After a long wait of 7 years the London 2012 Opening Ceremony took place in front of an estimated global television audience of one billion.
The show featured both British celebrities and sportspeople, it astonished with numerous surprises including Red Arrows roaring overhead to paint the town red, white and blue at 20:12, Bradley Wiggins ringing the bell to launch the ceremony, Mr Bean playing Chariots of Fire, David Beckham driving a speedboat through a firework waterfall on Tower Bridge and the biggest revelation on a night of wonder with the cauldron that was lit by seven young athletes.
A huge amount of Comments was written on British paper in reaction to it. The BBC loved it: “It was when the Queen sky-dived out of a helicopter with James Bond in her lipstream that you thought: hang on, this opening ceremony isn’t quite like the other ones I remember. Watching it as a native was a strange and, for many, an increasingly emotional experience.”
But what did commentators across the world think of director Danny Boyle’s celebration of British culture? From the United States to China, through France and Russia mass media watched and furiously tapped their reaction on social media, web magazine and newspaper. In the USA, Sarah Lyall, for The New York Times wrote : “Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is… It was neither a nostalgic sweep through the past nor a bold vision of a brave new future.
Rather, it was a sometimes slightly insane portrait of a country that has changed almost beyond measure since the last time it hosted the Games, in the grim postwar summer of 1948.” While Anthony Faiola for The Washington Post : “If the opening ceremonies of the London Games sometimes seemed like the world’s biggest inside joke, the message from Britain resonated loud and clear: We may not always be your cup of tea, but you know – and so often love – our culture nonetheless.
The themes showcased Britain, past, present and future, capturing the mind-set of a nation seeking to redefine itself through these Games after nearly a century of managed decline.
A great empire, gone. Military might, ebbing. Sense of humour, very much intact… For an audience across the Atlantic, it seemed like the rock-and-roll Olympics, an event celebrating the shared culture of the English-speaking world — so much of it thanks to these relatively tiny isles.” In Europe, several media wrote Comments to the Opening Ceremony: for Le Parisien it was “magnificent, inventive and offbeat” – even “majestic” and Anastasia Uspenskaya, BBC Russian Service, on Radio 4 said : “There is a lot of interest in Russia, of course… there is one thing Russian media likes more about London opening – it’s that unlike the robotic Beijing show, last night’s performance was what they call elegantly chaotic – which is quite an English thing.” Of course comparison was drawn between the London ceremony and the 2008 Beijing Olympics with important Comments : Zhuang Chen for BBC Chinese Service said: “Reaction from China is quite positive in general because it was broadcast live… it has become a very hot topic on China’s vibrant cyber sphere.
The Chinese official Wang Ning, director of the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, said he would give 90 out of 100 marks to Britain, which is quite high.
He liked the innovative ways to illustrate British culture, its influence and also its new image…. And also talked about by Chinese audiences was the human side of the opening ceremony, which was not that illustrated four years ago at Beijing”. The China Daily reported :”Kaleidoscopic pageant sets London Games rolling: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth declared the London Olympics open after playing a cameo role in a dazzling ceremony designed to highlight the grandeur and eccentricities of the nation that invented modern sport.” Few days ago the Artistic Director, Danny Boyle, had said : “ We’re learning our new place in the world; 100 years ago we were everything . . . but there’s a change; I hope there is an innate modesty about it as well. It’s not unspectacular or unambitious, quite the reverse.
But there is a sense of modesty about it. You have to learn your place in the world, you know.” With the London 2012 Opening Ceremony he doubtless represented, quoting BBC’s article : “A Britain as never seen before”.