see it from the air.
Loved watching them hammering thrugh the golf course but I wonder what other countries though was going on with no spectators on much of the climb of Box Hill. I thought it was a unique sight of the riders alone in the lush green countryside.
TV helis need training by the French and I missed the timing gaps from GPS.
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>> TV helis need training by the French and I missed the timing gaps from GPS.
The BBC commentators kept mentioning the lack of info available to them; don't know if that was a fault or lack of planning/experience.
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Out all day but Mrs C wanted to see the cycling when we got in at 5. Thought it would be easy to find. No chance. Not shown anywhere. Thought that with the 25 new channels Virgin gave us one would be highlights. No. So tried virgin catchup. Nothing. Eventually found it on BBC iplayer, which the BBC of course won't let you stream to the tv from the iPad.
Managed a cobbled up solution in manky vision in the end, but not impressed at all.
And we didn't win.
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My wife's friend is Fran Halsall's mum. Just for a bit of tenuosity... ( she's a swimmer by the way ) came 2nd this morning but only managed 7th in the womens 100m butterfly tonight.
For a little bit of context, I'm not a bad swimmer and indeed last time I checked I'm a bloke. Did a bit of club stuff years ago. Fran's time for 100m butterfly is quicker than I've ever achieved for the same distance freestyle !
Fit chaps and chapesses this lot !
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Holland a silver on the relay.The last Dutch swimmer had to much to make up on the Australians.For a small country well done.>:)
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>> Fit chaps and chapesses this lot !
I'm sure I've bored you with this before...
When I used to do 'early bird' swimming at Bracknell sports centre (after my morning run), us mortals would use the warmer pool while Bracknell swimming club used the cooler pool (both 25m).
Sometimes local resident Sharon Davies dropped in, as she knew the Bracknell coach I think. One morning I was the first early birder in, and Shazzer was doing some lengths in the warm pool. So for a short time it was just me and her in the pool!
I'm not a great swimmer, but was certainly pretty fit then. I wasn't surprised I couldn't keep up with her, but it was a bit embarrassing that while I was doing front crawl, she was only doing leg kicks.
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Yep, different animals these guys and girls. Whole other level.
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If you go to the Radio Times TV Listings page
www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings
and set 'My channels...' to Freeview, you get a load of 'BBC Olympics X' and 'BBC Olympics X HD' channels, where X = 1..24 (in addition to BBC1/2/3).
But if you select 'Apply changes' then click on the channel titles at the left hand side of the page, they all say 'Freeview 101', although the Virgin/Sky channel numbers differ. Freeview 101 is Teletext Holidays (and I've just done a retune).
Am I missing something, specifically 48 channels of Olympics coverage?
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Certainly are 48 channels extra on virgin, 24 really, sd and hd. I only knew cos I saw it on a forum and went looking. Currently on 555, live vaulting. Weird.
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Freesat is the place to go, click on the EPG, a whole new section has been added "BBC Olympics" click on that and bingo all the BBC Olympic channels to there to watch.
None of this retune merde.
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I'd still like to know what Radio Times is getting at though - are they on Freeview or not? I suspect not, but then why are they implying they are?
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Electronic Programme Guide.
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More rings than Del Monte.....Olympics vol 5. - movilogo
