Shelby and Shannon Attwood had problems distinguishing figures of authority

Asked to describe Mr Blair, seven-year-old Natasha Brimble said: "He's got grey, long hair, curly, with a grey beard a grey-like dressy thing and he does miracles."

When further quizzed if her description was that of the head of the government or in fact the ruler of the Heavens, the little girl admitted: "I'm afraid that I cannot tell the difference between the prime minister and God."

Natasha's confused confession is just one of several taken from interviews with the children and which will be screened in the documentary on Wednesday night.

It has been made by the award-winning documentary maker Phillippa Lowthrope. Lowthorpe conducted her research in a largely working class area of Bristol from where she selected six children at primary school.

Like Natasha, six year-old Shelby Attwood seemed to have her images mixed up. When asked to say what she thought God looked like she said:

"He's got long brown hair ... He wears white animal clothes, probably from a zebra."

When it came to the occupations of those in authority, Shelby thought Mr Blair led a life of leisure.

"He wakes up, gets dressed, sits in the chair, switches on a very old-fashioned telly to see what's happening on the news, then says 'Oh dear'," she declared.

A similar opinion was offered by Natasha when asked to describe the past-times of the Queen.

"She just sits around drinking wine all day," she said. While 10-year-old Terri added: "She sits around her house and tells people to do things."

However, when it came to perceptions of people in her everyday life Terri, in common with some of the other children, had a contrastingly adult perception of reality.

Terri says her best friend is her grandmother "because she's looked after us while mum's been sorting herself out, otherwise we'd be in foster care".

The Queen was believed to spend her days drinking and making demands

Overall however, Lowthorpe concluded that her research showed how difficult children find it to make sense of the world around them, particularly when it came to people and things removed from their lives.

She made the documentary as a companion piece to her acclaimed trilogy of programmes A Childhood. Her other works include Three Salons at the Seaside, A Skirt Through History and Screen Two: Eight Hours From Paris.

The World According To ... will be shown on BBC Two at 21.50 (20.50 GMT) on Wednesday 27 October.