Danny Boyle feared rain would spoil Olympics parade

THERE was only one moment when Danny Boyle looked under pressure during last year’s build-up to the London Olympics opening ceremony – when it started to rain, Lord Coe has revealed.

Film-maker Boyle referenced everything from the NHS and the industrial revolution to the British countryside at the ceremony, which will go head-to-head with Strictly Come Dancing and The Great British Bake Off at the TV Baftas.

London 2012 chairman Lord Coe told the Radio Times: “The only time I saw Danny under pressure was when it started raining ten minutes before the opening ceremony started. We looked at each other; we didn’t even want to say it. Mercifully, the rain only lasted eight minutes. It was the final character test.”

Trainspotting director Boyle has previously told how he believed that one reason the Queen agreed to make a cameo appearance was so that her staff could meet James Bond star Daniel Craig.

Asked whether the Queen got her photograph taken with Craig, he laughed: “Absolutely! Yeah! But she was very, very keen and insistent that her staff did as well. I liked that about her very much. You thought, ‘yeah, that’s decent’.”