Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman 'astonished' that Blackadder is used in schools to teach pupils about First World War

It is ‘astonishing’ that children are being shown Blackadder Goes Forth in school to teach them about the First World War, Jeremy Paxman said last night.
He said he thought it was because ‘it is much easier to imagine the First World War with the help of other people’s imaginations’.
The Newsnight presenter said he believed people’s difficulty in understanding the war originated in the fact ‘we have been accustomed to seeing the First World War as poetry rather than history.’

History lesson: Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman said that he finds it 'astonishing' that Blackadder Goes Forth, pictured, is used to teach school pupils about the First World War

Historical inaccuracies: Paxman was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on how the Great War had been misrepresented in history, to promote his book Great Britain¿s Great War

He added: ‘Poets are the means by which we approach this subject because it is quite difficult to comprehend from our perspective.’
Paxman was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on how the Great War had been misrepresented in history, to promote his book Great Britain’s Great War.
He appeared wearing a grey suit with an open-neck shirt with no tie, and sported the beard which made headlines when he first appeared with it on Newsnight earlier this year.

 
Asked about his beard he said: ‘I haven’t decided if it’s staying.
'My only resolution is that when I do I will make my own decision, thank you very much.’
The presenter revealed earlier this week that he 'seriously considered' quitting Newsnight after the show's reputation was badly damaged by the Jimmy Savile and Lord McAlpine scandals.

A close shave: Paxman was also asked about his beard when he appeared at the festival

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'I thought about it, of course, but in the end I decided that there were several bad decisions, they were individual bad decisions and I felt that loyalty commanded that I stayed.'
Mr Paxman said that he discussed the issue of his potential resignation with a colleague at the BBC.
He added that he hoped that the programme's view was not still tarnished in the eyes of viewers.