Does anyone want to buy a used Tardis?

8:01pm Thursday 14th February 2008

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GIVEN the many and varied opportunities now available to inform and educate, one might be tempted to think that our young people would be better informed than previous generations.

After all, this generation has had the benefit of, not only television and radio, but now the limitless, if variable, access to knowledge offered by the internet.

But it would appear that the information age has failed to deliver to a significant number of young people. It was reported this week that 58 per cent of the British teenagers surveyed believed that Sherlock Holmes was a real detective who lived in Baker Street; one in two thought Robin Hood really did live in Sherwood Forest and 65 per cent were convinced that King Arthur was real.

Even Biggles was considered by some to have contributed to our victory in the last war. Of more concern is that one in five thought Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale were fictional characters and two in five thought Richard the Lionheart was the stuff of myth.

They were also under the impression that Charles Dickens, who created some of the most vivid fictional characters, was one himself. Gandhi, Cleopatra, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Duke of Wellington, General Montgomery and Boadicea were all thought, by some, to be characters created by authors or screenwriters.

The poll of 3000 teenagers was conducted by UKTV Gold who, with good reason, concluded that their programmes about history were not a major attraction to the youth of Britain. What is most alarming is that, when around half of the population were alive when Winston Churchill was our prime minister, anybody could be unaware of his contribution to modern history. Even the rather plodding talk and chalk history teacher, who sadly failed to enthuse me with an interest in his subject, wouldn't have deprived me of that information. Mind you Churchill was still around then.

It was only later I discovered that there was more to the study of history than learning the minutiae of the Reform Acts 1832. Mercifully, history teaching has improved greatly since my school days, as I have discovered with my daughters' education, but clearly there are still pockets of resistance out there.

Mind you, perhaps I can persuade someone that Doctor Who is real. Can I interest you in a used Tardis? Only ten previous owners, deceptively roomy interior and only slight exterior damage?