BBC admits borrowing phrases from rival history show

The BBC has apologised after its history presenter Dan Cruickshank repeated phrases used in a Channel 4 documentary.

TV historian Marc Morris watched the BBC documentary about Harlech castle earlier this month, after making a programme for Channel 4 last year about the same site.

He was shocked and angry to hear some of his own phrases being repeated, virtually unchanged, by fellow presenter Mr Cruickshank on the BBC4 programme, part of the series Britain’s Best Buildings.

Mr Morris wrote a letter to the BBC citing eight significant “borrowings” from his own documentary and the book which accompanied it.

The BBC immediately apologised, presented a goodwill payment to the historian and re-edited the programme before its repeat screenings.

But the corporation denies plagiarism, blames a mistake at the research stage of production, and says that Mr Cruickshank was not to blame.

Mr Morris, who writes his own scripts, told The Guardian newspaper that the BBC’s mistake, on the May 5 programme, was “fundamental”.

“When you’re researching these sorts of programmes, you have to develop a magpie sensibility,” he said.

“We all have that. You absorb all sorts of things. You work fast, but you acknowledge your sources.

“This is just fundamental. You don’t copy wholesale blocks of text.”

Mr Morris had originally set his video to record the programme about the 13th century Welsh fortress, built by Edward I to enforce his rule over the rebellion, but in the end was home for the evening.

He could not believe his ears when he heard the passage: “In 1275 Edward organised a large-scale public ceremony.

“He took the entire court to Chester so everyone could watch Llywelyn kneel before him.

“But Llywelyn didn’t show up and so dealt a mighty blow to Edward’s dignity.”

A year earlier, Mr Morris said on his own programme, Castles: “In 1275, Edward organised exactly this kind of large-scale public ceremony.

“The king dragged his entire court to Chester so everyone could watch Llywelyn kneel before him.

“And guess what? Llywelyn didn’t show up, and the blow to Edward’s dignity was fatal.”

Later in the programme, Mr Cruickshank said: “Heavy blocks of stone were either dragged on sleds or wheeled in carts.

“The method of lifting them off the ground and up to the level of the builders was particularly ingenious. At each site, carpenters constructed several windlass cranes, powered by men in a treadmill.”

In Mr Morris’s book he wrote: “Heavy blocks of stone were either dragged on sleds, or wheeled from place to place on carts.

“The method of lifting them off the ground and up to the level of the builders was particularly ingenious. At each site, carpenters constructed several windlass cranes, powered by men in a treadmill.”

Mr Morris was paid around £4,000 (€6,000), and asked for the sum to go to the restoration fund of Rochester Castle.

A BBC spokeswoman said Mr Cruickshank was not to blame.

She said: “This was an isolated lapse. An error was made at the early research stage.

“Dan wasn’t to blame. We have apologised for this and a small payment has been made as a goodwill gesture.

“We took immediate action before we had a second showing by taking those passages out.

“Mr Morris’s book would have been looked at during the research stage, but when the script was pulled together turns of phrase were inadvertently left in.”

Channel 4’s head of history, Hamish Mykura, told The Guardian that the event was unprecedented.

“I was absolutely astonished,” he said. “Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but I’m not sure what this is.”