The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, held Friday night, was watched on TV by more than one billion people, according to preliminary estimates of specialists. British public broadcaster, the BBC, announced that the ceremony was watched by about 27 million people in the UK, which is nearly half the population of the kingdom. Last year, Prince William wedding was watched by over 20 million people in Britain.
The three and a half hour show, directed by Danny Boyle and staged by thousands of volunteers ended with the emotional interpretation of Beatles hit “Hey Jude” by Sir Paul McCartney. The audience could enjoy the grandiose deployment of many unique moments from Queen Elizabeth arrival at the stadium just after, in a film prepared by Boyle, James Bond, portrayed by Daniel Craig was brought to the ceremony by helicopter, and both of them were parachuted over the stadium, to Rowan Atkinson – Mr. Bean – at the piano, while singing Vangelis’ song “Chariots of Fire” with The London Symphony Orchestra. Kids in pyjamas sang the national anthem of United Kingdom, Harry Potter author JK Rowling read from Peter Pan.
Here are the main figures of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, from the Olympic Stadium in London:
– $33.25 million, cost of the entire show.
– 23 tons, the weight of the bell at Olympic Stadium.
– 111 feet, the height of the circles suspended above the Olympic stadium.
– 40, the number of sheep on the lawn in the first part of the show.
– 120 beats per minute, during the athletes parade, to encourage them to walk faster.
– 500 speakers installed at the stadium.
– 600 dancers from the British National Health Service.
– 965, the number of drummers.
– 161,000 square feet of stage, the equivalent of 12 Olympic swimming pools.
– 15,000, number of volunteers involved in the opening ceremony.
– 34,570 of buttons sewn on costumes.
– 40,000 recycled plastic bottles and 10,000 plastic bags were used to make the costumes.
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