to think the queen could make a bit more effort?

[twofingerstoGideon]

... sitting there looking so bored and grumpy last night. Even when the UK team did their parade she looked completely unenthusiastic. Make an effort, woman! We pay you enough.

oh and I did give up and go to bed, myself...

Oh FGS, she's 86! I bet there weren't that many 86 year olds who stayed up to watch the whole thing!!

You'd look bored if you were having to be sat watching something when you just wanted to return to being a bond girl.

God bless her she is amazing and I fell asleep during the parades and I am more than half her age. Long day, late night and she had so much on this year but yes charles did look happy.

YABU for all the reasons already given.

We were watching it in Australia, and there was obviously a fair amount of attention given to the Aussie team - should have seen some of the grim mugs on some of them after they'd been in the arena for a while! And yet, they then did another shot of some of them boogying away - DH and I reckoned the coaches/tv crews had got onto them and told them to "fucking cheer up you bunch of boring bastards!"

I agree its a long night for an elderly woman.
On the other handcharles and camilla looked like they were having a ball, i think its great that they finally are a bit cool, no one hates her anymore and they look like they enjoy a good laugh

Yabvu

She looked miserable through the jubilee stuff too.

If she's struggling maybe it's time to step down.

YABU.

I am 25 and I fell asleep half way through! I don't know her and Philip atayed awake. I think she showed how behind the Olympics she is by doing the Bond sketch. I imagine that was way out of her comfort zone.

As for looking 'bored witless' I imagine it is very hard to keep an expression of rapt attention for 3 hours +.

I reckon she was exhausted, shes been flipping busy and its not that long since the jubilee.
She did seem teary eyed to me when the kids sang the national anthem and I reckon she was fab for doing the whole helicopter thing.
Did also very much appreciate her short speech at the end who wants blah blah when everyone has been going for hours and its midnight. (even when its quite important blah blah)

Exactly, Keith! Looking miserable is her default mode whether it's first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

I posted similar last night, but it didn't work (?) and I think I'd have got a roasting, as it was a bit more harshly phrased than you, OP!

I totally agree that she's an old woman, would be tired, and that she's naturally taciturn and that even smiley people can't turn it on the whole time - which wasn't 4 hours btw, as she 'helicoptered in' a bit later on.

But... She DID look bored, and it was dreadful to be caught picking her nails looking bored when "her" athletes came. It wasn't a random moment, it was just after Team GB entered.

Her advisers and family should know her limits, and work with then. Every time the cameras were on W & K, or C & C, they looked like they were having a great time. Wouldn't the queen have looked happier if she were close to them? And bugger protocol, she's high enough up to say "actually, I'm going to sit next to Will as he keep me awake and laughing". The world would think MORE of her sitting less formally with her family.

Her role as a monarch is, IMO, to represent the country. If she's not up to it (because of her age, not fault of her own) she should retire/abdicate/farm out more duties.

If they know she can't cope with all the ceremony, why not do the jumping in bit, have sporty Will as the 'official' host of IOC, then make a big thing of her leaving stadium at 23:00 to go down to street to say a big 'go for it!' to the UK team? And then slip off home in luxury helicopter for a cup of cocoa.

It was managed badly.

Bugger standing down - if I was 3 years off the record for longest serving monarch, I wouldn't stand down!!

That is bitchy.

That was to the op.

Yanbu.

Me too thumbwitch! why should she.
Very ageist in here this morning. nothing wrong with people showing their age at all.

I know she's 86 etc, but she must surely have known that for those first 5 mins when the GB team marched in to the arena the cameras would have turned to catch her reation.

I'm not particularly royalist or anti, but i felt embarrassed to think the eyes of the world was treated to the sight of her picking her nails as our team walked in.

I thought the shot of her cleaning her fingernails as Team GB came in was hilarious. It wouldn't be a proper national ceremony without the Queen sitting there with a look of severe dyspepsia. I think they should have scheduled in a nap in the afternoon though. And perhaps included some horses: it would have pissed off Animal Rights even more but it's the only thing capable of getting HMQ to smile.

My Nan is the same age as the Queen and she gets tired at that time of day doing half of what the Queen had to do yesterday so I think YABU

Not to mention, I would imagine most of what the opening ceremonies contained, i.e. British Pop Culture, she hasn't actually had time to follow.

I'm American and was bored for a bit there as I couldn't relate.

It was pretty, but it didn't resonate to me. Or, probably, most of the world.

I doubt it resonated with her.

She's 80 years old!! My 80 year old aunt can't move or stay up past 7pm!! Cut her some slack!

I thought it was brilliant that she took part in the James Bond sketch - got a real shock when she turned round and it was the real Queen, not a lookalike. She doesn't smile much but that's fair enough, she has to sit through so much stuff she'd suffer from permanent face ache if she had to go round grinning like a loon.

Yeah, she was looking at her nails when the British team came on which is Not Good but hey, unlike half the ruddy athletes in that endless procession padded out with made-up countries that are not recognised by the UN, at least she wasn't chewing gum or waving a camera phone - someone should have given all of them a lesson in basic manners.

I think HM has one of those faces that just falls into grumpiness when it's at rest - my Dad's does that, he looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp when he's not paying attention to his facial expression! He never realised it was so bad until someone took a photo of him not paying attention - he was horrified!