Monday, 30 July 2012

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony



I know a great many people really enjoyed the Opening Ceremony last Friday night.  For me, there was so much to see and hear, and so many references to our Isles of Wonder, that it was hard to take it all in. Looking at photos in the press over the weekend I saw several things that I'd missed in the broadcast.   Some parts of the show are available for viewing and listening on the BBC's own website and on YouTube; just follow the links below.  

Benedict Cumberbatch opens BBC's London 2012 Olympics Coverage.  A very nice & rather surprising start to the BBC's Olympic coverage last Friday evening, with a lovely piece starring Benedict Cumberbatch. 
Excuse the not overly fantastic quality......


Isles of Wonder: The BBC film follows the Thames from its source in Gloucestershire, through the Cotswold Hills and into London itself. 

On the way, we encounter Ratty and Mole, from The Wind in the Willows, the Eton Boating Song, great British Olympians of the past, catch a glimpse of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, Battersea Power Station with Pink Floyd’s flying pig, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye – until we reach the Olympic Stadium itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=7tm7NWsxRRc

James Bond escorts The Queen to the London 2012 Olympic Games – BBC
Producer: Lisa Osborne, Executive Producer: Nick Brown.

Underworld - Caliban's Dream   The hauntingly beautiful music from the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron at the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. Featuring vocals from Alex Trimble, Only Men Aloud, Dockhead Choir, Elizabeth Roberts, Esme Smith and percussion by Dame Evelyn Glennie

Isles of Wonder.  The Decca recording was made available on iTunes as soon as the Ceremony finished.  Music for the Opening Ceremony features many of the 
highlights of the show, including reworked tracks by the 
Chemical Brothers, Fuck Buttons, Blanck Mass, Arctic Monkeys, Emeli Sandé 
and Mike Oldfield as well as two huge new specially commissioned pieces by 
Underworld (the fifteen minute Pandemonium section soundtrack And I Will Kiss 
and Caliban’s Dream, the musical announcement of the Olympic torch’s arrival in 
the stadium).


Making of BBC Olympics theme tune First Steps.  Elbow, the BBC Philharmonic, Gospel Choir, the Animation Studios

The BBC promotion First Steps:  the finished article.  The complete 2 mins 30 secs length BBC promo for the London 2012 Olympic Games, as discussed above



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