Blackadder was a more realistic depiction of life in the trenches than the poems of Wilfrid Owen, a new study claims.

Researcher Esther MacCallum-Stewart spent four years uncovering comic material written and performed by soldiers during the First World War.

The University of Sussex postgraduate argues the average Tommy was more like Hugh Laurie's stiff upper-lipped Lieutenant George in the BBC comedy series than a despairing war poet.

She said: "The poets that are now known about are about half a dozen men who all knew each other and were all middle-class, homosexual officers who wanted to be writers and artists.

"They were all highly sensitive and writing from a very singular point of view.

"Most of the soldiers did not think about things in the way these poets did.

"When you ask veterans what they thought of the war, they were not against it."

Her research is included in the anthology In Flanders Field: Poetry of the First World War, edited by University of Sussex lecturer George Walter.

Ms MacCallum-Stewart, 30, completed an English literature degree before starting a PhD in the First World War and popular culture.

She studied the ways in which the war has been depicted down the decades, from poetry and songs to films such as Oh! What A Lovely War - partly filmed on Brighton's West Pier, and bestselling books such as Birdsong.

She discovered copies of The Wipers Times, a spoof paper produced on the front line and packed with jokes, cartoons, song lyrics, an agony aunt column and articles mocking the inaccurate reporting in newspapers back home.

Ms MacCallum-Stewart, of Rugby Road, Brighton, said: "It was full of puns and spoofs written by soldiers for soldiers.

"They weren't allowed to write about details of the fighting or numbers of casualties. Instead they found things to laugh about."

Even the paper's title is a typical joke - a reference to the final use of the publication - as toilet roll.

She said: "The sort of jokes Blackadder and Baldrick make about the ineptitude of their generals and how grotty everything is are really very true to life. The soldiers would have recognised the characters and relationships and found them very funny."

She said: "The jokes and stories were proof of a shared experience and showed it was okay to make fun of day-to-day life in wartime. It tempered all the trauma."

Wilfred Owen, who wrote Dulce et Decorum Est, the Great War's best-known poem, was one of about 2,000 published war poets. He is seen as the definitive voice in war literature simply because his work fits in with a modern view of history, Ms MacCallum-Stewart, argues.

She said: "We are always given this impression the soldier was a sort of weak man who went into war unaware and then came back shattered.

"But these men were incredibly courageous and brave and really believed in what they were fighting for. We should respect that. It was not just mud, blood and poppies."