Dame Judi Dench to have a starring role in Rio Olympics opening ceremony
DAME Judi Dench is to play a starring role at the Rio Olympics it emerged yesterday.
Dame Judi Dench is set to play a role in Rio Olympics opening ceremony
The Oscar-winning actress will perform at the glittering opening ceremony of the Games tomorrow night – following in the footsteps of her James Bond co-star Daniel Craig.
Her role in the show will be less dramatic than Craig’s jaw-dropping cameo at London 2012 which ended with him appearing to parachute into the Olympic Stadium alongside the Queen.
The star, who played MI6 chief M in seven Bond movies, will read a poem during a section of the ceremony dedicated to Brazil’s natural environment.
The poem called A Flore a Nausea is about a flower growing in the cracked asphalt of a busy road in a heavily polluted city.
The Bond actress will read a poem during a section of the ceremony
Dame Judi, 81, will be one of a handful of foreign performers taking part in the four-hour curtain-raiser.
Organisers have said the event will not feature the high-tech wizardry of director Danny Boyle’s triumph of four years ago or the previous games in Beijing in 2008.
In a bid to deflect a wave of criticism organisers slashed the budget of the opening ceremony to reduce the burden on taxpayers while Brazil is engulfed in its worst recession since the 1930s.
The budget for the ceremony has been slashed to reduce the burden on taxpayers
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The ceremony, in Rio’s Maracana football stadium, will feature 6,000 scantily clad performers paying tribute to Brazil’s carnival.
Andy Murray has been chosen as flag bearer for the Great Britain team for the opening ceremony, the British Olympic Association announced yesterday.