5 February 2008: Britons losing their grip

Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a survey just released.

The survey found that nearly half the respondents thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth. And about a quarter thought World War II prime minister Winston Churchill, and Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale, also did not actually exist. Other real people widely thought to be fictional included Charles Dickens, Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes actually existed and a third thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

SaintFM blames television, though there are some here who think they may be right about Biggles.