Who do you think you are turns 20: How BBC hit revealed Danny Dyer's royal lineage and Judi Dench's father's heroics and encouraged millions of Brits to research their own family trees By Christopher Stevens Published: 23:14, 11 August 2024 | Updated: 23:26, 11 August 2024 e-mail View comments Make a note of the date. BBC1's family history show Who Do You Think You Are ? returns on Thursday, and for actress Vicky McClure, making accurate notes of dates turns out to be quite important. In the opening episode of the new series, the Line Of Duty star is learning about her great-grandad Thomas.
He was a sailor who went to Canada almost a century ago, before Vicky's much-loved 'Nonna' was born. In one of the painstaking scenes of archive detective work that make this show such a popular format, Vicky pores over shipping charts with an expert. She deduces that the old boy set sail in January 1925, came home to his wife Ruby the following July.
.. and Nonna was born in December.
When the full ramifications finally hit her, Vicky's jaw drops. 'He can't be the father of my Nonna!' she gasps. Danny Dyer traced his ancestry around East London, in Newham and Poplar where many of his forebears worked on the docks Danny Dyer discovered that his line of descent winds back to the 16th century, and Henry VIII's brutish adviser Thomas Cromwell It's a moment that encapsulates the appeal of this show, which first aired 20 years ago and regularly draws audiences of five million.
The emotional surge, the whiff of scandalous gossip, the satisfaction of deep research and the thrill of a story well told, all combine to make unmissable telly. One notorious moment epitomises Who Do You Think You Are? at its very best. In 2016, Danny Dyer traced his ancestry around East London, in Newham and Poplar where many of his forebears worked on the docks.
Read More Piglets review: Every single joke's a misfire in this criminally unfunny police comedy No surprise that the actor, best known for playing landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders, comes from such stock. But what floored him, and us, was the discovery that his line of descent winds back to the 16th century, and Henry VIII's brutish adviser Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell's son Gregory married Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Henry's favourite wife Jane.
And those girls were direct descendants of Edward III, who ruled England for half a century from 1327. Dyer's macho delight at learning he was separated from the throne by a mere 22 generations was a joy to behold. 'It can't be,' he marvelled.
'A direct descendant from Edwood the Furd? It's just stoopid, innit? I think I'm gonna treat meself to a ruff, get a massive ruff and just bowl about in it and if anyone queries it, I'll just explain to them.' What makes Danny unusual is that an unbroken line of descent can be proved: no gaps, no guesses Dame Judi Dench was agog to learn how her father, Reginald, earned his Military Cross and bar in the First World War The reality, as scientist Adam Rutherford has explained, is that we all share a handful of common ancestors, some anonymous and some famous. It so happens that anyone with broadly British lineage will be descended from Edward III.
.. as well as his own regal ancestors, including William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great.
We are all as royal as Danny Dyer. Of course, we are all also descended from innumerable peasants in the Middle Ages. What makes Danny unusual is that an unbroken line of descent can be proved: no gaps, no guesses.
Read More The Mallorca Files review: If the Beeb's Mallorca Files was a pedalo, Amazon's is a superyacht More than 160 celebrities have appeared on the show, beginning with Bill Oddie, Amanda Redman and Sue Johnston in 2004, and with Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, Olympian Jessica Ennis-Hill and singer Olly Murs among those taking part this time round. But it has also inspired countless ordinary Brits to delve into their personal history. According to a YouGov poll, an estimated 4.
7 million people in the UK have paid for private DNA tests to discover their genetic ethnicity. It's a huge and lucrative industry: a full subscription to Findmypast.co.
uk is nearly £200 a year. Pages from Victorian National Archive censuses online have been downloaded more than 386 million times. When the 1911 census was made public in 2011, 24 million searches were made into it during the first month alone.
Seven out of ten people say they're interested in knowing more about their family tree, and I'm one of them: during lockdown, I went hunting through court records and yellowing newspaper cuttings to piece together the facts about my great-great-great grandfather Thomas Courtain Chivers. In the late Victorian era, he was the coroner's officer in East London, officiating at inquests and murder trials for nearly 50 years. He was also the Poplar undertaker – so chances are that he buried quite a few of Danny's ancestors.
In the TV series, comedian Paul Merton found himself in a Cardiff cemetery, standing over an unmarked grave, under an umbrella in a downpour. His grandmother, the wife of a First World War veteran, died in childbirth. Merton looked bereft, and it was a grim reminder that not all family history ends with a coat of arms.
During a visit to the College of Arms, Andrew Lloyd Webber took the opportunity to suggest it was high time he was granted an official family emblem. He fancied something feline, in honour of his musical Cats. 'We have to steer people away from having too many domestic pets,' the college's heraldic expert retorted tartly.
Since Lord L-W was already knowledgeable about his family tree, the Beeb's experts treated him as a challenge – and unearthed a colourful collection of ancestors whose existence he'd never suspected. They included a Victorian missionary whose life's work was saving the prostitutes of the East End, and a soldier who fought at Waterloo. Pictured, Dame Judi Dench's family holiday in France.
From left to right, sister-in-law Daphne, brother Jeffrey, father Reginald and Dame Judi Dench Sometimes, the archivists have only to go back one generation. Charles Dance revealed that he knew little about his mother's past, and barely remembered his father, who died in 1949, when young Charlie was not yet four. The episode was a series of captivating surprises, as the actor discovered that his father, Walter, was 25 years older than he'd realised and had fought in the Boer War – as well as fathering two daughters whose existence Charles had never suspected.
Dame Judi Dench was agog to learn how her father, Reginald, earned his Military Cross and bar in the First World War. She was startled to discover that, on her mother's side, she is descended from a lady-in-waiting at the 16th-century Danish royal court. Kate Winslet also uncovered a Scandinavian forebear, though hers was a Swedish peasant imprisoned for stealing potatoes.
Her three-times-great-grandfather was a former Grenadier Guardsman who became chief warder at Dartmoor prison – while both Twiggy and Tracey Emin learned of ancestors who were sentenced to hard labour. Journalist John Simpson's great-grandma Lela was a bareback rider in a Wild West show. She used to pose against a target, surrounded by electric glass bulbs, as her sharpshooter lover, Sam Cody, shot out the lights.
Lela wore red tights so that, if she was cut by flying fragments of glass, the blood wouldn't show. She was also the test pilot for a primitive biplane designed by Cody. What a gal! Wildlife presenter Liz Bonnin was horrified to find out that her three-times-great-grandfather Francois was a Caribbean plantation owner who kept slaves including girls as young as 13.
'Stop filming,' she ordered the cameraman, through angry tears. Television baker Dame Mary Berry was delighted to uncover a 19th-century breadmaker from Norfolk. Sir Ian McKellen was tickled to be told of his grandmother's Victorian actor uncle, Frank Lowe, who made his name on stage in melodramas.
And actor Mark Gatiss, who relishes tales of the gothic and macabre, was thrilled to hear of an Irish ancestor who once slew a vampire and buried its corpse head-first under a great stone. It's a fascinating story, but what Who Do You Think You Are? proves is that all of us are descended from extraordinary people. Of course they're remarkable – they lived through plagues and civil war, the Industrial Revolution, religious turmoil and empire-building.
And all of them were survivors, living at least long enough to have children of their own. Uncovering their names and remembering them afresh is not just entertainment. It's an act of homage.
We owe these people our lives, after all. Judi Dench Danny Dyer Share or comment on this article: Who do you think you are turns 20: How BBC hit revealed Danny Dyer's royal lineage and Judi Dench's father's heroics and encouraged millions of Brits to research their own family trees e-mail Add comment.
