[Sundae]

Our commentators identified the child-catcher, don't you worry Wolf.
'Cept the silly woman identified him as "the character which haunted all our nightmares as children"

Errr - no. Watched the film as far as the child-catcher about 10 years ago. A bit too old by then. Still haven't managed to make it past Benny Hill... The only childhood character to feature in my nightmares was Heidi. And they were really fever dreams when I had mumps; Mum had been reading me the story.

During the opening ceremony, Mum went to the loo, came back and asked what had happened to the tree.
"Kenneth Branagh killed it" I said.

Re Mr Bean, I read an American reviewer who said they switched off after that segment as British potty humor is not as appreciated as we think it is (or something like that). A fart. One fart in a couple of hours of magic. And not even a real fart! A machine-generated-mistake! I am no fan of Mr Bean but apparently I am a potty humourist.

I was also puzzled by the overseas reviewers concern about "in-jokes". So I watched it again. Yes all of it (except the parade of athletes which doesn't count). Yes, I suppose there were some Brit-centric jokes. But nothing very obscure. Nothing intentional I suspect. I've learned from being here how easy it is to be surprised by an international break in communication. But I am willing to concede. After all the Shipping Forecast is not a joke as such, but it's pretty insular.

I swear I heard the Tardis once or twice. But no-one I've spoken to has backed me up. Perhaps the Doctor really was in my garden with the hedgehogs and I just carried on regardless.