Have that pinch of salt ready.

It used to be said that history was written by the victors, but these days it seems to be more that history is written by the film-makers and television producers. Steven Spielberg's latest film based on the Munich Olympic massacre is coming under fire for supposed factual inaccuracies, and I'm sure they probably exist. The problem is the ordinary man in the street isn't going to know what's right and what's wrong, and what is likely to remain in his mind is the film rather than anything else. We're already used to the idea that it was Errol Flynn, John Wayne and Audie Murphy who won the Second World War, with Britain playing at best a supporting role, and that it was the Americans, rather than the British, who captured an Enigma machine from a stricken U-boat. We've had a completely unnecessarily scurrilous portrayal of First Officer Murdoch in the film "Titanic" and William Wallace doing things he never did in "Braveheart". And these are the images which tend to remain in our minds, and over time, if we're not careful, they become accepted as historical fact. Perhaps there's a case for such productions to carry a health warning - "WARNING. This film/programme may seriously damage your perception of history!"