The Dad's Line Meet the Izzards

Eddie Izzard - actor...

How are you?

..comedian...

Morning! Mrs Stevens, going hunting!

..transvestite and marathon runner extraordinaire

is about to embark on the second leg of a remarkable journey,

using his own DNA as the road map.

I've always been fascinated by genetics and the fact you can bring my history to here is like magic!

Locked within each of us is a genetic history book.

It reveals not only our deep ancestry, but also the journey of mankind across the globe.

This is it - the birthplace of the exodus, the first exodus.

Recent breakthroughs in genetics mean Eddie can use his own DNA

to unlock the secrets of where he, and we, came from.

Instead of going back to the last couple of hundred years,

we're going back to the last couple of hundred thousand years.

This time, Eddie will explore the epic struggle for survival of his male ancestors,

from the very first man in Africa, through thousands of generations, to Eddie Izzard.

This is the first time in Britain

that an individual has looked at their own DNA

and used that to retrace their ancestral journey.

He'll encounter alien species we slept with to survive.

They are our closest relatives.

He'll explore how the male Izzards battled the last Ice Age to get to Britain.

-If something happens to you, I won't be responsible.

-That's very superstitious of you.

And, finally, he'll bridge the gap between his genetic and his family history.

-You must be Eddie Izzard.

-Oh, it's Eddie Izzard! Fancy that!

This programme contains some strong language.

Eddie Izzard is about to embark on the second leg of his remarkable quest.

He's using his own DNA to retrace his ancestors' journey

all the way from the first modern human in Africa to Eddie.

Last time, Eddie looked into his mum's lineage.

This time, he'll explore his dad's, using DNA they share.

DNA is found within our cells.

It's the instruction manual that helps build and run our bodies.

But it also has another remarkable use.

Locked in our DNA is a genetic route map.

It reveals how our ancestors migrated out of Africa

and went on to populate the rest of the world.

Before Eddie starts on this second leg,

he's come to meet his dad, John, in his hometown of Bexhill-on-Sea.

It will be interesting to find out what stuff is Dad's.

My history is his history.

They're hoping that Eddie's journey into their deep ancestry

will also reveal the origin of the Izzards before records they've traced back to the 17th century.

We thought it could be a Norman route or a Celtic route,

or an Old English route or Germanic or Huguenot French.

-And before that, who knows what?

-Yeah.

-But it will be intriguing to find out.

The one I'd like to do, if it's at all possible,

-is to get back beyond that 1650 date.

-Yeah.

The genetic adventure should also reveal more about the traits they share.

-Were you freckled as a kid?

-Yes.

-So that could be an inherited thing.

-Not terribly tall.

-Not over-tall, no.

-Not over-tall.

Small in stature, but tall in personality. So we will look for...

smaller of stature, tall in personality, footballing, singing comedians.

-Red hair, freckles.

-And we share a problem which starts with a "P".

Next letter "S".

-Oh, yeah! Psoriasis.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-I thought you were going to say penis problem.

-We share that, too!

To explore Eddie's dad's deep ancestry,

geneticist Dr Jim Wilson will use the Y chromosome -

the male sex chromosome.

It's extracted from DNA in Eddie's spit.

A near exact copy is passed down the male line from grandfather to father to son.

But, occasionally, it changes.

These changes, known as markers,

can indicate the start of another branch in the Izzard family tree.

Jim will look for matches to Eddie's male markers in men from around the world.

He'll access several databases and hundreds of thousands of people

whose DNA has been collected over the last decade.

Many communities have remained in the same place for thousands of years.

A match with an Eddie marker can show where Eddie's male ancestors travelled on their migration route.

So you have the Y chromosome from your father.

He got it from his father, who got it from his father.

It follows down the generations like that.

So it allows us to learn quite a lot about this one specific lineage.

And it's usually the lineage which someone gets their surname from.

So your Y-chromosome ancestry is actually really interesting as well,

because you carry a very rare type, in some ways rarer than your mother line.

Approximately, one in 2,000 men in Britain carry this marker.

So it really is remarkably rare.

-You're not part of the rest of us.

-The hoi polloi?

-Yeah.

-In future, do you think there's going to be a sort of...

"Oh, they come from very rare genes," as opposed to very good money or a good family?

-It's going to be, "Yes, special genes."

-No doubt.

-We'll have genetic clubs.

And Jim has another surprise in store for Eddie.

When we looked across some of the rest of your DNA,

we saw these little hints of quite unusual, very different ancestry,

from another species, actually.

Woah!

What do you mean "another species"? Like the chimpanzees, the gorillas?

Not quite the chimpanzees. It's something that would have been a big surprise a few years ago.

Later in the programme - I am related to another species.

What I've done when I've analysed your DNA is to focus in on the bits I know are different.

I mean, we're 98% identical with chimpanzees and we're 40% identical with bananas.

-So it all goes...

-40% identical with bananas?

-Yeah!

-That's the bit they don't tell you.

-No! I like the 40%.

Jim will focus on several significant markers -

key turning points in Eddie's male DNA journey.

The first, known by the letter "A", takes us back to Africa,

to one man, the common ancestor of all men living today.

We can go back to the deepest branch point in the Y chromosome tree,

to the so-called "Y-chromosome Adam".

It's the man from which all men descend.

-So do you want to know...

-Yes, I don't care!

-..where your Y chromosome comes from?

-Is it Croydon?

-Yes!

-Tell me what you have to tell me.

The deepest branch of the Y chromosome tree

dates from around about 142,000 years ago,

in Cameroon, in central West Africa.

And there's a group there known as the Bakola. They're actually pygmies.

-Wow! Pygmies. So it means they're not tall lads?

-Not that tall, no.

I haven't met them myself, but I believe so.

Cos we are a family of not-tall lads.

Do you want to know where you're from? Dad's line goes to Cameroon, 142,000 years ago.

And it could be a... You'll love this.

..A tribe of pygmy people.

Do you...

Yeah, that answers a few bloody questions!

So Eddie's genetic time-travelling on his dad's side

is first taking him more than 5,000km to Douala,

the largest city in Cameroon.

From Douala, he's travelling south into the heart of the equatorial rainforest.

So an umbrella might be useful.

EDDIE SPEAKS FRENCH

Tres girlie!

Eddie is in search of the Bakola pygmies,

thought to be amongst the oldest human inhabitants of the forest.

But people haven't always lived here.

The culmination of human curiosity and climate change

that drove the spread of modern humans throughout Africa,

lead to our ancestors mastering most of its habitable areas.

The ancestors of the Bakola are thought to have come into the forest

some time after they split from Eddie's ancestors 140,000 years ago.

It's thought their size is an adaptation to this environment of dense vegetation

and low ultraviolet light.

Bon jour.

To meet up with the Bakola, Eddie now has to cross the Sanaga River

and head south into a closed reserve.

Where he's going, there are no roads.

I am not really looking forward to my two nights in the rainforest. I am wary of them.

But there is the heart of darkness, where you travel in a boat

and go deeper, deeper, up into the stranger parts of your mind.

Much of the equatorial forest of Central Africa is being stripped for its hardwood.

An area the size of Jamaica is lost every year.

But the reserve Eddie has entered is free of the logging industry.

The Bakola here have an uneasy relationship with conservationists.

But, for now, they can still live a traditional, semi-nomadic existence

in pristine, primal forest.

This is like travelling back into the past.

Eddie arrives just in time to erect his tent.

The annual rainfall here is up to four times that of the UK.

It has rained and rained.

So I'm just staying in here, cos it's dry.

RAIN PATTERS

As you can hear... Cos it's quite nice to hear the rain on a tent.

The rain doesn't stop the Bakola from getting on with their day.

Despite their use of metal blades, some woven cloth and a few plastic containers,

the Bakola still live a Stone Age existence.

With his translator, Francoise, Eddie is about to meet his, and our, most distant male relatives.

Hi.

Bon jour.

So how many people live here?

THEY CONVERSE IN DIALECT

-Trente personnes.

-Trente personnes. So 30 people.

-And they do hunting and gathering? What's that, a cat?

-Civet.

-A civet.

In the middle of the rain, they found this cat and killed it.

That's something for tea. So it is kind of amazing.

I like the way they make things. I don't make things, but I've always thought I could.

That is just so simple and it works. The string is from a different tree.

They make their own furniture here. It's all very practical.

They have to live in a lot of rain, which is just like London.

Oh, you have hats! Very cool. Merci.

-Wow! That's good.

-I don't know what

-I

-look like in it, but they look very cool.

-You are looking very good!

-Are they cool?

Eddie wants to learn how his, and our, male ancestors

might have adapted to the rigours of the rainforest.

So the Bakola decide to take him hunting for their favourite delicacy.

This won't be a conventional chasing down of an animal.

Over thousands of years, they have adopted different ways of catching their prey.

It means heading deep into uncharted jungle.

This is where they're going to make the fires

to scare the animals on the ground. I think it's a rat!

They do the fires at the entrance and it scares them off to where the traps are.

So this is hunting as you might do it in the old days.

It's all the stuff that I can't do. I do breakfast cereal.

Men and women are doing hunting. Why not?

With their big, big, fuck-off knives.

She's got a fire going down there. The fire bearer brought fire all the way over to here.

They kept the flame going, built it up. Now they're making it smoke down the hole.

She just dug a separate hole. Everyone else is guarding the exits.

The animals underneath are going to have to come out.

It looks like four different exit holes.

There's more smoke coming out there.

Steve! Steve!

THEY SPEAK DIALECT

So this is what the Izzards were doing 140,000 years ago.

Having rat pie!

Here, the Bakola can just survive in the rainforest. Humans adapt.

That's why we've made it through.

SINGING

I think they're celebrating it's a two-rat day.

SINGING

That could be a hymn. That...

SINGING

That could be a hymn.

At some point, we worked out we could sing.

Someone said, "Hey, so who's the first person to harmonise?"

-HE SINGS:

-# Na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na

# Na-na, na... # It sounded like that!

Which you could put in some... # Oh come, all Christian soldiers... #

Whatever the hymn was that I went through 12 years old at school.

SINGING

It was beautiful.

The Bakola have a reputation for being experts in magic and traditional medicine.

The chief wants to show Eddie their natural remedy for bad stomachs.

Eddie's having trouble understanding how they administer it.

THEY SPEAK DIALECT

Oui.

It's an enema. Something that you apply to your backside, or not?

-You chuck it in your anus.

-Right. So it...

-With a s...

-Syringe.

-A syringe?

-Yeah. Oui.

-Oui.

And you put it... OK! However you do it, you shove it up your backside

-and your stomach is good?

-Yes.

Shoving stuff up your backside's always kind of crazy, but...

So against indigestion. It's what we call an enema in English.

I don't think I'll try this one. I'll try the next one!

The Bakola are also animists. They worship everything in the forest.

Their most sacred object, a tree, is so revered that Eddie has to keep a respectful distance.

This tree, it has the power of their ancestors.

Amen!

The chief has a story to tell Eddie about the creation of humanity.

HE SPEAKS DIALECT

-They are the first people in the world and they always live in the bush.

-Right.

-And you was their brother.

-Right.

Now, you decide with your stubbornness

to don't live in these kind of conditions.

You white people, you don't want bush. It's too much.

So your fathers decide to take you...

-and send you to another country.

-Yes.

-And the name that the gods give you is "kuuto".

-My name is "kuuto".

It means "white man".

Just me or all people like me?

-People like you.

-We are "kuuto".

-White people.

-Ah, white people.

Because he...they are black.

DRUMS BEAT

The Bakola are renowned for another skill. They are passionate about dancing.

DRUMS BEAT, SINGING

So before Eddie leaves, they insist he hits the dance floor.

CLAPPING

SINGING

Fascinating.

The fact that story totally links in with the genetics.

A group said, "We're going off." They said, "Well, good luck to you.

"We like it here." And now, I've come back and met them.

It's time for Eddie to explore the next step in his "Y" DNA journey.

He's moving forward some 80,000 years,

to a pivotal moment in human history.

Some time before 60,000 years ago,

the male Izzard lineage left Africa,

along with the ancestors of all men who are of recent non-African origin.

They were part of a small genetic group who, with Eddie's female ancestors,

left to populate the rest of the world, probably via the Red Sea.

Dr Jim Wilson has been investigating where Eddie's, and everyone's,

ancestors who left Africa at that time went next.

How did this tiny population survive

out of Africa, in what's now the harsh Arabian desert?

Eddie's markers from this time help tell the story.

His next branch originated in the Gulf.

And then, about 50,000 years ago,

numerous other branches developed in the human family tree.

It indicates a population explosion of some kind.

That's what Eddie's going to explore now -

how his ancestors, indeed the ancestors of all of us who are not of recent African origin,

went on to explode out of Arabia.

So, Jim, now tell me, following my father's line,

-where do I go from here?

-'You're heading next...'

to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

-Dubai?

-'Yes!'

This is coming forward to a time when human populations all over the world were expanding...

'pretty rapidly in numbers.'

-You'll learn more about that when you get there.

-'Jim, thank you.'

Bon voyage!

We're going to an Arabic country. That's great. I was born in the Arabic country of Yemen.

People don't know - Yemen's down here and Dubai is up here, if this is the Arabia peninsular.

We're going to go that way in a Usain Bolt-type of way.

My dad's genetic root was coming through Dubai,

which is interesting cos I first came to Dubai 38 years ago. 38 years ago!

And we didn't know our ancestors had been through here.

It's spooky, as Dame Edna Everage would say.

I'm finding out more and more, in drips and drabs,

without any actual drips, but I'm finding out more stuff.

So 50,000, 60,000 years ago, it's still a lot of people's story.

It's my dad's story, but it still mixes in with a lot of humanity.

A generation or so ago, Dubai was a desert backwater.

Today, it is, for many, the epitome of how technology can transform our world -

a futuristic metropolis forged out of a desert wasteland.

Eddie has come to one of the world's most luxurious hotels

to meet archaeologist Jeff Rose.

Jeff and his colleagues are discovering new archaeological evidence all over the region.

It shows how technological ingenuity and climate change

influenced our ancestors survival in Arabia.

Jeff has brought along a typical example of the state-of-the-art technology

early modern man was using in this fight for life.

Our shared ancestor, the ancestor of every human being on earth

that's living outside of Africa, made this.

So this is a...a hand axe?

No, that's probably a thrust spear point or a knife.

Nobody ever expected to find this in Arabia.

This is really, at that time, the pinnacle of human technology.

This is an app, isn't it? Someone said, "Hey, we can make an app out of that!

"Called the arrowhead app."

But humans, when they first came to Arabia, also had an advantage

over today's designers in the desert.

It may have been what attracted them in the first place.

The environment was completely different back then.

The big surprise has been how green Arabia was, how fertile it was back in pre-history.

And we're starting to find stone tools everywhere.

I love that, cos that really hits on what's so amazing about Arabia. It's a lost land.

-What happened was, there's a monsoon cycling through the Indian Ocean...

-Back then?

-Back then.

Thumping water all over the interior of Arabia.

It greens up. So all these hunter- gatherers just go fill the interior,

because there's food there, there's water there.

After 70,000 years ago, things dry out and we enter an Ice Age.

-And that's when some of the deserts in Arabia start to form.

-Right.

But humans didn't die out in Arabia in this drying out period.

They were trapped in the interior,

cut off by impassable desert.

Then something happened that allowed them to escape.

50,000 years ago, there's a small window where it gets wet again.

At that point, they exploded out of Arabia and across the world.

This is the BIG human explosion.

This population Big Bang, 50,000 years ago, has a modern equivalent here.

Eight million people now live in the United Arab Emirates.

In 1950, there were just 70,000.

The growth has been so rapid

that today fewer than one in five inhabitants is a native birth.

It led to an initiative to boost the local population.

So, with his translator, Eddie is going to meet a one-man population explosion.

Daad Mohammed Al Balushi is also Eddie's ancestral cousin.

They share the same marker that places their common ancestor here

around 50,000 years ago.

Daad, who recently lost a leg in a car accident, is 64 years old.

Very nice to meet you. I hear you have one or two children?

-Yeah.

-How many?

-Er, 93.

-93!

-Yeah.

-Wowser! So a lot of birthday parties.

-Yeah.

-He's expecting two more.

-Oh, expecting two more?

-And he's planning to have 100.

-This is amazing.

-And all these people here are your children?

-Yes.

If it was Olympics, you would have gold medal.

How old is the oldest child? How young is the youngest child?

-First one 37.

-37, oldest?

-Yes.

-Last one, nine months.

-Nine months.

-Yes.

-37 to nine months.

HE SHOUTS IN ARABIC

-HE TRANSLATES:

-Get the youngest one.

-How old are you? Nine months old?

-Yes.

But you've got lots of brothers and sisters.

I know, I know.

THE BABY BAWLS

-So how many wives do you have?

-Four wives.

-Under the law you cannot have more than four.

-And the retired wives are OK about this?

-Yeah, yeah.

Amazing story. In my country, if we have someone with ten kids, we go, "Wow!"

What makes you want to carry on having children?

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

The more you spread the Islamic teachings, the greater the number of the people,

the greater service to the country and nation.

-Are you tired at all?

-No, no, no!

-He can have sex eight times at a time.

-Wow!

-Now sex at night, no sleeping.

-Oh, really?!

-Yeah.

-So Daad has become a sex machine.

-THEY LAUGH

93. Two on the way. 95.

Going for 100. That is kind of spectacular, Olympian fatherhood.

He is, as James Brown would say, a sex machine.

In a good way.

The fundamental urge to reproduce to survive spurred humans out of Arabia 50,000 years ago.

But just as our ancestors began to populate the rest of the world,

that urge lead us to a close encounter with another species.

And this is what Eddie will explore next, in Israel.

Until recently, it was thought that Neanderthals,

an archaic human species that evolved separately in Europe, had become completely extinct.

But in 2010, scientists made a surprising discovery.

All human populations that spread out of Africa have a small amount of Neanderthal DNA in them.

Dr Jim Wilson has been searching for the Neanderthal in Eddie.

The presence of Neanderthal DNA in humans means that at some stage

humans and Neanderthals must have had sex with one another.

And what's remarkable about Eddie is that he's got more Neanderthal in him than most.

'Remember when I told you I'd found some extraordinary DNA in your genome?

'All right, yeah. This is "extraordinary time".

-'Well, now I'm going to tell you where it came from.

-OK.

-You...'

..are 2.8% Neanderthal.

EDDIE LAUGHS

Is that a good thing or bad thing?

I'm sure a lot of people say... You know, people didn't want to be linked to...

"Oh, we're not linked to people here or to chimpanzees. Neanderthals, for God's sake!"

So 3% Neanderthal, 97% Homo sapien, is that what I am?

It's quite a lot. Only 2.5% of my genome is Neanderthal.

-So you've got more than me!

-And that extra 0.5% makes a difference?

Does that mean I'm good at bridge?

Well, if we took 100 people, you'd be in the top 20. You'd be 17th.

So I'm quite far up the Neanderthal list.

Which, I suppose, if you get into 20, 30, 40%,

you're getting the eyebrow ridge and less good at conversation?

There are people out there who about 5% of their genome comes from Neanderthals.

-It's only a part of it, but it's a significant part.

-Cool.

My standard assumption was that Neanderthals weren't the brightest guys in the pack.

What's the saying? A few sandwiches short of a picnic.

To find out more about our Neanderthal cousins,

Eddie has come to the Cave of Kebara on Israel's Mediterranean coast

with the anatomist Professor Yoel Rak.

-And this is the cave.

-It looks gorgeous.

My old love.

As it has bats, this is where Batman would come.

We were fortunate enough, '83, to find a Neanderthal,

right there eight metres below zero.

Wow!

The caves were a desirable place to live.

-This Neanderthal is actually the most southern Neanderthal ever found.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

-What time would that represent?

-55,000 years old.

55,000 years ago. Wow!

All humans today who descend from the small group who first left Africa

have Neanderthal DNA.

It has led some scientists to conclude that our Neanderthal sexual adventure

began somewhere close to Kebara.

This would have been where we first encountered them

on our journey north from Arabia before we spread out across the rest of the world.

This is a classical Neanderthal. They are our closest relatives.

-Can I hold it?

-Sure.

-And he's got this big eyebrow ridge there.

-That's right.

-Why is it so strong?

-That's part of their so-called "primitive features".

They are actually carrying it from very ancient times.

The skull is much lower.

The brain is actually set back in relationship to the face.

Distinct anatomy goes also to the pelvis, to the foot, to the chest.

The nose is huge in diameter and in volume.

-Oh!

-OK.

-They are completely different.

-Right.

-Completely different.

Anatomy wasn't the only difference that separated us from our Neanderthal cousins.

Neanderthals had evolved in Europe. Humans in Africa.

-What would skin colour be like?

-Well, there is very little doubt

that Homo sapiens coming from Africa...

They were black.

There is, today, with the genetic evidence, there is very little doubt

that the Neanderthals were fair.

So Neanderthals were white and the Homo sapiens were black?

-Yeah.

-Back in the day.

-Yeah.

-Interesting.

And that's really to do with sun...

Cos everyone gets so... Ooh, sorry! Sorry, mate!

How many wars have been fought over the colours of skin and all this hatred going on.

But it really is just to do with where you are, the sun...

The body will automatically adjust.

As tribes moved further north, where there was less sunlight...

-That's right.

-..They would actually start shedding pigment.

It's a matter of being adjusted.

Neanderthals are fantastically adjusted to cold weather.

We can tell that they had ginger hair.

-Oh, so Neanderthals had ginger hair and Homo sapiens not so much?

-No.

-Not at all?

-Not at that time.

So you're Neanderthal and ginger haired. I have a red-hair base.

Red hair in humans and Neanderthals arose at different times.

But it's thought to have come about for the same reason.

The move to areas with less sunshine led for a need to absorb more Vitamin D.

The Izzards, like the Neanderthals, became red headed and lighter skinned in cooler climates.

This shows us that racism is stupid, it's insane, because we are all the same people.

People came together here thousands of years ago, being Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

Who could never have thought when they were saying, "Hello! How are you?

"Gosh, you're darker skinned, you're lighter skinned people. You have a very heavy eyebrow ridge."

"Yes, don't know why that is. It must be physiognomy."

While they discussed that... "We seem to be getting on OK. Shall we have sex?" "Yes, why not?"

It was black Homo sapiens coming out of Africa

and white Neanderthals meeting.

And some of them had sex and that's why I'm 2.8% Neanderthal.

So where did the Izzard go next after their Neanderthal adventure 50,000 years or so ago?

Dr Jim Wilson has been looking on the migration map used by scientists

for matches to Eddie's next significant marker.

It produced the "I" branch that first appears around 25,000 years ago.

It's present today in many Central European communities,

but isn't present in the Middle East at all.

It's existence so early in the heart of Europe

suggests that Eddie's male ancestors

were among the first to colonise the continent,

probably in search of new hunting grounds.

Eddie's come to the River Danube, near Vienna in Austria,

to explore how the male Izzards became some of the first Europeans.

Today, the Danube is a super-highway that cuts through the heart of Europe.

It was the same around 25,000 years ago, when Eddie's "I" ancestors first came this way.

Here, he's joined by Dr Jim Wilson.

This is where your ancestors probably came into Europe from the Near East.

And this "I" group is interesting,

because it's not really found at all outside Europe.

-You actually descend from some of the earliest people in Europe.

-Wow!

This group is 25,000 years old.

So actually arrived in Europe, we think, before the peak of the last Ice Age.

So this is really very long ago, before agriculture.

-So it would have been hunters and gatherers?

-Yeah.

-Yeah. It's been associated with the Gravettian culture.

-Oh!

-These are big game hunters.

-They hunted reindeer and European bison and even mammoth as well.

-Wow!

These people, who are almost certainly your ancestors,

are most famous for carving these stylised figurines of women.

There are these very voluptuous female figurines

with huge buttocks and huge breasts.

-Buttocks and breasts.

-And genitals.

-You're doing the same mime for buttocks AND breasts.

-It's supposed to be buttocks and breasts.

-Depends which way round they are.

Concertinaing the body together. They were differently shaped backed then.

And the most famous of all is Venus of Willendorf.

And this is Willendorf here, where we're just going to pull in.

And you'll get to see Venus herself.

Your next genetic cousin is Sinisa Djokovic, who's waiting for you on the shore.

Sinisa Djokovic, who was born in Sarajevo,

recently gave a saliva sample.

Jim found he's a match to Eddie's next branch,

known as "I-2".

It's shared by up to 10% of European males

and originated in Central Europe 20,000 years ago.

It means Eddie and Sinisa have a common ancestor in the past 700 generations.

-Hello.

-You must be Eddie Izzard, well-known British comedian.

Well, somewhat well known, not terribly well known.

They told me that we are some kind of genetic cousins.

They tell me this, yes.

What is specific about two of us

-is that our ancestor actually survived the Ice Age in Europe.

-Yeah.

Around 20,000 years ago, just as the Izzards pushed their way into the heart of the continent,

the last Ice Age reached its peak.

Glaciers covered much of Britain.

As far south as the Danube, the land was permanently frozen.

Our ancestor probably entered Europe in this region, our common ancestor.

-Granddad.

-Granddad!

So we are probably on the edge of the ice cap.

-So do you feel people were further up and came back down again when the ice came in?

-Yes.

There were probably people coming back down the river going,

"Ice is coming, lads! Let's all pack it up and move back."

After that Ice Age, when the ice melted,

the re-population of Europe began.

-And this was probably the place where we separated.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

Our ancient grandfather, he said, "You go this way. You go this way."

Maybe some of you will make it cos it's really cold at the moment.

-My guy would be called Steve. What was yours called?

-Radojica.

So Radojica goes that way and Steve goes that way.

-So our ancestors lived here?

-Yes.

-And made these things?

The actual Venus of Willendorf is just over four inches tall,

but the locals have built a life-sized replica on the spot it was discovered.

-I suppose it's supposed to be very fertile, babies, babies, babies.

-Yes, yes.

When you're just trying to survive, I suppose it was, everybody have babies so that the tribe gets big.

-Interesting on statue is the hands over the...

-Breasts, yes.

With your hands on your breasts like this, it's saying, "So, anyway..."

Women with big breasts - what it's supposed to do? Are you supposed to go and shag people cos of that?

-And all those curls on the head - what is that?

-"I can't do faces. I'm just going to...

"I'm just going to put this basket over your head."

It just doesn't work for me. If our family came up here 20,000 years ago and made these,

they were doing a lot of drugs.

The "I-2" people, which is my group seem to be the first people getting into Europe and this is interesting,

because, apparently, we got in there and then we got pushed back by the ice and we came back again.

This is all new to me. I think it will be fascinating to my dad.

It's getting closer to the link, where you go, "Oh, I see how we got to where we are!"

My story is now getting grabbable and chewable.

To understand how the Stone Age Izzards dealt with the extreme conditions of the Ice Age,

Eddie has come to a wind tunnel in nearby Graz.

During this time, winter temperatures

could be up to 20 degrees Centigrade colder than they are today.

Here, experimental archaeologist Dr Hubert Berke

wants to show how the course of human history was altered

by the invention of one tiny object, the needle.

First, Hubert's dressing Eddie in the kind of loose clothing we wore before this momentous event.

In the beginning, the clothing for the Ice Age was not good.

-So if you go in the wind, you will be freezed.

-Oh, it'll be cold.

-It will be cold.

I didn't know that the fur goes on the inside.

-It is normally for the winter times.

-Right.

-It protects your body better.

-I thought it was the other way round.

-So you have air inside.

-OK.

So I've already got some loose stuff on. Can you help me...?

-Yes.

-Get some more...

-You should protect your arms.

If it is really cold and it is windy,

if you have clothing like that, you cannot move.

-Cos if you move, the air comes in?

-Yes.

-OK, I'm going in.

-All right.

-Just like that.

-OK.

This is a bit of bear. Bit of bear, bit of bear, bit of mongoose.

Fox and a gorilla down my back.

-So now I'm going to go and stand in a wind tunnel and experience the wind...

-You will feel it.

..in Europe 20,000 years ago.

I'm sure it will be roasty, toasty.

As a result of the Ice Age windchill factor, temperatures could plummet.

Fewer trees meant less protection and stronger winds.

-SHOUTS OVER WIND:

-It's a bit breezy!

The clothing feels all right.

But the wind could have been this strong 20,000 years ago.

But the main thing is the cold. It gets in everywhere.

And you're just trying to stand still.

It's tough! It's difficult to stay warm.

If you were interacting back in those days, it'd be difficult. You'd be going, "Morning!"

Or even saying, "Hello! How are you? Lovely day."

"Mrs Stevens, going hunting! Not today maybe."

The invention of the needle around 20,000 years ago,

meant clothes were much more wind resistant.

Yes, it's very me.

Good tailoring helped the Izzards' Y chromosome survive the Ice Age.

Hubert is stitching up with an actual bone needle he made himself

in the style that would have been made 20,000 years ago.

He's stitching up the back of the costume here.

This could be exactly the sort of thing to end up saying,

"I attacked a bear and he got me in the back. Can you sew that up, cos it's a bit chilly?"

-It should be better now.

-Excellent.

So you've got stitching up here. Stitching round here.

-Some parts together.

-Yeah.

Very early puppets with Beatles' haircuts.

You could survive I think in this. You can hunt.

You could move.

You could do boxing

when an animal's coming for you.

HE SIGHS

Ah, that was great!

Do I look refreshed?

Never thought tailoring was important.

I thought animals, you just kill them and wear them.

The importance of the needle is that you can make, not only clothing,

you can make a tent and you can make bags.

It was a really great invention.

20,000 years ago, because I survived - my family were stitching like crazy.

Every time there's a new invention, some people go, "It's not for me!

"I'll just strap bits of dead animal on to me and hold on for dear life."

But my family, no. They were clever. You do think once you've got tools, everything flows.

You've got tools and then you get an iPad and it's just da-da-da-da...

It isn't. There are eureka moments all the way up, including THE eureka moment,

when... Who was that, Pythagoras?

..in the bath, said, "Eureka!" So you have these moments and someone says, "Hey, needle!"

Fine tailoring wasn't the only eureka moment early modern humans had at this time.

Eddie has come to the Cave of Niaux in the French Pyrenees

to meet archaeologist Dr Jean Clottes.

They are about to witness one of the defining achievements of the whole human journey.

It was created in many caves throughout Europe

by the ancestors of those of us who, like Eddie,

share this early European genetic marker.

They left their mark as they followed the ebb and flow of the ice.

FOOTSTEPS ECHO

It is an amazing place.

Wow!

We have two bison facing right.

And, on top, we've got a horse.

Below we have a stag.

-And do we know what dates these...

-They were 15,000, 16,000 years ago.

So the height of the previous glaciation period was about 18-20.

Yes. It was still the glaciation.

With the lights we have, we can see the immensity.

For them, the immensity, they could only feel through the sound.

Because their lights were not enough to give more than a very faint glow around them.

It's quite scary and spooky and impressive all at once.

-This was a very sacred place.

-It does sound a bit like a cathedral.

-Yeah.

-If you could sing, you'd sing.

I'm very sorry. It's better for me not to sing!

-OK, as we're in France.

-I don't want to bring the wrath of the gods.

But they might like the singing.

# Sur le pont d'Avignon L'on y danse, l'on y danse

# Sur le pont d'Avignon L'on y danse, da-da-da...

-I don't know the end bit.

-Well, if something happens to you, I won't be responsible.

And you think... That's very superstitious of you.

People, 16,000 years ago, came in here

going through these caves... I don't know if I'd do this!

But they went right back into the salon noir, the black room, black chamber,

this almost cathedral-like place, and made these cave paintings.

I think that's amazing because

they must have been trying to talk to the gods, the gods of the mountain, the spirit world.

I don't believe in a god, but I can understand people who did, especially back then.

This is before the Romans, before the Greeks, before the Egyptians.

-My family could have done these things.

-Why not?

Yes. 15,000 years ago and way before that.

-15,000 years ago is not that far from us.

-No.

By the end of the last glaciation 10,000 years ago,

this original Ice Age population the Izzards belonged to

had colonised Europe.

So where did the Izzards go over the next few thousand years?

And how did they get to Britain?

Jim has been looking at Eddie's next significance marker.

He believes it holds the key.

I have been to see cave paintings, here in Niaux.

My direct people did this.

Some of them are OK. Some are a bit... Need a bit of work there.

B-plus, could do better.

Amazing to see that up front. Where am I going next on my father's line?

Your next Y-chromosome marker

arose about 3,000-4,000 years ago.

So it's a jump forward in time.

Now this is in a small village called Neuharlingersiel, in Lower Saxony,

on the coast of the North Sea. This is one of the homelands of the Saxons.

Having heard that my mother's side is kind of Viking-ish

and my father's side is kind of German-ish, it seems I'm Teutonic up the wazoo!

HE LAUGHS

This is a very rare group now. We're zooming in on to your type.

-This is a group that only about 0.5% of the people in England carry.

-Wow!

It's very recently discovered, last year, and you're going to meet

a genetic cousin of yours, Herr Frerichs.

And he's just some bloke who's got this marker or is he good at juggling rats or something?

Usually, I met people who have got some other skill. Very good.

-We will speak more. Sayonara.

-See you later.

So I'm a Saxon. Erm...

Yeah, OK. OK, I thought I was a Celt.

Wow!

Saxons and Vikings. There you go, it's got warrior written all over it.

Eddie has come to Lower Saxony in northern Germany,

the spiritual home of the group of Germanic peoples we know as the Anglo-Saxons.

He's here meeting Brian Frerichs,

another genetic relative who gave a spit sample for science.

But Brian doesn't live in northern Germany.

The marker they share is so rare,

that Jim could only find matches in America.

Brian's family emigrated from this village in the 19th century.

-I think we should do a glasses moment.

-I agree.

Let's have a look and see what we can see.

These are the church books where the pastors kept records of all the families that attended the church.

That was my great-great- great-grandfather.

Hillern Jacobs Frerichs is the one who went to America in 1881.

So there's several families from this area in the Mid-West that probably share our Y DNA.

And they would have left for... for what reason?

Basically, the land. Cos you have more and more population looking for work.

America presented an opportunity for more land.

Genealogical records prove the Izzards were in England by the 17th century.

They must have left Germany much earlier than Brian's family, but when?

The largest historical migration from this region to the UK

took place when the Saxons invaded Britain.

The Saxons came in about 600, 700, 800s. But we split off at some point!

Maybe one guy stayed in northern Germany, the other one crossed over to England.

Your guy was more aggressive. Part of the invaders and mine was...

-Maybe he was annoying! They said, "Get out of here!"

-They kicked him out.

"You're annoying! Go and fight the British!" "All right."

"Go and fight the Celts. Push them back to Wales."

-So, Brian, thank you very much.

-Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.

-Thank you, ancient cousin.

The Anglo-Saxon invasions from around 400 AD

established kingdoms throughout the south and east of the British mainland.

They united to form what we now know as England in 954 AD.

But we're the Izzards part of this mass migration?

We're getting closer, but I'm getting impatient for this gap bit.

So you'd better find some decent people in the UK that links it all the way through.

It's time for Eddie to head home and discover when the Izzards came to England.

My dad's side of the family, I know, for pretty damn certain...

I'm trying to use the science of the genetics here.

That 2,000-3,000 years ago, the family was in north Germany.

And I know that they came over here, cos I'm here.

Was it in the Roman period?

Was it when the Angles and Saxons were attacking in the 600-800s? Was it later than that?

If I could find out when my dad's side, when the Izzards, came over, that just would be fascinating.

Dr Jim Wilson has been searching the databases to find matches to Eddie's most recent male marker.

It turns out to be extremely rare.

Only about 0.1% of us in the UK share it.

It was discovered so recently, it has yet to be given a name.

Will this provide the final piece in the male line jigsaw?

We've brought you here to Lincolnshire today,

to meet your next branch of the tree, your next cousin,

who's someone that you share an ancestor with

-only about 1,500 years ago, give or take.

-Right.

So that's, let's say, what? 500 AD or so, we're talking.

-Just before the Saxons started coming here?

-Just around that time.

I think it points to your ancestors in the father line, in the male line,

-most probably coming to Britain as Saxons.

-Wow.

We're getting really quite recent now, into the era, borderline, of history.

So I've brought you here to meet a chap called Henry Speare.

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK

Oh, he's not in, so let's...

-Hello. Can I help you?

-Henry?

-Hello! How do you do?

-I'm Jim Wilson.

-Oh, Jim. Hi.

-This is Eddie Izzard.

-Oh, it's Eddie Izzard!

-Hello.

-Your distant genetic cousin.

-Fancy that.

We seem to be distantly, genetically Saxon cousins.

-We're Saxon?

-Did you not know?

-No, I thought we were Vikings.

Whey!

Excellent!

-Cheers!

-Cheers! To the old days. And the new days.

-Yes!

-That's very nice. I wasn't expecting this.

-Lovely!

On a bridge with some ducks.

You are round about 50th cousins in the direct male line.

So your father's father's father's father and his father's father's father's father

link back in around about 500 AD.

Sadly, I didn't have any sons, so I'm the end of the line.

-For your Y chromosome.

-Yeah. And I guess... Have you got many sons?

No, I haven't and my brother hasn't.

I haven't got any kids at the moment. Going to have kids later.

When I start slowing down. So, er...

-Yes, the Y chromosome better go and get some sons.

-Yeah.

Eddie's quest is almost complete.

This is as far as genetics can currently take him.

But it's only the start of what DNA science will be able to do.

It has the potential to reveal much more about our pasts

and is on the cusp of understanding our futures, too.

Eddie has one final thing to do -

to tell his dad how the Izzards' Y chromosome has survived until now.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-I am back. Good to see you.

-Nice to see you.

We've got rare stuff in there.

On our side, 0.1% of people in England have got our genes.

-Must be a relief for the other 99.9%.

-Exactly!

What was the half-implied connection

with the rather small inhabitants of part of the Cameroons?

They were pygmy people. I mean, they were just about my height.

It links to the genetics of everyone, not just us, even though the Izzards are not tall of stature.

The root that we took, it seems to be up the Danube... We came up the Danube.

And we got to Saxony. We seem to be Saxon.

There's a whole bunch of people from the Bremen area,

who had similar genetics.

We haven't been able to get back beyond about 1650 in Sussex, have we?

-But that's closer.

-Yeah. So that's who you are and that's who I am.

Well, I sort of knew who I was.

Well, that's who our great-great- great-great-great-granddad was.

-So that's the end of the adventure so far?

-Yeah.

So it's up to you to start the next generation, is it?

-Er, what? Of Izzards? Keep the Y chromosome going?

-That's right.

Cos I realise, the Y chromosome isn't happening at the moment.

-Yes, it does seem like...

-That's a new pressure on you.

Yeah, I know. I've got stuff to do.

Yeah!

Eddie set out to discover more about his and our shared origins,

and to give something back to his dad.

Mission accomplished.

So he's 84 and he knows things that his mum and dad could never have known.

To come back and say, "Well, actually, this goes back thousands of years.

"Tens, hundreds of thousands of years and has to go further!"

It feels good to have brought all this information back and given it to him

and now he's got to deal with it.

It's definitely worth doing and 'twas another big adventure. Adventures are the stuff of life.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd