The Earl of Powis has told a documentary that he wishes a statue of his ancestor, Clive of India, was not in the centre of Shrewsbury.

A debate raged last year over the presence of statues dedicated to figures from Britain's colonial past, and there were discussions within Shropshire Council about whether the statue in The Square in the county town should remain.

But according to advance reports about the second episode of Empire State of Mind, the first episode of which aired on Saturday, John Herbert, the 8th Earl of Powis, has shared his own discomfort about its presence.

The series, fronted by the journalist Sathnam Sanghera, looks at how Britain's relationship with its imperial history is affecting our current national identity.

And the second episode will look at the role of Clive, whose East India Company is considered a key factor in a famine in Bengal that reduced the population of the region by a third in the 18th century.

According to quotes published by The Guardian, the Earl, whose ancestral seat is Powis Castle in Welshpool, tells Sanghera: "I’ve often wondered if it ought to come down. It’s very imperial and I’ve never been very comfortable with it. I’ve always wished it wasn’t here, put it that way.”

He also tells Sanghera that he developed anti-imperial views after being expelled from schools in his mid-teens.

The row last year ended with Shropshire Council leaving the statue in place, but deciding to install a plaque to put it into historical context.

Discussing the row, the Earl added: "There was very much a request to bring it down and there were quite strong feelings.

"The council resolved in the end to keep it but put a plaque on it that will tell us more. But they haven’t put the plaque on."

The Herbert family still live in part of Powis Castle, under arrangement with the National Trust.The Earl is also Baron of Chirbury in Shropshire.

Powis Castle, which the Trust owns, has a Clive Museum, which contains hundreds of items from the Clive family, including many that came from his time in India.

During the row last year, which stemmed from Black Lives Matter protestors throwing a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol's docks, the National Trust said: "Many contentious buildings and objects, like the Clive Collection at Powis Castle, are looked after by us on behalf of the whole of society. They’re part of the nation’s material history.

"The way we interpret them is hugely important and we know we have a long way to go on that."