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Who will light the Olympic flame?

Last night the BBC was allowed to broadcast a 30-second clip of the ceremony, featuring modern dance and actors wearing illuminated wings, the first officially-sanctioned preview of the show.

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A LIVE television audience of up to a billion people worldwide will watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games tonight for what the film director Danny Boyle has promised will be an evening full of surprises.

More than 120,000 people have already seen Boyle's pounds 27million production, called Isles of Wonder, during two dress rehearsals this week, but the fact that they have refused en masse to leak any details of it has only added to the sense of excitement.

Last night the BBC was allowed to broadcast a 30-second clip of the ceremony, featuring modern dance and actors wearing illuminated wings, the first officially-sanctioned preview of the show.

But those who had been at the rehearsals said the clips gave little or no impression of the inventiveness and ambition Boyle has shown in tackling the world's biggest live broadcast event.

The entertainment for those in the stadium will begin with a Red Arrows fly-past at 8.12pm, and will feature live music, but for the global TV audience the main event starts at 9pm when Boyle's vision of rural Britain, complete with live sheep, goats, geese, cows and horses will finally be revealed.

Among the big names reported to be taking part in the ceremony are Daniel Craig, who is understood to have filmed a James Bond segment for the show and may be there in person, Kenneth Branagh, who will read lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Sir Paul McCartney, one of several live musical acts, who will close the show.

Organisers of the opening ceremony said yesterday that even those who had been to the rehearsals had not yet seen a couple of "wow moments" that Boyle has held back, and no one had been given a sneak preview of the climactic moment when the Olympic cauldron is lit.

The identity of the person or people who will light the cauldron is such a closely-guarded secret that as late as yesterday it was thought they still had not been told.

Almost 100 heads of state and heads of government will descend on London for the opening ceremony, and have been invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace attended by the Queen.

Michelle Obama will represent her husband at the reception.

The Queen will officially declare the Games open at about 9.45pm, half way through Boyle's floor show, which will continue with dancing nurses, a depiction of the industrial revolution and a rendition of the Chariots of Fire film theme.

According to the Games organisers Locog, Boyle's risky decision to use live animals in the show has so far gone without a hitch. The 70 sheep have been kept in check by a sheepdog at all times, and there have been no problems with the geese, goats, horses or cows taking part.

Weather forecasters have even predicted that showers, which they had warned of earlier in the week, will not hit London during the opening ceremony, meaning conditions should be ideal.

Once Danny Boyle's show is over, the athletes will take centre stage as the parade of nations begins, led by Greece, the originator of the Games, as is traditional, and followed by 203 other nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, before Team GB brings up the rear, led out by flag-bearer Sir Chris Hoy.

The ceremony is expected to finish between midnight and 12.30am with a spectacular fireworks display.
 

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