Are these really the Greatest Britons?

Last night, BBC2 開始する，打ち上げるd a new series to decide who is the Greatest Briton of all time. He, or she, will be chosen from a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 100 指名するs which was drawn up after a 投票 of 33,000 people.

Typically, in this celebrity obsessed age, it 含むs Boy George and Robbie Williams but omits Wordsworth and Kipling. Here, 尊敬（する）・点d 伝記作家 Roy Hattersley argues that the BBC has served neither history nor its テレビ視聴者s with this 冷笑的な 演習. . .

At first, it seemed that the BBC could not （不足などを）補う its mind about 広大な／多数の／重要な Britons. The choice of Anne Robinson to host the programme and the trailers which 促進するd it 示唆するd that this was a cross between a 質問（する） show and a パネル盤 game.

Yet BBC bosses 主張するd that the 事業／計画（する） was a serious 出資／貢献 to the understanding of our history.

In fact, it is a 冷笑的な 試みる／企てる to attract to BBC2 the sort of テレビ視聴者s who get excited by the 最高潮 of the Eurovision Song Contest, while at the same time pretending that something uplifting and cultural is, for once, on 申し込む／申し出.

Perhaps the BBC itself deserves to 勝利，勝つ some sort of award because dumbing 負かす／撃墜する and tarting up the same 支配する in one programme cannot have been 平易な.

But then such a 事業／計画（する） probably just 反映するs today's Britain, which has lost a sense of history and 混乱させるs ephemeral fame with true greatness.

The whole notion of 投票（する）ing for the greatest Briton of all time is, in itself, ridiculous. However, if such an 人工的な contest has to be held, then the 勝利者 should be William Shakespeare.

For he is a man who 引用するd not just for an age but for all time, whose plays define the very nature of our country and who is universally 定評のある as the world's greatest poet and dramatist. But do not ask me how I make the comparison between Shakespeare and Winston Churchill, who led us to victory over 野蛮／未開, Queen Elizabeth I, who made us a superstate, and Isaac Newton, the father of modern science.

These are people of such 長所 that it is impossible to 示す their 記録，記録的な／記録する like a school 報告（する）／憶測 card.

The triviality of the whole 企業 is cruelly exposed by some of the 指名するs which have made it into what the BBC is pleased to call 'The 最高の，を越す 100 Britons of all time'.

They 含む pop singer Robbie Williams, film 星／主役にする Julie Andrews, former Culture Club singer and DJ Boy George and actor Michael Crawford.

I have not a word to say against any of them. But to 示唆する that they compare in greatness with Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell, Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Michael Faraday is 簡単に nonsense.

The absurdity of the whole 事業／計画（する） is 確認するd by the 広大な／多数の／重要な 指名するs which do not even qualify for consideration. The Duke of Marlborough was undoubtedly the greatest 兵士 in British history. His 指名する is not on the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）.

Our 広大な／多数の／重要な 小説家s do 特に 不正に. Charles Dickens and Jane Austen get a について言及する, but there is no room for Thackeray, George Eliot, Kipling or Trollope.

Nor is there room for Constable or Turner - Britain's two greatest painters.

平等に, poetry is 代表するd by the lonely 人物／姿／数字 of William Blake. No Wordsworth. No Tennyson. No Browning. Not even John Milton - by all sensible 計算／見積りs second only to Shakespeare in the pantheon of British literature.

政治家，政治屋s are 事実上 ignored. I 受託する, without 保留（地）／予約, that Margaret Thatcher changed the 直面する of Britain. And, if he 勝利，勝つs a third General 選挙, Tony Blair may do the same. Their 傾向 on the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） does not surprise me at all.

But what about William Ewart Gladstone, four times 首相 and the 製造者 of modern political Britain; Clement Attlee, who built the 福利事業 明言する／公表する and created the modern 連邦／共和国; William Pitt the Younger, the 首相 who (in the 直面する of 侵略 from Napoleonic フラン) made sure Britain 'saved herself by her exertions and will, I 信用, save Europe by her example'?

You may not agree that all - or any - of my 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of people omitted deserve a place in the 最高の，を越す 100.

But do you really think that they are いっそう少なく worthy of 傾向 than Cliff Richard, John Peel or David Bowie - all whom seem to 借りがある their places と一緒に Nelson and Thomas More to 最近の （危険などに）さらす on 無線で通信する or television?

And therein lies both the secret and the shame of the whole silly 演習. In one way or another, it panders to the 教団 of celebrity.

So Boy George is placed ahead of Sir Francis Drake, and David Beckham ahead of Thomas 苦痛 and Queen Boudicca.

Some of the 指名された人s 明確に 借りがある their places to carefully planned （選挙などの）運動をするs by their 支持者s - always a 危険 in a 投票 行為／行うd by internet and on the telephone.

Of course I was gratified to see 含むd William Booth (the 創立者 of the 救済 Army) and John Wesley (the father of Methodism) - the two 支配するs of my most 最近の biographies.

One of the 推論する／理由s I chose to 令状 about these two genuinely 広大な／多数の／重要な men was the fact that their greatness was 大部分は ignored.

I would like to think that my 調書をとる／予約するs turned the tide. But I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う that the real 推論する／理由 they have won a place in the 投票 is that loyal 信奉者s organised it on their に代わって. The same must be true for Tony Benn and James Connolly, the Irish 共和国の／共和党の 愛国者.

Heaven only knows how Aleister Crowley got into the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）. Crowley who from time to time thought he was the reincarnation of the devil, led a coven of occult worshippers who met between the World Wars.

非，不，無 of his depraved disciples would have 推定する／予想するd him to be 投票（する）d number 73 in the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of greatest Britons, so we can only hope that his 予期しない eminence is the result of a bad joke.

But there is one 指名する which, above all others, shows the superficiality of the whole 演習. An d that 指名する is Diana, Princess of むちの跡s. Five years ago, the 悲劇 of her death touched the whole nation. She was a gentle and 極度の慎重さを要する woman who 充てるd much of her time to noble 原因（となる）s.

Now her life is beginning to be seen in proper 視野. I know her millions of 支持者s will 同意しない, but to regard her as one of the 最高の，を越す Ten greatest Britons - ahead of both the 現在の Queen and Queen Victoria - is absurd.

In fact, absurd is the best way in which to 述べる the whole 演習.

Perhaps there will be テレビ視聴者s who are を待つing the result of the 投票 with barely controlled 苦悩 - rather in the same way that Bruce Forsyth used to bring the 世代 Game to its 人工的な 最高潮. 'And the 勝利者 is . . .' long pause before the 勝利者 was 指名するd.

But, like Anne Robinson's usual show, The Weakest Link, the whole event will be a shabby 試みる／企てる to dress up showbiz schmaltz to look like something which has a vague 関係 with knowledge and learning.

And that せねばならない be the nation's real （民事の）告訴.

There is a place on television for light-hearted triviality - for honest vulgarity, cheap music and sentimental soaps. From time to time, I enjoy it all. But 広大な／多数の／重要な Britons is dross disguised as gold.