LONDON 2012: OPENING CEREMONY

BBC One, 10.45pm; NI, 11.15pm; Wales, 11.45pm

These past few months have made us pine for simpler, happier, halcyon summers. This trip back in time to eight years ago could be just the ticket. Relive the celebratory night when director Danny Boyle’s giddy and glorious opening ceremony, titled Isles of Wonder, took even the most optimistic Briton by surprise – and proved the curtain-raiser to a golden Games with its very own “Super Saturday”.

It’s hard now to imagine the tension as London prepared to host the Olympics. Would the event organisers deliver? Would the capital’s infrastructure hold firm? Would Team GB win anything? The answer

was a series of emphatic yeses and it started with this all-singing, alldancing, all-stirring spectacle, celebrating the best of British. A cast of thousands included Kenneth Branagh as Brunel, Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, David Beckham, Tim BernersLee, Sir Paul McCartney, dancing nurses and flying nannies. This special “director’s cut” boasts extended highlights of memorable moments – including the Athletes’ Parade, the lighting of the cauldron and, of course, “Her Majesty, the Queen” parachuting into the stadium with James

Bond. “The Greatest Show on Earth” indeed. Michael Hogan

Spark of nostalgia: Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony

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