Bringing the house down: A kaleidoscope of colour lights up the night sky at the climax of a stunning Paralympics Opening Ceremony at the Olympic stadiumJust before 11pm last night and after a long, damp (and very cold) wait, Team GB's 300 paralympians finally marched (and rolled, in Union Jack wheelchairs) out into the Olympic Stadium to David Bowie's Heroes.
Almost every one of the 62,000-strong audience was on their feet. Boris Johnson was clapping like a maniac. Half the Royal Box was up clapping and beaming and jigging about.
Princess Anne may or may not have been weeping behind a pair of very strange sunglasses. Tickertape was raining down and eyes were brimming and hearts swelling painfully - even in the press seats.
Flames to mark the Games: As it did to such effect during the Olympics Opening Ceremony, the cauldron's petals rise up to form the Paralympic flame
Show-stopper: David Toole, who taught himself to dance on his hands after losing both his legs when he was 18 months old, performs a graceful display on a zip wirePeter (the 'Quadfather') Norfolk is our flag bearer. Peter, 52, is a wheelchair tennis champion who was left a paraplegic after a motorbike accident aged 19 and, since his right shoulder gave up the ghost too, 20 years later, has been classed as a quadriplegic. He competes with a tennis racket taped to his hand and has world records coming out of his ears.
He can't stop smiling. Neither can any of the rest of Team GB.
Fantastic finale: Spotlights fill the stadium as a large scale reproduction of Marc Quinn's celebrated sculpture of pregnant disabled woman Alison Lapper takes centre stage (left) while the cauldron burns bright (right)
Extraordinary: The night of celebration and a journey through science ended with all 3,250 volunteer performers together for the grand finale where singers Beverley Knight, Lizzie Emeh and Caroline Parker belted out I Am What I Am
Incredible: Artistic director Bradley Hemmings said the ceremony was 'extremely spectacular and like nothing you have seen in previous ceremonies'A billion people from all around the world had tuned in.
A record 4,200 paralympians from 166 nations were taking part. More than 2.4 million tickets had been already been sold.
A 430-strong deaf choir had sung God Save the Queen.
And it was surely the first time an Olympic audience had been coached not only in the basics of sign language so we could all join in with Beverley Knight's 'I am what I am' finale, but also how to take part in 'the world's biggest ever apple crunch' - 62,000 people biting into 62,000 Royal Gala apples simultaneously to tie in with an extraordinary sequence involving Sir Isaac Newton's law of gravity, dozens of wheelbarrows and a sea of giant inflatable apples that would naughtily defy gravity and float up through the stadium.
Hot stuff: Ziya Azazi dances among flames during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 ParalympicsThe Paralympics Opening Ceremony was never going to be run of the mill.
Last night, the Olympic stadium had been transformed for the third time in just over a month.
Gone was Danny Boyle's green and pleasant land, Glastonbury Tor, the dizzying smokestacks of the industrial revolution, the sheep, geese, Captain Hook, JK Rowling and the luminescent hospital beds.
In their place is a giant umbrella covering a pile of giant books, four smaller umbrellas hanging from the sky, a 'moon' stage with dominated by a huge, glowing ball of light, a web of cables and riggings overhead and row upon row of blue plastic chairs and an awful lot of apples.
Hotting up: With huge demand for tickets, the Paralympics are, like the Olympics, expected to be one of the most successful Games everBut yet again, Shakespeare's The Tempest was woven though the narrative, this time with Sir Ian McKellan popping up as Prospero, a disabled actress called Nicola Miles-Wildin playing Miranda and Professor Stephen Hawking (billed as 'the most famous disabled person alive') encouraging Miranda to 'be curious'.
Once again, the Queen is here, in gold and silver brocade splendour. Sadly she didn't parachute in, skirts fluttering in the breeze, with James Bond at her side.
But she's here nonetheless (albeit with a face like thunder), ready to put Prince Philip's recent illness and Prince Harry's strip billiards nudity behind her to enjoy another late, damp and very chilly night in Stratford.
World's greatest scientist: Stephen Hawking takes centre stage at the launch of the Olympics Opening Ceremony in the Olympic stadium in front of a billion viewers
Stunning: Hundreds of performers holding umbrellas form a ring around the middle of the Olympic Stadium as the ceremony gets into full swing
Crunch time: A wheelchair-bound artist rides atop a giant apple, which became a central theme of the show in reference to the moment Sir Isaac Newton formulated the theory of gravity after an apple fell on his head
Fitting props: Performers fly in with umbrellas at the start of the opening ceremony on what turned out to be a rather damp day in LondonThis time it's all a bit more dignified. She simply walked in, accompanied by the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Sir Philip Craven and a wonderfully gentle Benjamin Britten arrangement of the national anthem sung by the deaf choir.
Festivities kick off with a flyby by Dave Rawling, a disabled pilot taught by Aerobility (a British charity that trains disabled people to become pilots) whose plane is a Health & Safety officer's nightmare of spitting fireworks and bright blue LED lights.
Tremendous pride: The Queen praised the 'uplifting spirit' of the Paralympic Games tonight as she officially declared the Games openSuddenly everything goes quiet and there's Professor Stephen Hawking, sitting in his wheelchair on the Moon Stage saying something we can't quite hear followed by a 'big bang' as a glowing celestial sphere descends into the huge umbrella and ignites thousands of fireworks and jump-starts 600 umbrella-toting dancers (including some in wheelchairs) and a brilliant aerial dance by dancers suspended from giant umbrellas. Umbrellas are a recurring theme tonight - no bad thing given how damp it is.
But the biggest difference is the theme. While the opening ceremony for the Olympics was all about Britain and what makes us so great - the Industrial Revolution, the NHS, but nothing pre-Victorian - this is quite the opposite.
Last night it was all about the Age of Enlightenment - the extraordinary period of intellectual revolution that took place between 1550 and 1720.
Royal approval: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge look on as they take their positions for the start of the opening ceremony
A right royal knees-up: Members of the Royal family are joined by Prime Minister David Cameron (centre), London Mayor Boris Johnson (second right) and London 2012 chief Lord Coe (fourth left)
Enjoying the atmosphere: This picture of David Cameron and wife Samantha was posted on Number 10's Twitter feed during the ceremonySo in comes Newton's apple, a pulsating ball of energy supposed to represent the Higgs particle and a giant revolving book containing The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all seemingly powered by wheelchairs. They are welcomed by an army in black carrying what looks like huge feathery discs over their right shoulders and men waving about on the top of four-metre bendy poles.
As executive producer Stephen Daldrey insisted earlier, this show is 'Not about England. This is not about Britain. This about challenging perceptions. There is no nationalistic brief to this show.' There is though plenty of thumping music. And flashing lights. And an awful lot of bright blue LED headbands bobbing about on dancing volunteers.
Torch of class: Paralympian Margaret Maughan lights The Paralympic Cauldron, which is made up of more than 200 petals, 166 of which bear the names of the competing nationsThe budget for tonight's ceremony is a fraction of the £27 million Danny Boyle had for the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
In yesterday's final pre-show press conference, nobody was keen to say exactly quite how little. Though co-artistic director Jenny Sealey (who is deaf herself) referred to it as a 'very prudent budget - you always want more, but we've don't a good job with what we've got'.
There may be more than 3,000 adult volunteers, 100 child volunteers, and 100 professionals, (including 73 deaf and disabled professional artists and 68 volunteers) who have spent about 85 hours each rehearsing at 106 rehearsals, but it's not a patch on Boyle's epic Isles of Wonder when it comes to epic entertainment. How could it be? It is though fun and jolly (if very cold) and then just as things are revving up, it's time for the Parade of the Athletes.
Legend: Margaret Maughan, who won an archery gold at the first Paralympics in 1960, lights the cauldron
Head for heights: Former Royal Marine Joe Townsend, whose legs were blown off by an IED in Afghanistan, carried the Paralympic Flame into the stadium on a zip wire from the top of the neighbouring 377ft (115m) high ArcelorMittal Orbit tower
We salute you: Mr Townsend is lowered through the air carrying the Olympic flame before passing it on to five-a-side footballer David Clarke, who helped teach David Beckham how to play blind football
'Icon of an inclusive city': A 43ft-tall remake of Marc Quinn's famous marble portrait of disabled artist Alison Lapper while she was heavily pregnant was also unveiled. The sculpture graced Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth in London in 2005
Tribute to Newton: More than 40 inflatable apples float around the stadium as the audience were asked to bite down on 62,046 apples which had been handed out to them as they entered the stadiumNot at the end of the celebrations, as is traditional for Olympic opening ceremonies so that TV audiences around the world can nip off to bed and not miss much other than the lighting of the flame, but right near the beginning - so the athletes can pull up a blue plastic chair pew on the running track and watch in awe.
Which on paper sounded frustrating and daft - why on earth carve up the show like this? But as we chunter on about timings and deadlines and how everyone will lose interest during the 90 minutes plus it takes to get all the athletes on stage, it starts.
And everything changes. Because what a parade it is - the wheelchairs, the prosthetic legs, the walking sticks, the grimacing in pain, the missing limbs, the party hats, the dancing, the burning pride, the grinning ear to ear and the amazing dresses worn by each team's very glamorous umbrella carrier.
Poignant: Blind soprano Denise Leigh sings the tribute song 'Spirit in Motion' as several Paralympians took flight in an elegant aerial display 
World in union: A giant umbrella featuring a map of the globe opens at as performers take to the stage for a literary-themed segment of the show 
Lighting up the world: Fireworks explode into the night sky above the Olympic Stadium at the mid-point of the ceremony
Hope for so many: The Paralympics was born at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire thanks to the work of neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann, who started the first competitions between disabled patients It's a far jollier and happier parade than at the Olympic ceremony - though funnily enough everyone around me suddenly seems to be in tears.
And no one's remotely bothered that we'll have to wait an hour and a half until Lord Coe can make his millionth triumphant speech of the 2012 Games, and the show proper can (finally) continue with the arrival of the golden wheelchairs, a giant whale whose skin is created by LED lights and the biggest apple crunch in the world.
Mexico wins my prize for most colourful outfit - a vision of staggering bright ponchos and huge floppy sombreros. Germany comes last - with men and women in nasty nylon-looking outfits of baby blue and sicky pink respectively.
On and on (and on) it goes until we're all completely drained.
What we've all been waiting for: Paralympic GB, led by wheelchair tennis player Peter Norfolk, whip the crowds into a frenzy as they are the last team to join the parade
Can they do it? Great Britain have high hopes for a record medal haul this year just as Team GB accomplished two weeks earlier
The eyes of the world watch on: Spectators catch the action on a giant screen in London's Trafalgar Square
Up for it: Wheelchair Rugby player Garrett Hickling carries the flag for Canada as the teams parade into the stadium
Taking it all in: Members of the Chinese team, who will hoping for another strong showing in this year's Games, savour the moment as they enter the stadium
Star of show: After an amazing aerial dance of paralymics in golden wheelchairs, a 'navigation' segment with the giant whale, a beautiful ballad sung by a 16-year-old singer song writer called Birdy, a breathtaking aerial ballet was led by double amputee dancer David Toole
High-flyer: Six paralympians and former competitors, including the legendary Tanni Grey-Thompson (pictured) were flown into the stadium in gold wheelchairs
Vibrant colours: A pile of giant books, umbrellas hanging from the sky, a 'moon' stage, a web of cables and row upon row of blue plastic chairs featured in the show
Great expectations: The rising interest in the Games has been reflected in ticket sales, a record 2.4 million of the available 2.5 million have been sold so far
Biggest ever: The Games will host the highest number of athletes since their official birth in 1960 at the Rome Games, with 4,280 athletes representing over 160 nations compared to 400 participants from 23 countries in the Italian capital
Reaching for the stars: Disabled actress Nicola Miles-Wildin swapped village hall audiences for the world last night when the 34-year-old made a spectacular appearance at the opening ceremony, performing to millions as Miranda from The Tempest
A very British institution: Umbrellas made a regular appearance in the show and, fittingly, it had rained for most of the day in London
Moneywise: The budget for the ceremony was a fraction of the £27million Danny Boyle had for the Olympics opening ceremony, but it was not revealed how much
No rain on this parade: A giant umbrella hovers over a giant dome as hundreds of performers are lit up belowFollowed by a visit to Sir Isaac Newton's garden, which is awash with wheelbarrows, big apples, little apples, giant inflatable apples, and finally, the world's biggest simulataneous apple crunch.
'Ladies and gentlemen, please get your apples ready - three, two, one and ... bite!'
There's a massive crunch and very tasty they are, even at 11.40pm. Royal Galas and British too, we were assured earlier today, though no one on the organising committee could remember quite where they came from, other than Sainsbury's.
Suddenly the apples have gone and we're off to the 21st century to visit the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs particle.
Sneak preview: A glimpse inside the Olympic Stadium as preparations are made for the opening ceremony in front of more than a billion viewers across the globe
Buzz of anticipation: Spectators fill the Olympic Stadium in readiness for the spectacular opening ceremony to the London Paralympic Games
Ready to party: Spectators make their way into the Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the London Paralympic Games 2012source: dailymail
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