The BBC, well-known for faking wildlife scenes in its documentaries with David Attenborough, and others, is to warn viewers that parts of Hidden Kingdoms, a new BBC documentary about tiny creatures narrated by Stephen Fry, also contains faked scenes.

Using the euphemism “dramatisation” the BBC is advising its licence-payers that some scenes in the new wildlife doc have been “dramatised” (faked) such as an exciting one of a mouse apparently leaping to escape the open jaws of a rattlesnake, faked by gathering footage of the snakes lunging at a hot towel mounted on a camera and merging it with footage of a mouse jumping.

There is a view that such trickery, whilst it might marginally improve the dramatic impact of a presentation for those who don’t know it is being done, can only undermine the credibility and integrity of the BBC for the majority who do. And are parts of the BBC news output similarly faked for dramatic effect?