Producing the Ceremony has been described by those behind the scenes in Rio as “like walking on the moon”.

Yet,  in the back of their minds, there will surely be a nagging doubt or two.

Take two years ago in Sochi, the Ceremonies were arguably the greatest ever seen at a Winter Olympics. Yet it seemed that all anyone remembered was the moment the five rings became a quartet. The frustration of ceremony director Konstantin Ernst was clear.

“It would be ridiculous to focus on this," he said. "People are here to watch the show, not one snowflake turning into a ring."

It later emerged that whilst the world saw the snowflake fail to transform into an Olympic ring, viewers in Russia saw them open perfectly. The images recorded in rehearsal were used.

Within days unofficial tee shirts appeared with four Olympic rings and apparently sold like hot cakes. By the time of the Closing Ceremony, Ernst had recovered his poise to such an extent that he even wore one.

It was not the first time that Olympic Rings had caused problems. For the 1992 Games in Barcelona, organisers had planned to have five giant rings on stage but these collapsed during rehearsals a few weeks before and were never seen by the world at large.

The opening of an Olympics is now so elaborate that it really should not come as a surprise when something occasionally goes wrong.

Even at the much simpler 1908 Games, organisers made mistakes. When they put out the flags in London’s Great Stadium at White City, they angered the Americans because the Stars and Stripes were missing. Flying above the Stadium that day was the flag of China and they were not even competing.

Flags seemed to be a recurring problem with London Olympics. Fast forward 40 years to 1948. Officials provided an Opening Ceremony parade flag for every country...except Great Britain. Roger Bannister, a volunteer helper, was dispatched in a jeep to the car park to retrieve the spare flag that they had brought with them. He returned in the nick of time.

At the opening of the following Games, in Helsinki in 1952, a protester broke onto the infield to the amazement of British hockey bronze medallist Neil Nugent.

“My abiding memory is that everybody was there marching around the arena with their lovely uniforms and flags and suddenly, despite all the security, a vestal virgin in flowing robes that you could see through was at the head of the procession. Everybody was saying who is she? Where did she come from?”

It emerged later that she was a campaigner for world peace, though the world only saw her and never got to hear what she had to say.

Italian speed skater Guido Caroli was given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Winter Games of 1956 in ‎Cortina d'Ampezzo. Unfortunately he tripped on a microphone wire and fell to the ground. He kept the flame alight but was inconsolable afterwards. “I feel so ashamed,” he said.

The Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 were acclaimed for bringing a touch of Hollywood glamour. Producer David Wolper included a sequence on “How the West was Won”. Yet in the Olympic ceremony the "pioneers" in fact headed West to East across the Coliseum.

Speaking from a bullet proof gallery high in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Ronald Reagan became the first United States' President to open the Games. ”Any head of state should feel honoured to participate in the opening of these Games” he told ABC Television that afternoon. Reagan was apparently disappointed that he was limited to the traditional formula of words to open the Games. He did not fluff his lines as such but simply put them in the wrong order.

“Celebrating the 23rd Olympiad of the Modern Era, I declare open the Olympic Games of Los Angeles.”

Hurdler Ed Moses had been chosen to speak the competitor’s oath. He had tried to commit this to memory but when the moment came, the words did not. “If only I had looked at the scoreboard” he said later, “the words were up there.”

Speeches have been full of potential pitfalls over the years. The IOC President addresses the stadium in French - the official language of the IOC -and English. At the Munich Olympics of 1972, his last Games as President, Avery Brundage also addressed the crowd in very stilted German, obviously reading from cue cards.

“He was unaware that many of us found this embarrassing and patronising” wrote his successor Lord Killanin.

In 2002, a few months after 9/11, the American President George W Bush opened the Games in Salt Lake City. He prefaced the prescribed words of the declaration with the words “On behalf of a proud and grateful nation”. This was seen by some as a political statement.

A feature of the early Olympics was a symbolic release of pigeons to symbolise the dove of peace.

At the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, the birds had been cooped up for hours before their eventual release.

“I remember well, all of us ducking together as they flew over the stadium” said soon to be Olympic long jump champion Lynn Davies who presumably headed straight to the Olympic village dry cleaners.

At the Seoul Games of 1988, the birds were released and soon landed on the as yet unlit cauldron. When the three Torchbearers ignited the fire, a number of birds were incinerated.

Ever since, the doves have been represented symbolically as Opening Ceremonies now take place by night. Darkness allows theatrical effects full play.

Even so the flame itself has caused more than a few problems. At Sydney 2000 the scoreboard prematurely flashed up the name of Cathy Freeman before she emerged from the darkness. The plan was for her to light a ring of fire which was then to ascend above her to form the cauldron. Except that the mechanism stalled and it was only three minutes and forty seconds later that the problem was resolved.

“They were able to fix it relatively fast considering they’re working in wet dark surroundings and under a bit of pressure.” said Ceremony director Ric Birch.

The sinking feeling was probably also a familiar sensation to Vancouver’s organisers in 2010 when the part of the indoor cauldron failed to raise as ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky, speed skater Catriona le May Doan, basketball player Steve Nash and skier Nancy Greene waited to perform the lighting ceremony.

“Unfortunately the trap that revealed it from the floor of the stadium had some mechanical failure,” said Vancouver Ceremonies supremo David Atkins. “It was an example of the fact that we are all human.”

Rio de Janeiro's Opening Ceremony next year will certainly set the tone for the Games which follow. Their biggest challenge will be to keep as much as possible secret. Japanese journalists infiltrated the rehearsals for the 1988 Games in South Korea and made public the “identity” of the runner to light the Cauldron. That it was Sohn Kee Chung, the Berlin 1936 marathon champion who had been forced to run in the colours of Japan only made the story even more poignant. When Sohn, now 72 discovered that he was only to bring the Flame into the stadium and was not to light the Cauldron, he initially threatened not to take part.

In 2004, organisers of the Athens denied that the choice of their final Torchbearer had been changed at the last minute. Windsurfing champion Nikos Kaklamanakis lit the Cauldron but many suspected that the original choice had been sprinter Kostas Kenderis. He was suspended from the Olympics after a drug testing scandal which had come to light the previous evening.

In 2008, even details of Beijing’s rehearsals were revealed by a Korean television crew. The rumours about The Queen’s involvement in a sequence with James Bond had circulated long before London 2012's Opening Ceremony. The exact nature of her participation, a film sequence involving a helicopter alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig did not become known until the night itself. Not even the involvement of the accident prone “Mr Bean” could jeopardise London’s acclaimed Opening Ceremony.

There will be plenty of speculation about just what will form part of Rio’s Ceremony 12 months from now but it seems a safe bet to say we will not see the “head of state” leap from a helicopter.