Who is next in line to the throne? You won't believe this answer

A recent survey of 2,000 adults carried out by SEGA found that Brits also lack serious knowledge about the Ancient Egyptians, showing that teenagers aren’t the only ones struggling when it comes to cultural and historical awareness. The study highlighted that one in five Brits believe that Cleopatra is a fictional character and 56% admit they know ‘next to nothing’ about Ancient Egypt. But, better still, one in ten have never even heard of the Pyramids of Giza. The ironic thing is that four in five Brits believe it’s important to have a good knowledge about history, yet clearly, they are making little attempt to educate themselves on it.

While you can’t blame them for not knowing where Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered - as it’s a relatively niche topic; something that you briefly learn about in primary school and then forget - surely it is a given that Cleopatra wasn’t a mythical character?

You may also question whether researching Ancient Egypt is something people want to do when they can binge a Netflix drama instead. As a history student maybe I’m a little biased in saying that history is not only important, but extremely fascinating. I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase ‘you can’t let history repeat itself’ and despite it being a classic cliché, the sentiment is difficult to disagree with. In the same way that couples who do not learn from arguments end their relationship, without learning from our historical mistakes, we may have to suffer through them all over again. So, I’d say that the need to educate the population about history is wholly important.

It's not only history. Millions of Brits claim that they would fail GCSE geography, according to a 2018 study. Three per cent (the equivalent of 1.5m people) thought Great Britain was even its own continent. The only one thing we seem to be good at is identifying capital cities, which is largely down to the fact that the one thing Brits love is a holiday, and knowing capital cities is essential when booking flights!

However, according to the World Population Review, the United Kingdom is number 5 on the Most Educated Countries List, with many here undergoing tertiary education. So perhaps it’s only historical and geographical knowledge that’s not quite adequate. With just a few documentaries and podcasts our knowledge should be up to scratch, right?