Winston Churchill may have been voted the public's "Greatest Briton" but one historian has decided he was not even our second best prime minister of the 20th century.
Tory "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher and post-war Labour leader Clement Attlee both outscored him in a new study of occupants of 10 Downing Street by Francis Beckett.
Tony Blair has been so hamstrung by his decision to join the war in Iraq that he should be considered less effective than ex-Conservative premier Edward Heath, he argued.
And John Major's battles to control his own backbenches meant he only just outscored Neville Chamberlain and Anthony Eden.
Mr Beckett ranked the 20 Prime Ministers, from Lord Salisbury to the present incumbent, with a score of one to five for the latest issue of BBC History Magazine.
In 2002, millions of viewers of a BBC television series selected Second World War leader Churchill as the "greatest Briton of all time".
However, Mr Beckett's assessment was based on the politicians' ability to put their visions for changing the country into practice.
Lady Thatcher - who led the country from 1979 to 1990 and is one of only three on the list still living - scored a maximum five.
The historian said that was because she "took one sort of society, and turned it into another sort of society". He picked her victory over the mineworkers as a key moment.
Joint winner Attlee led the Labour Government from 1945-51 which set up the welfare state and nationalised industry, creating an enduring consensus only dismantled by Lady Thatcher.
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