DO you think that history programmes on TV are being sponsored by the Job Centre to take out of work actors off the dole?

No matter what the subject, it seems that TV cannot resist dressing up actors in dubious costumes and filming them in soft focus to recreate' the lives of poor peasants or how a battle was lost.

They've managed to spoil parts of Restoration Village in this way and this week, BBC2 have been at it again.

The Lost Cities of the Ancients, which is shaping up to be an otherwise excellent three-parter, has fallen into the trap of trying to over-egg the pudding.

Last night you would have thought that an investigation into a series of mysterious pyramids hidden away in Peru which revealed a world of human sacrifices and bizarre rituals would be compelling enough.

But no. They had to go and bring in the actors, dress them up like Foghorn Leghorn at a fancy dress party and keep cutting away from the experts to show us a theatrical bloodbath.

Is it that producers believe their viewers don't have the attention span to cope with anything that is remotely intellectual? If that's the case, why bother making the programme in the first place?

Watching genuine experts go about their work with enthusiasm can be good viewing - David Attenborough and Michael Palin have made careers out of it and Time Team regularly pulls in millions of viewers.

So come on those in the know.

Don't always assume that we need a Braveheart version of history, just stick to the facts - we can take it!