Who discovered penicillin? Who was the winner of the first Big Brother TV show?

Midlanders apparently find it easier to correctly answer the latter question than the first, showing they know more about reality television than historical British achievements, according to a new study.

More than 1,000 people across the country were quizzed for the survey and those living in the West Midlands gave the most wrong answers.

One in five thought Dame Ellen MacArthur was the first Briton to sail around the world and only 45 per cent could name the legendary explorer who completed that feat more than 400 years ago.

And 17 per cent of Midlanders wrongly credited James Bond novelist Ian Fleming with discovering penicillin, rather than the scientist who did make that breakthrough.

The Great Britons survey was commissioned to coincide with the launch of Marie Curie Cancer Care's Little Feet, Big Feat fund-raising event next month.

Among its findings was that despite spending many hours in front of it, Midlanders are confused over who invented television - 17 per cent thought it was Alexander Graham Bell (he invented the telephone) and nine per cent thought it was World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

One reality show did, however, manage to educate viewers. Following feminist Germaine Greer's stint on Celebrity Big Brother last month, 79 per cent of Midlanders correctly named the founder of the Suffragette movement.

* More than 22,000 schoolchildren will take part in a simultaneous sponsored walk on March 18 in aid of Marie Curie £3 million Daffodil Appeal. For more information visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil/schools or call 0800 716 146.