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| paralympic 2012 |
A glowing planet descended on to a giant umbrella in the Olympic Stadium as Britain's greatest boffin Professor Stephen Hawking urged people everywhere to be inspired by the courage of disabled athletes.
And a huge roar filled the packed arena as the sphere detonated a massive explosion of fireworks.
The spectacular ceremony — featuring 4,200 athletes and opened by the Queen — was watched by a BILLION viewers on TV.
The Queen, Wills and Kate, PM David Cameron and 2012 boss Lord Coe all watched the spectacular — named Enlightenment — at the Olympic Stadium in East London.
Hawking, in a rare public appearance, narrated the opening scene in his familiar synthesised voice from a moon-like stage.
He said: "However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at."
He was joined by 600 dancing volunteers around a giant umbrella igniting a "big bang" as 18,000 LED lights in their own umbrellas shone brightly.
Britain's Got Talent finalists Flawless danced to the Rihanna hit Umbrella accompanied by performers "flying" on brollies above the stadium.
The opening scenes introduced the central character called Miranda played by actress Nicola Miles-Wildin who works for a power-wheelchair dance troupe.
The cast created the image of a giant blinking eye using umbrellas to form the iris and sway-pole performers 4.5 metres high as the eyelashes.
The Queen — there without Prince Philip who is still recovering from a bladder infection — was greeted by a royal fanfare as she took her seat with International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven.
A team of nine Royal Navy, Army and Air Force personnel raised the Union Jack as a 430-strong choir sang the national anthem with 12 performers signing the words for deaf viewers.
Lights under the hundreds of umbrellas lit up to create a dazzling Union Jack.
The 4,200 athletes from 164 nations took their place in the arena, with our 300-strong Paralympics GB squad following tradition and entering last.
The crowd erupted in cheers as Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius carried South Africa's flag.
The Games were then officially declared open by the Queen. Britain's greatest Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson was among six athletes who FLEW into the sky above the stadium in dazzling gold wheelchairs. She recited the "Brave New World" speech from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Central character Miranda landed in the middle of a maze of books to learn about Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity.
She found an apple in the maze and bit into it — with the help of the 62,000 spectators who were each given an apple and bit into it at the same time to make one enormous crunch.
A huge golden apple dropped from the sky, accompanied by jugglers, skaters, tandem riders and wheelbarrows of helium-filled apples. A stream of red tents carried by 128 volunteers collided like atoms on the floor, then Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen spoke the words of Prospero from The Tempest.
He said: "The greatest adventure is what lies ahead."
In a celebration of human rights protesters, 275 performers and members of a disabled theatre company danced to punk rocker Ian Dury's Spasticus Autisticus.
The ceremony, which featured a total of 3,000 volunteer performers, was created by artistic directors Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings and overseen by a team including Billy Elliot film director Stephen Daldry.
ACTRESS Nicola Miles-Wildin told of her pride after starring in the opening ceremony.
The 34-year-old took the part of Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest and emerged from a blinking eye in the arena.
She said: "I was so excited to tell the story of the Paralympic opening ceremony. It celebrated the amazing athletes and the arts and showed how talented and diverse this country is. I was just proud to be a part of it."
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