'It's just not me': Danny Boyle explains he turned down knighthood because he wouldn't have felt right accepting individual award for the Olympics opening ceremony

Boyle, 56, was in line for New Year Honours list for highly praised spectacle
He said a cast of thousands helped create it, so accepting 'didn't feel right'

PUBLISHED: 21:00 EST, 18 March 2013 | UPDATED: 08:59 EST, 19 March 2013

Oscar winner Danny Boyle said he turned down a knighthood for his work in masterminding London's £27million Olympic opening ceremony because 'it's just not me'

Oscar winner Danny Boyle said he turned down a knighthood for his work in masterminding London’s £27million Olympic opening ceremony because 'it’s just not me'.

Boyle, 56, was in line for the New Year Honours list for the highly praised spectacle.

But as the ceremony's artistic director, he said he would not have felt right accepting an individual award as a cast of thousands - including the Queen - helped create it.

'It’s just not me. I also thought it was wrong, actually,' he told the Radio Times.

'You can make these speeches about "this is everybody’s work, blah blah blah".

'And you’ve got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it’s the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people.

'I don’t know whether I’ll ever get invited back to the Palace.'

He and his artistic team sent a 'script' to Buckingham Palace.

It was in the hope Queen would agree to a surprise appearance in the much loved James Bond skit, which saw her accompanied to the Games by Britain’s top secret agent.

The unexpected scene was one of the quirky highlights of the ceremony.

He said: 'Basically we thought there are two scenarios.

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'They’ll either agree, provided we do it with a good double (and we promised them that we’d either get a really good actor, a Helen Mirren-style actor, or we’d get a cracking double, so it wasn’t poking fun), or it will be a no.'

Mr Boyle, 56, was in line for the New Year Honours list for the highly praised spectacle

A performer playing the role of the Queen parachutes from a helicopter during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. He and his artistic team sent a 'script' to Buckingham Palace in the hope Queen would agree to a surprise appearance

The quintessentially British scenes saw the ceremony widely hailed a resounding success

Actors perform in a sequence to represent the National Health Service (NHS) during the ceremony

Trainspotting, a film about Edinburgh junkies, was one of Boyle’s earliest big-screen hits.

He is hoping to get the cast - Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner - back together for the 20th anniversary.

He is working on a couple of scripts with Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge, including a 'loose' first draft based on Irvine Welsh novel Porno, his sequel to Trainspotting.

Boyle said: 'I’d love that to happen at some point. To get them back, Likely Lads style, 20 years later, carrying that experience as people and as characters.

'If we can get the script right, I think they’ll do it. But we’ll see.'

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Still whining,he is in danger of becoming a most hated personality,is he going to be in the following,Big Bore,Iam an attention seeker,get me out of here.As for the NHS bit of his over priced show,he should have spent most of that 27 million on the NHS.

- tessa.wales , neath, United Kingdom, 19/3/2013 21:23

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BS he is a left wing plonker

- Jim , Manchester, 19/3/2013 21:08

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It's the people who decide who should be given Knighthoods that need to get their heads tested. The criteria doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever. If it were up to me, I would make all mothers Dames for giving birth and then raising a family. That to me is more worthwhile than giving someone like Chris Chopstick or Bradley Wiggles a knighthood.

- solly3670 , London, 19/3/2013 16:28

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Not him again. The Olympics has come and GONE, now do the same.

- johncarslow , Reading, 19/3/2013 16:00

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It's ridiculous to offer somebody a knighthood just for putting a variety show together.

- David , Solihull, 19/3/2013 15:49

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Once again, thanks Danny great job on the Olympics. Now shut the ..... Up you are as boring as can be

- kevmorby , Wolverhampton, 19/3/2013 15:39

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I've just helped an old lady across the road. Do you think they'll give me an MBE for that? Thats about all these self indulgent trinkets are worth!

- The English man , Chester, 19/3/2013 15:10

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He was probably more embarrassed than anything else. Knighthoods nowadays are given to every man and his dog just before they have been caught with their trousers down of fingers in the till, they should rename them Sh@tehoods.

- jimthegaff , Gloucester, United Kingdom, 19/3/2013 13:51

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He doesn't need a knighthood to be regarded in high esteem by the people.

- Neil , Leicester, 19/3/2013 13:44

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SHUT UP.

- Ancient Briton. , Southern England, United Kingdom, 19/3/2013 13:43

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