Britain abandons stiff upper lip for glory of Games

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal hugs in public, quivering lips on the podium and the deafening roar of the home crowd urging on their athletes at the London Olympics shows 21st century Britain has finally shed its reserved imperial-era persona.

Regarded as a nation of restraint portrayed in TV dramas such as "Downton Abbey", Britons - who often sniff at public emotion as a foreign lapse of control - have wept, screamed for their heroes and been overcome with Olympian emotion at the triumphs and tragedies of sport.