Opening Ceremony of the Olympiad: Queen, Agent 007 and Volan de Mort for $ 42 million

The British challenged the Chinese - the opening of the Olympic Games in London should overshadow everything, even the launch ceremony in Beijing, previously recognized the best in history. No matter how the director did not ask for a surprise, after the general rehearsal, the script of the opening ceremony ceased to be a secret.

The ceremony, “absolutely amazing and unique”, and according to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Media of Great Britain Jeremy Hunt, will open up to the circulation of the two most famous British - Queen Elizabeth II and James Bond, Kommersant writes. After that, a person, dressed by agent 007, will go down a parachute, which will start a performance.

The director of the ceremony and the winner of the Oscar Prize Daniel Boyle prepared a unique performance for the opening - "Island of Miracles". No matter how they tried to keep the script secret, yet the director’s idea became known: the audience will be presented with agricultural England and its difficult historical path, ITAR-TASS reports. The production also found the heroes of British children's books: Alice and Peter Pan will enter the stage, and the Lord Wolan de Morte will fight the army of flying Mary Poppins.

The gradual change of bright green lawns to a modern landscape will take about three hours and will be accompanied by artificial rain (if the real one does not work). Close the ceremony was entrusted with Sir James Paul McCartney: the musician will sing the song Beatles - Hey, Jude.

The price of splendor - 42 million dollars

The ceremony was spent one and a half times more than planned - $ 42 million. In total, almost $ 15 billion took the organization, notes the Swiss edition of Le Temps . "The truth is that every four years we have crossed a new line of growth in expenses for the Olympics," the publication quotes Inopressa.ru .

London organize magnificent games in the midst of the crisis, at the very moment when it would be reasonable to save. After the games in China, it's time to move on to simpler forms, the publication believes.

The economic expediency of such expenses is doubtful, journalists believe. The organizers of the London Games assured that they would use Olympic facilities to create jobs, buildings can become housing, schools or used for entertainment. However, not all countries managed to benefit from the Olympic inheritance, like Spain and Australia, the Greeks, for example, failed at one time.

London and used to take the Olympics in a crisis

In the British capital, the games are held for the third time. For the first time, London accepted the Olympics in 1908 - then the games were supposed to be held in Rome, but the destructive eruption of Vesuvius violated plans. In 1906, the Italian government used the money intended for the Olympics to help the victims, and Britain offered to accept games.

Another London Olympiad was held in 1948. It was carried out in the strictest economy mode in conditions of lack of fuel, lack of products, and strikes. Athletes were then placed in families and military towns.