A survey UKTV Gold conducted among 3,000 respondents revealed that Britons under age 20 lack basic historical knowledge. Historical figures Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Florence Nightingale, Sir Walter Raleigh, Mahatma Gandhi, Cleopatra and the Duke of Wellington are seen by many respondents as mythical persons. Some think Charles Dickens was himself a character in fiction rather than the creator of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Martin Chuzzlewit. Meanwhile Sherlock Holmes, the pilot Biggles, and the Three Musketeers were real people. Almost 50 per cent were certain Eleanor Rigby existed not just in the imagination of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.