The Panorama Trump debacle is only one part of the BBC's problems: the way it does history is deeply flawed, says Herald columnist Mark Smith

Remember 20 years ago when the BBC did a poll on the greatest ever Britons (20 years ago? it might as well have been a hundred). Among the top ten were Nelson, Shakespeare and Elizabeth I. Also in the list were people I’d happily vote for then and now: Shackleton, Thatcher, Dickens, Chaplin. But number one was Churchill. Because of course he was. Churchill. Don’t doubt it.

Would the same poll be done today? Not likely. As we’ve seen from general elections, if people get the vote, they often come up with the wrong result and a list of greatest Britons with Churchill at the top would now be considered the wrong result. There’s also a chance Churchill wouldn’t even make the top ten because, in the eyes of some, he’s gone from greatest to worst, from hero to villain. It’s one – just one – of the indicators of the crisis at the BBC and why it’s now having to say sorry to someone like Donald Trump.

But before I go into the details of what the BBC’s been doing to Churchill and others, which got a bit lost in the hoo-ha over the Trump edit, I should just say that I’m not about to argue the BBC should be like it was 20 or 40 years ago. Yes, I’m nostalgic – I can’t help it: Blue Peter told me how to make things, John Craven told me what was happening, Doctor Who made me scared and The Two Ronnies made me laugh – but society changes, we change, and so the BBC changes. For example: Britain is more racially diverse than it was and the output of the BBC should be too, fair enough.

There are some things about the BBC that shouldn’t have changed though, but have. No matter how much they might deny it – even now, even after the........

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