Entitled "Isle of Wonder, " Boyle -- the Oscar-winning director best known for hit movies "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire" -- put together a star-studded on-field dramatization that drew on Shakespeare and Brit Pop to chart Britain from its pastoral roots through the Industrial Revolution to James Bond, Harry Potter and the Beatles.
To take only the two most obvious examples, Sir Nicholas Serota, a former young Turk, presides at the new Tate, Britain's most popular gallery, and Charles Saatchi's once shocking collection of Brit art is on display in museum-space that he colonised in London's staid old County Hall upriver.