It worked for me, and I guess for most people too.

The references were very british, but most of them belonged to contexts/events/period which are part of more or less basic education in tons of other countries (I guess especially in the Commonwealth as what happened in England influenced what happened in our countries massively), like industrialization, the suffragettes movement, the NHS etc. None of that was obscure. Other stuff such as the ties between GOS and the royalties of Peter Pan is an arch famous story (the Great Ormond St. and Bedlam are possibily the best known hospitals worlwide). The BBC makes your telly and way of life very familiar to a large foreign audience too, to say nothing of the fame of British pop music or children literature. Heck, we even got perhaps accidental references, like the similarity of the first set to Teletubbyland.

The UK's star may have paled abroad compared to the 18-19th centuries, but less than the average Brit seems to think. The comment of my neighbour afterward was that it was amazing to be reminded that before they simply remade the same movies over and over again, Hollywood were literally living off British creativity

So all and all, Boyle not only made it all british to the bone, but also succeeded at making it extremely accessible to the average foreigner.