Like never before in the past, the London Olympic Games 2012 have started in an unique manner with Queen Elizabeth II making her acting debut as a Bond girl. She appeared in a pre-recorded short film for the London Olympics opening ceremony with James Bond actor Daniel Craig.

In the film, Craig arrived at her private study in Buckingham Palace, where she said ‘Good evening, Mr. Bond” before the pair boarded a helicopter. Moments after the film ended on Friday, stunt doubles of the pair parachuted into the Olympic Stadium. What enthused the viewers and the director of the short film Nicholas Brown, was that the queen, though it was her debut performance, like a seasoned professional got the entire shot in one take.

Queen Elizabeth II declared the Games open amidst thunderous cheers from the capacity crowd of 80,000 signalling the launch of the biggest sporting spectacle which returned to Britain after a gap of 64 years, giving the country the distinction of holding the mega event for an unprecendented third time. The 27 million pound three-and-a-half-hour long opening ceremony, which magically transformed the stadium into a rural British idyll, complete with cows, horses, sheep and dogs and synthetic clouds to provide traditional British rain, was designed to give Britons a "picture of ourselves as a nation".

More than 10,000 performers took part in the opening extravaganza which vividly brought about the country-side scenes -- a cricket pitch, traditional country side cottages, mining wheel and people dressed in the Victorian era. The traditional Olympian March Past started with the country Greece leading it and ended with Great Bretain following it at the other end. Athlete Sunil Kumar held the Indian tricolor while leading the Indian contingent in the march past.