The city's symbol, a metal bull, made an appearance in the Opening Ceremony. These included city newcomers, from the Irish community which helped dig the canals, to the immigrants answering the 1950s call to help rebuild the city, and the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poignant scene entitled ‘Hear My Voice’ was an anthem to all the unheard, undervalued, and unacknowledged voices that have made Birmingham the city that it is today. In it a group of athletes from around the Commonwealth explored the history, culture, and the identity of Birmingham, which was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in iron and steel production, and how it is emerging as a vibrant, multicultural city.

The athletes' grit was reflected by a cast of thousands in the story of Stella and the Dreamers. Vanuatu was led out by flagbearer Elie Enock, who lost her leg in a car accident at 20 years old but is now a medal hopeful in javelin and shot put. The smaller islands also shone on the world stage. Among them, Australia’s Para cyclist sprint B champion Jessica Gallagher and England’s six-time world and Paralympic wheelchair racing champion, David Weir. The 30,000-strong crowd at the stadium cheered the Commonwealth’s finest athletes with great enthusiasm.

Both are absolute essentials.Click here and change your settings to allow Both take the medium and drag it forward more than any other title in this list. Both are rammed with jokes and insider details that will keep them fresh throughout replays to come. And yet both share a cable of DNA in that, during the time you’ll be invested within them (which is a huge amount), you will genuinely feel like you’ve been transplanted to another place. Nintendo’s game is infinitely more family-friendly, relying on the universal wonder of adventure to deliver its thrills, while Rockstar’s is a more visceral, violent, gritty, adult-oriented beast. Aesthetically the two games share little beyond both giving your character a horse to get around on, and flooding the world you inhabit with the wonder of nature, of course. You might say we wimped out, but we’d prefer to consider the near-impossible task of separating two games that may well be the two greatest videogames of all time testament to what a pioneering decade it’s been for the medium.

50 best games of 2017