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London (CNN) -- Hundreds of millions around the world have been dazzled by the sights and sounds of director Danny Boyle's opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The four-hour, £27 million ($42.4 million) spectacle contained references to such globally-recognized British icons such as James Bond, David Bowie and Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort.
But with the production tossing out historical and cultural references at a rapid rate, even the most ardent Anglophiles in the audience may have felt some allusions whiz over their head like an airborne nanny.
Fireworks light up the sky during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, July 27.
Olympics: Opening ceremony
The Oscar-winning director of "Slumdog Millionaire" says the ceremony, titled "Isles of Wonder," was inspired by a passage in Shakespeare's The Tempest, believed to have been written in 1610 and set on a remote, magical island.
Although that phrase itself appears nowhere in the play, the character Caliban refers to his home as an isle "full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not."
The line encapsulates the vision fellow film director Stephen Daldry, the ceremony's creative director, says the production sought to represent, in capturing "the rich heritage, diversity, energy, inventiveness, wit and creativity that truly defines the British Isles."
The ceremony opened with a scene inspired by the work of another English literary genius, the Romantic visionary poet and painter William Blake: Specifically, the preface to his epic "Milton a Poem" -- "And did those feet in ancient time," better known as "Jerusalem."
Written in 1804, the poem was set to music in 1916 by Sir Hubert Parry, and sung to bolster flagging spirits during the war years. With its lyric describing the establishment of a new Jerusalem in England, it has become England's most recognized patriotic song, sung as a religious hymn and a de facto national anthem at many sporting events.
No less than three phrases from its 16 lines -- "green & pleasant land," "dark satanic mills" and a "chariot of fire" -- have entered the national lexicon, and were referenced within the ceremony.
The first provided the theme for the opening scene, which presented a vision of England as a pre-industrial rural idyll -- the type of bucolic setting in which J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbits made their home.
Animals gambolled, workers tended the fields while a game of cricket took place on a village green, complete with a maypole -- a traditional focal point for community celebrations in British village life.
In one area of the stadium was a mound resembling Glastonbury Tor, an historically significant hill in Somerset identified with King Arthur. The hill carries a link to the Jerusalem theme, as Blake's poem is inspired by the "Glastonbury Legend" -- an apocryphal story that one of Jesus' relatives, Joseph of Arimathea, had visited Glastonbury and taken Jesus there as a boy. Glastonbury also has a more contemporary significance as the home of the UK's most famous music festival.
Enter the "dark satanic mills" of the industrial revolution, which began in the UK in the middle of the 18th century and swept throughout the rest of the world, transforming society and laying the foundations of the modern world in its wake.
Featured in the ceremony were representations of looms for manufacturing textiles and iron-making processes which played a key role in the revolution.
The next, dreamlike sequence celebrated one of Britain's most beloved institutions, the National Health Service, while playing on its link to another celebrated icon.
Founded in 1948, the NHS provides free healthcare, and has become the fifth largest employer in the world, with 1.7 million staff. Many Britons are fiercely proud of the service and have fought to defend it from successive waves of reforms.
The NHS was represented here by several wards' worth of nurses pushing hospital beds, which were used as trampolines by children before being arranged to spell out the acronym "GOSH," for Great Ormand Street Hospital, a world-class children's health center.
Coming in close proximity to a recitation from J.M. Barrie's children's classic Peter Pan -- "When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real" -- this was a clear reference to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a London children's hospital closely associated with that book.
In 1929, Barrie gifted all the rights from the work to the hospital, claiming that Peter Pan himself had been a patient there, and that "it was he who put me up to the little thing I did for the hospital."
Peter Pan was not the only children's literary character to feature in the segment, as a shower of Mary Poppinses -- the magical English nanny who was the heroine of P. L. Travers' book series -- blew in from above, to do battle with a towering character who resembled Lord Voldemort, the main villain of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books (Rowling herself also appeared in the ceremony).
The heroes didn't all hail from the world of books. At one point a Mini appeared -- the classic two-door economy car first manufactured by the British Motor Corporation in 1959. The next narrative segment was more modern and raucous, featuring a house party crashed by a horde of social networking teens. The attention also shifted to Britain's rich lineage of musical stars: Queen, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, New Order and the Eurythmics, among many others.
The ceremony also made great play of the two great, inescapable constants of British life -- the weather, and the dry national humor.
At one point in the proceedings, as a "storm cloud" broke and threatened to jeopardize the celebrations on stage, an audio clip familiar to many Britons was played. It contained the immortal words of veteran television weatherman Michael Fish, best remembered for allegedly saying, hours before a killer 1987 storm: "Apparently a lady rang the BBC and said she heard that there was a hurricane on the way. Well, don't worry, if you're watching, there isn't."
In recent years, Fish has been at pains to point out that the British public has misremembered his role in the affair, saying he wasn't working that day and that his infamous quote was actually made in relation to another storm.
On any other day, he might resent the matter being revisited. But tonight he will surely manage a laugh at the unlikely way the bane of his career has placed him at center stage, in celebrated company, at Britain's biggest party.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
Artists wearing wings and riding bicylces perform during the ceremony.
The Olympic flame is seen in the stadium during the ceremony.
Members of the Britain's delegation parade wave.
British spectators cheer as they attend the opening ceremony.
The Olympic flame burns in the cauldron.
Fireworks burst above the stadium during the opening ceremony.
Fireworks over the Olympic Stadium.
Fireworks explode from the stadium roof.
Fireworks ignite over the Olympic Stadium.
Sir Paul McCartney performs during the opening ceremony.
An actor dressed to resemble Britain's Queen Elizabeth II parachutes into the stadium during the opening ceremony.
Participants look on as the Olympic flame burns in the cauldron.
A member of India's delegation takes a picture as he parades during the opening ceremony.
The Olympic flame is carried into the stadium.
Danny Boyle, the director of the opening ceremony, reacts to the show.
Philippine Van Aanholt, an independent Olympic athlete, parades during the opening ceremony
An image of British Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards is projected on the Houses of Parliament .
Torchbearer Sir Steve Redgrave hands the Olympic flame over to seven young athletes who represent Britain's hopes for the next Olympics.
Fireworks are let off over the Olympic stadium
Fireworks explode from the top of Tower Bridge.
Fireworks cast a purple glow over the Olympic Stadium.
The Olympic cauldron is lit.
Members of India's delegation parade in the opening ceremony.
People cheer as they watch the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on an outdoor screen at Piccadilly Circus.
Members of Iran's delegation parade during the opening ceremony.
A young athlete is joined by six others, who represent Britain's hopes for the next Olympics. They all carried the Olympic flame.
An image of Jamaica's track star Usain Bolt, currently the world's fastest man, is projected on The Houses of Parliament in London.
An artist flies over children and nurses during the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital scene.
Fireworks over the Olympic Stadium.
Fireworks form a fiery ring over the Olympic Stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium.
Fireworks light up the Olympic Stadium and the night sky.
Fireworks illuminate the sky in a fiery rainbow of color.
Fencer Mariel Zagunis leads the U.S. Olympic team around the stadium.
Reigning Olympic men's 100-meter and 200-meter champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica carries his country's flag.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
Mariel Zagunis of the United States Olympic fencing team carries her country's flag.
Croatia's delegation parades during the opening ceremony.
Fireworks go off over the Olympic Stadium at the official opening of the 2012 Games.
General view as fireworks illuminate the sky during the opening ceremony.
Usain Bolt leads the Jamaican Olympic team around the stadium.
Members of Brazil's delegation hold their national flag as they walk during the opening ceremony.
Song-Chol Pak of the DPR Korea Olympic team carries his country's flag.
Spectators wearing 3-D glasses during the opening ceremony.
Canadian athletes enter the stadium.
Ali Mazaheri of the Iran Olympic boxing team carries his country's flag.
Chinese athletes enter the stadium.
Natascha Keller of the German Olympic hockey team carries her country's flag during the opening ceremony.
The Olympic stadium lit up in red and blue during the opening ceremony.
A performer in a giant ball is passed around during the opening ceremony.
Performers dance during the opening ceremony.
A parachutist lands outside the Olympic Stadium.
Performers depict a view of the English countryside.
General View of performers during the opening ceremony.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
An actor dressed as Mary Poppins performs in the GOSH and NHS scene.
Simon Whitfield of the Canada Olympic triathlon team carries his country's flag.
General view taken as actors perform during the opening ceremony.
Athletes parade during the opening ceremony.
Athletes parade during the opening ceremony.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
Performers with jetpacks take part in the opening ceremony.
Members of the Australia team parde into the stadium.
Dancers perform during the opening ceremony.
Fireworks go off from Tower Bridge.
Dancers perform in a scene dramatizing the struggle between life and death.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
General view taken as actors perform during the opening ceremony.
Dancers perform under a "setting sun" in a scene dramatizing the struggle between life and death.
Lord Voldemort looms over the opening ceremony.
A broad view of the opening ceremony.
An artist performs with a glowing pacifier during the opening ceremony.
Kenneth Branagh performs as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Drummers dressed in period garb perform during the opening ceremony.
Performers dance to British music spanning the decades.
Performers from the GOSH, Great Ormond Street Hospital, perform during the opening ceremony.
Actors perform during the British meadow scene.
A general view of the opening ceremony.
Fireworks light up Tower Bridge.
Actors perform during the opening ceremony.
Actors perform during the British meadow scene during the opening ceremony.
Dancers perform in the Gosh and NHS scene.
Artists dressed in costumes perform.
Spectators wait under the rain before the ceremony.
A young performer holds a balloon.
Performers float with umbrellas as they play the role of Mary Poppins.
Children perform a song.
Olympic rings are assembled.
Queen Elizabeth II, right, and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, attend the ceremony.
An artist performs during the opening ceremony.
British actor Rowan Atkinson in his role as Mr. Bean plays in the orchestra.
Artists perform as the sun sets in the background.
Performers drum during the Opening Ceremony.
The sun sets behind performers.
Actors and dancers play Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital staff and patients.
People wave Union flags during the opening ceremony.
David Beckham passes under Tower Bridge driving a speedboat named "Max Power," which carries the Olympic Torch.
Fireworks are displayed at Tower Bridge.
Giant pictures depicting villains of British literature, including Captain Hook from "Peter Pan," are displayed during the opening ceremony.
Giant puppets depicting Lord Voldemort, center, from the Harry Potter books and the Child Catcher from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" swirl around the stage in the opening ceremony.
Spectators watch the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Red Arrows disappear over London ahead of the opening ceremony.
Freshly "forged" Olympic Rings fly above the chimneys during The Age of Industry scene.
A general view of the inside of the stadium during the opening ceremony.
An actor dressed to resemble Britain's Queen Elizabeth II parachutes into the stadium.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, attends the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Friday.
Huge chimneys emerge from the ground to symbolize the industrial revolution.
Drummers during the opening ceremony.
A general view of Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
A general view of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Actors perform during the industrial revolution scene.
The Olympic rings form.
General view taken during a scene of The Age of Industry.
The Olympic rings are assembled above the stadium in a scene depicting the Industrial Revolution.
An inflatable yellow submarine floats above artists.
Inflatable yellow submarines float above artists during The Age of Industry scene.
The London Symphony Orchestra performs during the opening ceremony.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
A young performer holds a balloon bearing the Olympic rings.
Artists arrive in a horse and carriage.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony.
Performers depict a view of the English countryside.
Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner of the Tour De France cycle race, waves to the audience.
Cricketers play on the pitch during the preshow.
Artists arrive before the start of the opening ceremony.
Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at the start of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
Artists take the field for the meadow scene.
Actors perform during the British meadow scene.
A robotic camera captures an overview of the Olympic Stadium at the start of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony.
The Red Arrows fly over the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower.
Danny Boyle, the London 2012 artistic director, addresses the audience.
Spectators take shelter under umbrellas prior to the start of the opening ceremony.
The Red Arrows fly over Olympic Stadium before the opening ceremony.
A balloon flies over spectators prior to the opening ceremony.
Fans take photos as cows are lead across the stadium floor.
A man wearing glasses waits for the start of the opening ceremony.
Performers prepare for the opening ceremony.
The countdown to the start of the opening ceremonies is projected across the stands while the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force aerobatic team fly over the Olympic Stadium. Photos: Olympics get under way
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