[mani]

sounds quite good - much better than i thought it was gonna be!

London's set will start with a red London double-decker bus driving around the Bird's Nest stadium.

The bus will be backed by a musical sequence which combines elements of the shipping forecast, Jersualem, Greensleeves and harmonies based on the chimes of Big Ben.

Hoy, Pendleton and Reade, dressed as everyday Londoners, will then follow on their bikes.

Three dance groups will also be involved - the Royal Opera House, street dance theatre group ZooNation and CandoCo, a company which specialises in mixing performers with and without disabilities.

The dancers will surround the double-decker when it comes to a halt at a bus stop, and a 10-year-old girl from east London, Tayyiba Dudhwala, will emerge to receive a football from another girl, Erika Tham.

The bus will then transform itself, with the top half folding down in segments to show a privet hedge cut into shapes of the London skyline: Tower Bridge, Battersea Power Station, the Houses of Parliament, while a phalanx of black umbrellas will be unfurled alongside.

Then X-Factor winner Lewis will emerge from the roof on a rising column to sing an RnB aria before guitarist Page emerges for the duo to perform a new version of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'.

As the song nears its conclusion, former England captain Beckham will appear on another lift, accompanied by Tayyiba, and will kick a football into the crowd of athletes, sparking a live link-up to the handover party outside Buckingham Palace.

"We will take a London approach and will be different. Our approach is to keep it simple and creative, to make it youthful and diverse, entertaining and fun."

He said the segment was neither a short version of the likely 2012 opening, nor an attempt to encapsulate Britain in eight minutes, but it was a small "fun" taster of what is to come in four years time.