British readers will not have missed the recent popular BBC series Ten Greatest Britons poll. The downside of this series is the trivialising of history. It is postmodern sentiment that puts Diana Princess of Wales and John Lennon among the greatest Brits.
The plus side, and it is considerable when we reflect on it, is that the majority who never give history a thought have watched a well documented series and will know a lot more after this series than they did before. One admitted that he now knew that Cromwell came after Queen Elizabeth I and not before!
Large numbers participated. Winston Churchill romped home at the end with 410,000 telephone and Internet votes. Second was the Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel with 350,000, followed by Diana with 211,000. Charles Darwin was fourth, followed in order by Sir Isaac Newton, John Lennon, Queen Elizabeth I, Horatio Nelson, and Oliver Cromwell.
