London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder

The organisers of the London 2012 had a problem and it has been over 30 years in the making.

Ever since Moscow 1980 when you had all the choreographed banner changing and then LA 1984 when it went all space age. The opening ceremonies have become grander and wildly more expensive culminating in Beijing 2008 with the money no object even though part of the country is backwards and underdeveloped with people starving.

London 2012 had an Oscar winning director leading a creative team and a wildly cut down budget and a seismic creative shift from the past.

What we had was a history of Britain moving from its agrarian past into the Industrial Revolution to the rise of social welfare including the NHS, celebration of arts and culture and leading into the computer age.

We had Kenneth Branagh reciting Shakespeare, Music for a host of performers and James Bond meeting The Queen.

It was very untypical, rather surreal, edgy and smart. In fact it was nice to see the end of the synchronised banner switching.