A HORRIBLE Histories TV sketch has been criticised by the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee for giving the impression that Florence Nightingale had been racist.
Originally broadcast as part of the hit children's CBBC history show, the sketch featured Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, and Mary Seacole, who cared for British soldiers on the battlefield during the Crimean War.
A clip from the sketch also appeared on the BBC's Learning Zone, an educational, online resource for children.
It suggested that Nightingale turned down the Jamaican-born Seacole for employment.
Viewers saw the actress playing Florence Nightingale say: "The nursing corps was for British girls. You're from Jamaica" to which Seacole responded: "Me father was from Scotland."
The Seacole character also said: "Four times me tried to join Old Lamp-Face's nurses in the Crimean War, and four times she said no."
The committee ruled that the sketch breached editorial guidelines on accuracy and said programme-makers should have done more to make it clear it was not Nightingale herself who rejected Seacole.
The trust added that it was materially inaccurate to suggest Nightingale had said the nursing corps was "for British girls".
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