Britain fires up the world: London gets the 2012

 

Opening night: The organisers have promised the show will be spectacular

Sir Kenneth Branagh, dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, entered the scene reciting Caliban's speech from Shakespeare's The Tempest as some 62,000 spectators saw Boyle's spectacular Isles of Wonder unveil.

In sharp contrast, the pounding of the drums began, ushering in Britain's industrial revolution as the stadium darkened and the atmosphere changed.

Pandemonium broke out, with the peaceful countryside torn to pieces as the age of industry sprouted from the ground, with banging so loud the audience felt their seats vibrate.

A cast of hundreds swarmed on to the centre of the arena as the darker, grimier, urban landscape emerged, with giant smoking chimneys rising up from the ground.

Weather-beaten fans improvise as rain begins to fall on the Olympic Stadium ahead of the Opening Ceremony

 

Umbrellas appear throughout the stadium as heavy rain falls in East London

 

High in the sky: An aerial view of the stadium shows the presence the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London

Suddenly, everything stopped as silence descended for a moment to remember the fallen.

A poppy field was revealed at one side of the stadium as a sense of calm prevailed while the audience stood to remember the dead.

But the scene was soon swallowed up in a hive of activity.

Chelsea Pensioners, suffragettes, Jarrow marchers and a band wearing the brightly-coloured Beatles' Sgt Pepper's uniform joined the parade.

All the while the massive cast of drummers danced and beat out the music in unison.

Four giant rings started to hover and descend from the sky while another rose up from the ground to meet them in mid-air before all five burst into flames.

 

As they enter the stadium, ticketholders are greeted by England's 'Green and Pleasant Land' the starting point of Danny Boyle's Opening Ceremony extravaganza

 

Animals, including geese take to the stage against a backdrop of artificial clouds and a giant water wheel during the opening ceremony

 

Performers in costume gather on the field with animals before before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games

The darkness inside the stadium was broken by the sound of Handel, which heralded the Queen's arrival.

A fanfare played and music harked back to the Battle of Britain, while stadium spotlights strobed across the night sky.

Then the familiar sound of the James Bond theme blasted out, while bright lights turned the banks of spectators in to panels of red, white and blue.

After the Bond coup de theatre, prime ministers, presidents, US First Lady Michelle Obama, International Olympic Committee executives and spectators stood as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh accompanied IOC president Jacques Rogge into the stadium.

The Royal Navy, Army and Air Force raised the Union Flag, as the National Anthem rang out from Kaos, a singing choir for deaf and hard of hearing children.

A vigorously upbeat tone greeted hundreds of dancing nurses and their young patients on 320 luminous hospital beds in a celebration of the National Health Service.

Staff and patients from the world-famous Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) were given a special cheer as the hospital's name was spelt out by the beds.

Musician Mike Oldfield played Tubular Bells as one young girl read beneath the bedsheets in a tribute to the world of children's literature.

In a rare public appearance, Harry Potter author JK Rowling started the tale of JM Barrie's Peter Pan as Boyle's "Second to the right, and straight on 'til morning" segment got under way.

 

Performers play cricket during the Opening Ceremony pre-show

Baddies from Britain's best-loved children's books, including Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil and Lord Voldemort, threatened the stage but were quickly banished by a troupe of Mary Poppins-type characters who descended from the skies.

The giant wizard deflated and the nightmare was over as a lullaby swept over the scene.

Then a giant baby, nestling safely under cover, fell asleep.

The London Symphony Orchestra played a tribute to the British film industry with a performance of the Chariots of Fire theme, the 1981 Oscar-winning film based on the Olympic story of British athletes Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams.

A two-up two-down house was the start of the ceremony's love story featuring Frankie and June, a teenage girl getting ready for a Saturday night out.

A lost phone led to their budding romance, which was pursued through nightclubs playing music from the 1960s to today.

Some of Britain's best-loved songs, from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to Underworld's Born Slippy and Tinie Tempah's Pass Out, encapsulate each era.

 

The giant Olympic Bell strikes an imposing figure at the end of the stadium. The bell will ring during the show, marking the start of the Games

 

Clouds hover overhead as the Olympic Stadium fills with eager ticketholders

 

Showcase: Three young people in the crowd try out their 3D glasses at the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium

All partygoers were invited back to the house where Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who invented the World Wide Web, was at his keyboard.

The sentiment behind the opening ceremony appeared in giant black and white letters across the stadium audience: "This is for everyone."

A memorial wall on the stadium screens was one of the touching moments of the ceremony, showing images of spectators' loved ones who have passed away, including the late fathers of Boyle and Olympics supremo Lord Coe.

Dancers dressed in red, representing the struggle between life and death, were picked out by a spotlight in the darkness of the stadium as the clear powerful vocals of Emeli Sande pierced the air with Abide With Me.

Sir Chris Hoy, Britain's flagbearer, joined athletes from the 204 competing Olympic nations as they smiled and waved during their moment in the spotlight.

Representing the doves traditionally released at the Games to signal peace, 75 cyclists, complete with white wings, circled the stadium before one flew away.

Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys played "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" before Lord Coe took to the stage with Rogge.

After brief speeches, the Queen declared the 30th Olympiad officially open.

Let the Games begin!

 

Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge take in the pre-show after arriving at the Opening Ceremony

Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor get into the festive spirit, while director Danny Boyle addresses the 70,000 audience members inside the stadium

 

Performers in period costume as nurses pose as they arrive for the Opening Ceremony

 

All creatures great and small: Performers, human and animal, get into position for the start of the Opening Ceremony

THE MOST STAR-STUDDED SPORTS STADIUM IN HISTORY

By PAUL HARRIS

First came the glitter – a sparkling array of celebrities and notables lending their patronage to the Games.

Then came the Twitter – a stream of tweets from stars who turned out to witness or take part in the event dubbed the greatest show on earth.

With an extraordinary mix of royalty, showbiz, VIPs, world leaders and ordinary folk, the opening ceremony for London 2012 created possibly the most star-studded sports stadium Britain has ever seen.

And somewhere in the crowd or on set here, of course, were some of our greatest athletes, medal winners and Olympians of past and present games – plus many, it is safe to assume – with a place in the future.

Spectators with particular sporting or celebrity heroes might just as well have come along with an I-Spy book to tick them off. 

Stars like celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal were identified sitting randomly in the crowd, either picked out by TV cameras or declaring their presence on Twitter. 

But it was Rowan Atkinson, playing bumbling Mr Bean haplessly playing a white keyboard, who got the stadium rocking with laughter. 

In a surprise spoof kept secret until the last moment, he created comic havoc as Sir Simon Rattle conducted the theme from Chariots of Fire. Earlier, Sir 

Kenneth Branagh and JK Rowling made leading appearances. 

Unfathomably, the programme notes for the Harry Potter author, who read from the opening of Peter Pan, declared her to be ‘a great philanthropist, praised by the Government as a tax angel – one of the few who willingly pays her tax bill’.

Perhaps it was a reminder of how much all this was costing the taxpayer, someone observed.

But bitterness about the cost of staging the Olympics quickly evaporated last night, at least in the 71,000 seats inside the £486million stadium.

Richard E Grant, the first half of movie duo Withnail and I, was among the earliest celebrity guests to fill one, wearing a Union Flag scarf. He also figured among the earliest tweeters. 

Two days ago he had told followers: ‘The Olympics will be fine – moaning is just the British way.’ Yesterday he confessed he had been given tickets to the opening by BA, for whom he made a short film to be screened at the ceremony. All around the stadium, athletes and stars rubbed shoulders. Paralympic basketball player and television presenter Ade Adepitan tweeted excitedly: ‘Look who’s sitting next to me. Stephen Hawking and Ronnie Wood!’

Meanwhile for double gold winning decathlete Daley Thompson it was ‘after kids, the best day ever’, according to his tweet.

Elsewhere, the stars of Downton Abbey tweeted a photograph of themselves outside the Olympic stadium after securing VIP tickets.

Actor Hugh Bonneville, who plays the Earl of Grantham in the BBC show, tweeted: ‘Team #DowntonAbbey invade the Olympic Park. He was joined by his glamorous co-stars, including Amy Nuttall, who plays maid Ethel Parks on the show, and Sophie McShera, who plays kitchen maid Daisy Mason.

At least 100 heads of state have been invited during the fortnight.

Yet celebrity counts for nothing when you’re slanted against the pouring rain and wearing a see-through plastic-bag poncho, issued by stewards when the rain, inevitably, came pouring down. Only those under cover in the upper levels escaped the indignity.   

But those who paid a symbolic £2,012 for a ticket might have wondered if it was value for money, even if it did produce a receipt worth framing. 

Spectators who paid far less – some as little as £150 – got almost as good a view from the cheap seats.

But even from the trackside front row, it was possible to see a great deal of the action. Four huge screens filled in the gaps. 

Last night most commentators appeared to declare the opening ceremony a success. But – as creator Danny Boyle told us – you had to remember it was only the warm-up act to what is about to follow.

 – Beijing boasted a modest 86 in 2008.

Supporting Team GB: Spectators adorned with with the Union Jack flags pose in the Olympic Park prior to the start of the ceremony

 

Ready, steady, go!: Crowds start to arrive in Stratford shortly after 5, ahead of the Opening Ceremony tonight

 

Buzzing: The first audience members to arrive get a glimpse of the Olympic Stadium. A thick throng of people has already assembled at the Olympic Park more than two hours before the Opening Ceremony is scheduled to begin

 

Early birds are being allowed entry into the park, but they'll have to wait before they can take their seats for the big show

 

Audience members will be joined in the Olympic Stadium by hundreds of high-profile guests including Michelle Obama, David Cameron and The Royal Family, as well as hundreds of foreign officials and celebrities

 

Crowds pour through the Olympic Park as audience members start to fill the stadium

 

Oh look the Yanks have got there first: Ryan Musgrave of Chicago holds up a U.S. flag

 

The world gathers in Stratford: Fans from Ethiopia, draped in their country's flag arrive for the Opening Ceremony

 

U-S-A! U-S-A!: American visitors wear the stars spangled banner with pride on hats, t-shirts and even sunglasses as excitement builds in the Olympic Park

 

Costume contest: A Brazilian and a Brit compete for the most creative Opening Ceremony costume in the Olympic Park

 

An excited British fan is among the first to arrive in the stadium. Each audience member will find a Cadbury's chocolate bar and a interactive wand under their seat

 

Last minute nerves?: Opening Ceremony director Danny Boyle joins Locog chairman Sebastian Coe at a press conference today

 

Strict operations: A group of police officers gather together outside the Olympics stadium in Stratford, east London, and take security instructions from a senior policeman in plain clothes

Two officers stand guard outside a bus station in Stratford where thousands of people will be arriving throughout the course of the evening while two more PCs patrol the soaked streets around the stadium

 

Officers wait on a street outside the Olympics stadium as the final preparations for the event are put in place. There are added tensions after security blunders by G4S

 

Rain clouds hovered worryingly close to east London at 5pm today. Guests and organisers are praying Stratford stays dry tonight as the Opening Ceremony approaches

Rain seemed certain to threaten the Olympic Ceremony and looks like disrupting the start of the Games.

MeteoGroup forecaster Aisling Creevey said there was a lot of unsettled weather on the way, with the jet stream 'flinging' weather systems towards the UK.

'What’s happening is the jet stream is moving south and there’s an ‘upper low’ - low pressure in the mid atmosphere - which is bringing quite a mobile weather pattern with fronts moving through and showers.'

But she said: 'I don’t think it’s going to be as unsettled as it was.

'The last we had was very widespread, but this particular spell of unsettled weather is quite mobile, just affecting different areas at different times.'

She said Scotland and the south west were likely to see the worst of the rainy weather, with the potential for some heavy, thundery showers across Scotland.

But the weather would not be as disruptive as the last period of wet conditions, which saw flooding across many parts of the UK.

As Olympic sporting events get going in earnest over the next few days, the picture is mixed in London and the south, with drier weather conditions on Saturday and Monday, but the possibility of frequent showers on Sunday.

The wet weather is likely to hit northern areas first and then spread south, and by Wednesday, it will be unsettled everywhere.

But tonight’s opening ceremony is expected to escape the rain.

London will be most at at risk of rain during the morning and early afternoon, but experts said the showers should have cleared by 9pm