That was one hell of an evening. We hope you enjoyed our coverage and keep coming back for more.

Goodnight all

Team HuffPostUK

Britain's greatest Olympian, Steve Redgrave gets to light the final cauldron.

Possibly the biggest cheer of the night for Mohammed Ali

Here they are - the GB athletes entering the stadium.

Lord Coe on the stage... Hats off to the former politician for pulling this all together. "Welcome to London," he says. "I have never been so proud to be British and to be part of the Olympic movement as I am today".

Arctic Monkeys doing a cover of the Beatles classic. What a tune. John Lennon - truly one of the greatest Brits ever.

Athletes in the stadium, Arctic Monkeys on the stage...

The home team enters the stadium. Not a dry eye. Actually, loads of dry eyes, but still great to see. Team GB enter to Heroes by the Thin White Duke.

Could it be Bowie lighting the flame?

More information on the final torch bearer.

HuffPost UK can confirm that Bill Maynard, best known for his turn as Greengrass in Heartbeat, will not be lighting the cauldron.

Here they come - massive team over from the US, replete with Frank Spencer-style berets.

Here's a shout out to our HuffPost colleagues in New York.

We've got some solid intel on the final torch bearer...

We can exclusively confirm that Nasty Nick from Big Brother 1 will not be lighting the cauldron.

Any suggestions for amusing captions are warmly welcomed

(BBC)

Still no word on who will be lighting the cauldron at the end of the event. It can't be the Queen - she's had her moment. It can't be McCartney - he's on the piano. It can't be Daley Thompson - he's got a moustache.

Any thoughts? We're running out of Brits...

Plenty of applause for Usain. Apart from 'Bean', he'll probably be the start of the Games...

Over on Twitter one Tory MP isn't too happy about the ceremony, feeling it was more left-wing than Communist China...

@ AidanBurleyMP : The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen - more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?

The North Korea team walk in, they have managed to get the right flag. Pretty sure they are waving it with extra gusto.

Now the athletes are parading into the stadium, and at quite a pace it seems. The music is also fast moving, perhaps to stop them dawdling.

After that opening ceremony you can be forgiven for forgetting that this is actually about sport.

Tim Berners-Lee Tweets from Olympic stage.

@ timberners_lee : This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony: Behind the Scenes.

Click here to read.

David Beckham passes under Tower Bridge driving a speedboat...

(PA)

Here he is - David Beckham - the world's most famous sportsman.

Beckham's best ever goal?

Tim Berners-Lee bowls in - inventor of the Internet. That is unless you're one of those people who think it was invested by the CIA...

Lots of comments at the bottom of the post calling the show 'boring". Are you watching the same thing? Either way, keep them coming...

...BONKERS!

The Queen enjoying The Prodigy... Prince Philip more a devotee of the Chemical Brothers... although he did go through a period listening to Aphex Twin.