The BBC has been accused of pushing a “relentlessly negative” agenda against the British Empire in a “morally self-righteous” documentary about the legacy of colonialism.
Empire, a three-part series presented by British-Nigerian writer David Olusoga, charts the UK’s colonial expansion from Tudor times to the First World War.
But a senior historian has claimed the show aired on BBC Two and iPlayer offers a “biased” perspective of Britain’s global influence.
The criticism comes weeks after director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness resigned after Donald Trump threatened the corporation with a billion-dollar lawsuit over Panorama’s edit of his January 6, 2021, speech.
The spliced video of his address in Washington DC made it falsely appear as though the US President had explicitly urged supporters to raid the US Capitol.
Professor Lawrence Goldman, an emeritus fellow at St Peter’s College, Oxford and member of the History Reclaimed campaign group, said Mr Olusoga’s Empire “isn’t interested in much beyond victimhood”.
He argues the programme focused on the UK’s involvement in slavery, but omitted efforts to spread democracy and improve educational standards worldwide.
Professor Goldman claimed Mr Olusoga took key pieces of information about Britain’s history out of context.
Director-General Tim Davie is quitting the broadcaster
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GETTYThis, Professor Goldman says, includes the suggestion Mike Mountain Horse, an indigenous soldier and volunteer from Canada, “found himself” on the Western Front “because he and his people were subjects of the British Empire”.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “History cannot be viewed through a morally self-righteous lens.
“The BBC used to ‘do history’ so much better. It didn’t put it in the hands of activists and people with an axe to grind but used acknowledged academic experts.”
BBC executives were previously dismissive against Professor Goldman when he and other Oxbridge dons raised issues with “politically motivated” history programming and promoting woke issues.
An episode of Digging For Britain claimed British policy during the Irish potato famine amounted to the “extermination” of native people and that aid was refused, despite then-Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel ordering the purchase of American maize to feed communities.
Mr Olusoga, who appeared in this year’s Celebrity Traitors, previously stoked controversy when he argued Winston Churchill was a war criminal because he was allegedly complicit in atrocities committed in Africa in the early 20th century.
But speaking in front of MPs on Monday, Michael Prescott, the former BBC adviser and author of a leaked memo on impartiality at the corporation, denied claims the broadcaster is “institutionally biased”.
GB News has approached the BBC for comment.