Schools these days appear to have given up the teaching of history, and the entertainment industry always seems ready to add insult to ignorance. Now there’s news that a new film is being made about Oliver Cromwell. Amongst the, er, highlights, Cromwell washing his hands in the blood of the executed Charles I.

The Sunday Telegraph takes up the story:

“Mike Barker, the film’s director, admitted he had taken an imaginative approach with the facts, but he insisted that the film captured the spirit of the times.

He said: “We have included our own amendments and half-truths in the film because, after all, it is a drama. We do show him at the scaffold when the King is executed and we do show him putting his hands in the blood of the King.

“I know those things didn’t happen but we are trying to illustrate the idea that Cromwell was responsible for the execution of the King.”

Dougray Scott, who plays Fairfax, defended the film as authentic and relevant to a modern audience. He said: “I think the story of a nation divided is one that will appeal to young people. You only have to look at the issue of the war with Iraq to see that there are very real disagreements in our political life.”

Oliver Stone would be thrilled.