Opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games shows 50ft bull parading

Opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games shows 50ft bull parading
And so we had a cast of thousands, giant puppets, celebrities (including evergreen Brum creation, Duran Duran, and Dudley-born Sir Lenny Henry), pyrotechnics, much dreamy talk of being ‘on a journey’ long before we caught our first glimpse of the 6,000 athletes.

Of course this was all on a different scale to London 2012 – Birmingham has soaked up £780million of public money versus the £9.3billion we spent on the Olympics. But last night’s opening, in front of 30,000 very proud Brummies at the Alexander Stadium, was properly spectacular and rich in good-humoured enthusiasm.Hence the 35ft tall mechanical bull charging around the main stadium. This was not some profound metaphor drawn from sporting antiquity. It was a nod to Birmingham’s famous shopping centre, the Bull Ring.

The show’s producers included Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, a Birmingham export not known for its subtlety.

In among all the usual mandatory themes of peace, love and saving the planet, there was no ignoring the monster which put this place on the map: Industry. The exhaust-spewing car industry to be precise.

There were huge roars of West Midlands approval for the arrival of 72 Brum-built cars, one for each competing nation. Red, white and blue, they formed a giant Union Flag.