[taliman]

Best bit for me was Rowan Atkinson!

[Rhaeven]

I absolutely was gobsmacked with some parts. The industrial revolution and the forging of the olympic rings was a winner. The music, totally took my breath away and had me in tears. The olympic flame was in my humble opinion the best i've seen. Job well done Britain. Wishing all atlethes to be the best they can.

greetings from Holland

[eugenius 8]

i quite enjoyed it

[pink pineapple]

I thought it was great I could imagine some parts might have been a bit difficult for other nations to understand though Still, very good and very british

[ShyGirl95]

I Loved it- It was awesome

[simibean]

I loved it
seeing muhammad ali made it really stand out for me, even the countries coming out wasn't that bad

[meenu89]

Better than I expected. Amazing.

[notnek]

I really enjoyed it - the best ever IMO. A few things I didn't like:

Hey Jude - It's been done too often and didn't fit in with the originality of the show.
The 7/7 tribute - Wasn't very emotional and was a bit weird
The athletes entering - This should be part of the ceremony but it's just too long. Since they're athletes I'm sure they could move a bit faster!

Also, I don't understand why people are saying that you have to British to have understood parts of it. Which parts? Ceremonies in the past have featured strange sequences that need explanations but I felt that ours was pretty straight forward.

[LeaX]

We had multiple Mary Poppins defeating Voldemort. Enough said.

[Clayman]

The parts before the NHS (countryside, industrial revolution, forging of the rings) were amazing, then the rest was good, minus the texting love story and dizzee rascal part. That whole part had me cringing - especially the "night out with the gurls x"...

[I love shopping]

I'm not originally from the UK and haven't lived here very long, so I didn't get some of it. But I absolutely loved the parts I did understand.

I especially loved the golden olympic rings and how they came together, and also the fireworks at the end. Mr Bean was really funny too!

[Kennedy7697]

Mediocre.

[thecrimsonidol]

Caught a bit of it in the pub. Felt nothing more than supreme indifference.

How many days until it's over?

[FluxD]

I liked the part where 50% of the cast members were black.

[Teofilo]

I enjoyed watching the teams walk out and seeing Steve Redgrave with the torch.

The rest of it is all just a load of nonsense as far as I'm concerned, like every other opening ceremony.

[nickth]

A few of my gripes.... I think the ceremony would have bored and been misunderstood by many.

Yes, I think free health care is wonderful and a right for all, but I don't understand why the NHS was celebrated in the way it was; low standards of care especially for the elderly, underpaid staff, malnutrition and dehydration of patients and dismissal of ground breaking treatments far outweigh the positive aspects that were shown.

I fear the seven young athletes who lit the cauldron will be quickly forgotten after the games. Their time to become a star will come in 2016 and beyond, and whilst I think their part sent out a great message to 'inspire a generation', it would have been better to have at least one 'legendary' olympian to lead the lighting of the torch with the youngsters at either side.

But my biggest gripe of all... PAUL MCCARTNEY!! Why does he have to make an appearance at every single large scale celebration this country holds?! His sagging face and scratchy voice are an embarrassment and an insult to the Beatles legacy. Yeah he is a 'founder' of modern music, but many more talented British musicians have come after him and made just as much a valuable contribution. I'm not denying the fact Hey Jude is an instantly recognisable song worldwide, but so is What Makes You Beautiful, so we might as well have had Harry Styles doing a solo and it would have had the same dire effect.