A HAMPSHIRE councillor is embroiled in a row over medieval history after questioning the BBC for using a black actor in a white role.

Cllr Chris Wood, Ukip leader at Hampshire County Council, was criticised by a young historian after claiming it was "inaccurate" to cast Sophie Okonedo as French Queen Margaret of Anjou.

Graduate student Chevalier au Canard took the county and Fareham borough councillor to task, pointing out the manuscript he used also claimed Margaret, a wife of Henry VI, was descended from a swan.

"It's amazing how imaginative medieval people were, isn't it @CllrChrisWood?" she tweeted. "If only you still had just a tiny fraction of that imagination."

Oscar-nominated Okonedo is playing the wife of Henry VI in Shakespearian adaptation The Hollow Crown, partly filmed in Hampshire.

Crews spent weeks filming in the county last year, with Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch among the stars seen at Winchester's Great Hall and Round Table.

Cllr Wood said he had posed a "perfectly legitimate question about the historical accuracy of BBC dramas".

He declined further comment.