dorsetgirl

I can’t honestly say I enjoyed much of the Closing Ceremony, in fact I was totally bored after only five minutes, but I was determined to stick it out, and there were a few moments worth waiting for.

Some random outbursts:

Freddie!

Oh my god, Brian May’s gone grey! And he’s finally looking older. Until recently he’s been looking the same ever since I first saw Queen in 1974.

Eric Idle! It’s very difficult to believe that I was a child when I first saw that man on television. That song’s definitely a bit of a British icon though, and I’m pleased it was included.

Kudos to Gary Barlow for turning up and doing a good job - true professionalism.

Pleased to know that Ray Davies and Roger Daltrey can still (more or less) sing. Certainly better than Suggs or McCartney.

Russell Brand can be quite disturbingly good-looking on occasion - this was one of them. I enjoyed his performance; I didn't even know he could sing.

I’m definitely a bit old for One Direction, but I actually recognised and enjoyed their song (or songs?). I can see why they're so popular.

I've probably missed out something important - what did anyone else think of the show?

So that's that, then. Back to reality tomorrow. One of the best things about the Games, for me, has been the way it’s dominated the news. I mean, that’s actually seriously irritating when you’ve just been watching the Games for the past however many hours, but there hasn’t been a single stupid story about stupid politicians for two weeks now. I wish the BBC would keep to that from now on, and concentrate on actual news, but I don’t suppose they will.

Well. I loved the children’s choirs at the beginning. I’d been a bit worried that it would be English as opposed to British to an extent that would piss off the Scots and Welsh (and the Northern Irish, presumably? How can they be in “Team GB”?), but choirs in each country was a lovely touch.

James Bond! I was gobsmacked at Daniel Craig actually going into Buckingham Palace and coming out with the Queen. And they even got the corgis to nip at his ankles so he could smirk at them being left behind. And the idea of Queenie jumping out over the stadium made me smile.

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Whatsity: I was so totally not expecting Mr Bean. Fucking perfect. I like to think no other country would have undercut that proud Olympian moment with humour like they did there. I cracked up. What I really liked about the whole thing (well OK, I hated the last few minutes, but you can’t have everything), was that the entire ceremony was a statement about who we are. There was no way we could follow Beijing with more of the same but better, so I think it was the right decision to make it all much more personal. “This is us, this is where we came from, this is what we’ve done.” Earliest industrialisation, the NHS, Peter Pan, whatever. With a little bit of JK to remind everybody that we may be small and in some ways past our prime, but we can still do world-beating.

When they started doing the whole “iconic British” thing we were waiting for Doctor Who, and we were very pleased that we actually got the Tardis noise in there briefly. Thank you Danny for that!

I’m not particularly into David Beckham, but the guy seems genuine and I was pleased he got the job of transporting the flame down the river. He looked so proud, and rightly so.

What a great cheer when our team came into the arena! I know the BBC will do an excellent job of showing the actual events impartially (we’re very used to cheering on anyone charismatic at the front while our guy limps in tenth off-camera), but I was very pleased that they gave our team more screen time than the others in the opening ceremony, and that they got “Heroes” as their music.

And Doreen Lawrence! I very nearly cried at that moment. That was such a good thing to do; that lady truly deserves the honour.

The fireworks were good, too. Someone on Twitter said they could see them from twenty miles away.

Finally, one of the things I’d been worried about was that we would have all sorts of embarrassing has-beens singing their so-called greatest hits because someone in charge didn’t realise what year we were in. Right up to the end I thought we’d managed to avoid that but unfortunately we then got an absolute stinker, which came close to ruining the whole thing for me. I fucking loathe that song, always have done, and OK he might be rich and famous and it must be heartbreaking but surely someone could tell him that sadly for him, he just can’t sing any more?

So, once I’ve posted this I’m going to listen to a bit of Green Day to stop that awful song going round and round my brain, then I’m off to bed. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can find some gymnastics to watch.

Overall, though, congratulations to Danny Boyle. The boy done good.