Whimsical, illustrious, eccentric, creative - cabaret captures Britain

To the celebrated Hollywood serial blockbusters Analyse This and Analyze That, we must now add Danny Boyle's epic Isles of Wonder, which should have been subtitled Translate The 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, If You Can.

Boyle's GBP27 million (HK$329 million) homage to his homeland and attempt to show Britain's warts, beauty spots and all to the 21st century multi-connected and hypercritical world was undoubtedly a successful, wacky, spellbinding, humorous mind boggler.

But you had to be British to truly decode what on earth was going on, and even many of us Brits were often scratching our heads. How many of the estimated more than one billion watching around the world had previously heard the music to The Archers, the long-running BBC radio soap opera detailing - for over 40 years - the bucolic but often-troubled lives of rural Britons?

Of course, it was never going to be an easy feat for the maverick film director to relay the many marvels and achievements of Britain since ... er, sorry - how long did we go back into our long history? Ah yes, it seemed we began the tale in the domesticated farm animal-infested meadows a couple of decades before the 18th century industrial revolution.

There was no mention of the Romans, Boadicea, the Magna Carta, the plague, the Pilgrim Fathers, a thumb and nose to Rome, nor Lord Nelson, much to the disappointment of us history purists supping warm pints of over-priced beer.

There was, though, for this expat Beijinger, an odd sense of homesickness during the iron-smelting and belching smoke-stack scenes, and it was clear Boyle was sending an anvil-heavy message to the Chinese and Indians about pollution and choking development - as well as reminding us Britons about whence we came.