London became the first city to host the Summer Olympics three times, opening with a ceremony directed by Danny Boyle that ran through NHS nurses dancing around hospital beds, Mr. Bean playing one note on a synthesizer, and the Queen appearing to parachute into the stadium alongside James Bond in a pre-filmed sketch that genuinely fooled some viewers watching live. It was watched by an estimated 900 million people worldwide and is still cited as one of the more unusual, specifically British takes on what an opening ceremony could be, compared to the more purely spectacle-driven ceremonies before and after it.
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