A new television mini-series on the Kennedys masterminded by the rightwing creator of '24' has outraged American liberals and historians who have branded it a "political character assassination" concentrating on sex and scandal.

The series will be broadcast on the History Channel and is being created by Joel Surnow, a political conservative who was behind the globally successful drama in which Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, a special agent hunting down terrorists.

The History Channel usually screens documentaries and factual reconstructions and "The Kennedys", which will focus on the presidency of John F Kennedy, will be its first venture into the scripted mini-series genre.

A stellar cast has been announced including Katie Holmes, the wife of Tom Cruise, who will play Jacqueline Kennedy, while President Kennedy will be played by Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear. British actor Tom Wilkinson will take on the role of family patriarch Joseph Kennedy.

But after reading early versions of the script some historians and Kennedy confidantes lambasted it.