0:00:10 > 0:00:14It's now been ten years since the first celebrity was asked
0:00:14 > 0:00:17the impertinent question Who Do You Think You Are?
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Since then, there have been shocks, surprises, laughter and tears
0:00:21 > 0:00:23as more people discovered
0:00:23 > 0:00:25they weren't quite who they thought they were.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Stone the crows!
0:00:27 > 0:00:29- SHE GASPS - There she is.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30HE GASPS
0:00:30 > 0:00:33- Wow! That's amazing!- Yeah.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35He's buried directly under your feet.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37SHE GASPS
0:00:37 > 0:00:39Well, I'm rather lost for words.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42That must be a first!
0:00:44 > 0:00:48The need to know the truth has led all kinds of famous faces
0:00:48 > 0:00:51to take a good look at themselves and their family,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54and the total has now reached 100.
0:00:54 > 0:00:55Ooh!
0:00:57 > 0:00:59They have searched for clues across five continents,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02thousands of miles and thousands of documents
0:01:02 > 0:01:04to unlock family secrets
0:01:04 > 0:01:08and bring history to life in the most unexpected ways.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Yeah!
0:01:10 > 0:01:14100 unique stories from one simple question -
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Who Do You Think You Are?
0:01:26 > 0:01:28It's maybe a distant relative!
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Oh, my God!
0:01:32 > 0:01:36She married a dashing young drunk with a history of syphilis.
0:01:36 > 0:01:37SHE LAUGHS
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Who Do You Think You Are? has changed our view of British history,
0:01:41 > 0:01:42and millions have been inspired
0:01:42 > 0:01:46to take a journey of discovery into their own family.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52I think Who Do You Think You Are? made genealogy actually quite cool.
0:01:52 > 0:01:53Sort of.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57They choose really interesting people.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59But they are generally people who I think,
0:01:59 > 0:02:01"Ooh, I want to know where they've come from".
0:02:01 > 0:02:04People are nosy.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09They love to know sort of where they came from,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12and I think we're all inquisitive.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15I think every family's got an amazing story somewhere.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18He was playing Russian roulette.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20- SHE GASPS - Oh, my God.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Well, I'm damned!
0:02:22 > 0:02:24I had an exploding grandad.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26You can't help me, but it's down in black and white.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29A lion tamer?!
0:02:29 > 0:02:31Food-hoarding, suicidal murderers.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Montague, what have you done?!
0:02:34 > 0:02:37He bloomin' survived the Somme. He weren't even there!
0:02:37 > 0:02:43I know the amazing one. Barbara Windsor was descended from Constable.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48That's... That is a properly good celebrity juxtaposition.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51There was a Golding Constable,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55who was the father of the painter John Constable.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59- Really?- Yes.- Could that be anything to do with my side?
0:02:59 > 0:03:03Well, we have done some research, and we think there is a connection.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06- No!- Yes.- Ooh, goodness me.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Who Do You Think You Are? is a quest
0:03:12 > 0:03:15to find the buried treasure of past lives,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18but nobody knows what they will find or where they will find it.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23"A goal scored by Carr after 32 minutes
0:03:23 > 0:03:25"gave Newcastle a rather lucky interval lead,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29"but on the resumption the home side kept up a constant attack
0:03:29 > 0:03:31"and Carr completed his hat-trick"!
0:03:31 > 0:03:32Get in, Will!
0:03:32 > 0:03:37- That's great, innit?- You know what a hat-trick is, don't you?- Yeah!
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I'm so happy!
0:03:40 > 0:03:42I'm so happy about this information.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44It's a sort of whodunnit, really,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48because you're finding your way back through parish records.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51It's detective work. You know, it's a mystery.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53And we all love a mystery.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56I feel like Miss Marple!
0:03:56 > 0:04:00All this information, and it's mine. What am I going to do with it?
0:04:00 > 0:04:02It's just the great skill of the programme,
0:04:02 > 0:04:08and the great excitement of it is, yes, finding out about your family,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12like you are... your own family detective.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Solving the puzzle of family history not only takes detective work,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20determination and a pile of dusty documents,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22it's also important to have
0:04:22 > 0:04:24a pair of white gloves.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26I'm afraid, before we can look at them,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30- we have to put these gloves on. - Oh, I see. Are they clean?
0:04:31 > 0:04:34- Great. Thank you.- I'm going to ask you to put those on.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37How many times as Poirot have I put on white gloves
0:04:37 > 0:04:41and gone into registry offices and gone down lists of people?
0:04:41 > 0:04:44And that was the first thing, actually. Strange, isn't it?
0:04:44 > 0:04:47The first thing I thought when I put on those gloves,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49I thought, "Ah! How many times have I done this?"
0:04:49 > 0:04:55What's that say? Dwyer? Esquire. That is incredibly amazing.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Right, let's have a look.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59There he is in the list of the councillors. James Blair.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02- Do I need the gloves, then?- You don't, no. We can lose the gloves.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04- I quite like the gloves. - Yeah, if you like them,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07you can keep them before you go. OK...
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Funnily enough - you know what people on Twitter are like -
0:05:10 > 0:05:13now if you do something where the gloves haven't been worn, you know,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17everybody's an expert now, everyone's jumping up and down, going,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21"I didn't see any, ahem, white gloves being used in the library scene".
0:05:21 > 0:05:23It's extraordinary!
0:05:25 > 0:05:29It's actually the Hogwarts library to me!
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Following the paper trail that everyone leaves behind
0:05:34 > 0:05:36is the key to unlocking the past.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Is there, somewhere, a dusty piece of paper...
0:05:42 > 0:05:44..that says...
0:05:44 > 0:05:48"Jeremy Clarkson is owed £42 billion"?
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Pregnant servant.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Pregnant, unmarried servant.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Blimey! Lord!
0:05:59 > 0:06:02- That really says it all, doesn't it?- I'm afraid it does.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Somebody goes, "It is all in this book. It is written."
0:06:09 > 0:06:12And they go, "Psssshhhh!," and the dust comes out, and someone says,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15"Wait! Wait, I think we have the parchment".
0:06:15 > 0:06:18You know? And it is a bit like that.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20AINSLEY HARRIOTT: 'When you see these documents,
0:06:20 > 0:06:22'it makes you kind of think, "Wow!'
0:06:22 > 0:06:26"This is me, this is part of me. This is part of my make-up here,
0:06:26 > 0:06:31"right before my eyes." And, you know, it's recorded, it's all there.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I had no idea about my great-grandparents,
0:06:34 > 0:06:42so to find out their names and what they did, it's just amazing.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Oh, my God. Talking about my great-great-great-great-grandfather,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49you know, hundreds of years ago,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52it's documented there that he was a stonemason
0:06:52 > 0:06:54and he worked on Windsor Castle.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58But how amazing to be able to find that information,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01that we still have it in our archives.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03I mean, what a treasure trove.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07The census, conducted every ten years since 1841,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10inadvertently reveals intimate details of our ancestors' lives,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and birth, marriage and death certificates
0:07:13 > 0:07:15can send shock waves down the centuries.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Where's her husband?
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Looks like she's on her own.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23Lunatic.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Hang on, this is a big line of lunatics.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31- Yeah.- Where is she, in an asylum?
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Where... Where is this?
0:07:33 > 0:07:35I came across a marriage for him.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Oh, my God, he was an actor!
0:07:42 > 0:07:46- Ah, yes!- And she was a variety artist!
0:07:46 > 0:07:47I wondered when you'd notice.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49I'm so happy!
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Opera singer Lesley Garrett got a nasty surprise
0:07:53 > 0:07:56from a death certificate of 1899.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00She was 57 years old.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03She was the wife of Charles Garrett, who was a butcher and a farmer.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10"Death from poisoning by carbolic acid accidentally administered"?!
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Oh, for goodness' sake! Wow!
0:08:13 > 0:08:14By whom?!
0:08:16 > 0:08:19The twists and turns of every story on Who Do You Think You Are?
0:08:19 > 0:08:20rely on the information
0:08:20 > 0:08:25recorded in all kinds of weird and wonderful documents.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29- Rabbits, woodcocks, partridges and hares.- And hare.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32This is what my great-great-grandfather killed.
0:08:32 > 0:08:38These are the Hearth Tax returns for South Yorkshire for 1672.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42That's when they were taxing people on how many chimneys they had.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46I just love that this book exists!
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Somebody published it!
0:08:49 > 0:08:51This is known as a seaman's discharge book.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53Mm. LAUGHS
0:08:53 > 0:08:55- Wouldn't be in this day and age. - No, no, it wouldn't!
0:08:55 > 0:08:58This smutty day and age. It'd be something completely different.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00Probably has a much nicer name now.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03It was a really, really, very kind of innocent time, wasn't it?
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Documents come in all shapes and sizes, and one of the smallest
0:09:07 > 0:09:10was written by an ancestor of Alexander Armstrong.
0:09:10 > 0:09:1277.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14"How to make a man to fly,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18"which I have tried with a little Boy of ten years old in a Barn,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23"from one end to the other, on an Hay-mow."
0:09:23 > 0:09:27And the little boy came out fine. He was fine.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30The longest document ever seen on the series
0:09:30 > 0:09:33was found by Meera Syal in the Punjab,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37where village records were kept on a very, very long piece of fabric.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45It's like a sari, isn't it?
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Kevin Whately couldn't believe
0:09:49 > 0:09:51what he found - his ancestor's bank account details,
0:09:51 > 0:09:531741.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57That's the date, not his PIN number.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00We've actually still got his bank account to show you.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02- It still exists.- Yeah.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Thomas Whately.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Quite a busy account.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12How extraordinary, to have his bank account 300 years later.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Bill Oddie found a strange set of rules
0:10:16 > 0:10:19in a noisy cotton mill where his grandparents once worked.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Yes, off. Off. Off!
0:10:22 > 0:10:24'The noise was unbelievable.'
0:10:24 > 0:10:28"Boom, boom, boom, boom!" Everything's going all around you.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31And it is such a row. It's just horrendous!
0:10:34 > 0:10:37"Operator' notes." Real thing.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38'Can you make it up?'
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Extraordinary. It was 40 items of what you mustn't do,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44and you don't understand one of them.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49You know, "Make sure that your flop doesn't come in the bottle boots".
0:10:49 > 0:10:51All right, OK, I'll make sure of that.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53"Don't let oil accumulate on the contact block.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56"Don't forget to see that stumblers are free to act.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59"Don't let carbon dust or dirt accumulate on the commutator.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03"Don't put stretch on Upper Warp Frame while still in the loader."
0:11:03 > 0:11:05As if you would!
0:11:05 > 0:11:08"Don't forget too much angle in loading, causing breaks."
0:11:08 > 0:11:10It does! Too much angle in loading causing breaks.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12You can't help laughing, frankly,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14cos, I mean, you can't write that stuff.
0:11:14 > 0:11:1640 unintelligible don't do this.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19You say "DO try and understand what it means".
0:11:20 > 0:11:24Who Do You Think You Are? has examined a million pieces of paper.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Oh, my God.
0:11:26 > 0:11:27That's not short, is it?
0:11:27 > 0:11:31But the real star of the archives is microfiche.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35My heart's pounding, you do realise that, don't you?
0:11:35 > 0:11:39No TV programme in the history of broadcasting has done more to
0:11:39 > 0:11:44revive the reputation of this unfashionable material.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Without microfiche, Who Do You Think You Are? wouldn't
0:11:47 > 0:11:48know who anybody was.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52When you kind of wind up and you start looking at this stuff,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54it's almost like watching a film from the 1930s
0:11:54 > 0:11:57- or something like that. - HE MAKES CLICKING NOISE
0:11:59 > 0:12:03When you do suddenly find a name that connects with you,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07you think of how much material is actually there
0:12:07 > 0:12:09and then suddenly it just pops right up...
0:12:09 > 0:12:11It just goes... It's almost like big words.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14It's almost like you're watching some form of animation
0:12:14 > 0:12:19because suddenly - bang - it's right there and that's your history.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Oh, wow. This... I knew it. I knew it.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25I knew something was going to come out of this.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28"Cannibalism at Tarbuck"? I hope it's not that.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35- Can you read this?- Yes.- Yes? What does it say?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38When I said, "Yes", I just said yes to be accommodating.
0:12:41 > 0:12:42Well...
0:12:42 > 0:12:45We've opened a whole can of worms here, Ken.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49You just don't know who is going to turn up
0:12:49 > 0:12:51when you start digging into the past.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55There's no telling what they did or who they did it with,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57as Alex Kingston found out.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00So this street must be something different.
0:13:00 > 0:13:01Something different about this street.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Something different. Something a bit out of the ordinary...
0:13:04 > 0:13:06about this district or this street.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Oh, my... They're not hookers, are they? Are they prostitutes?
0:13:10 > 0:13:16Oh! Are they?! Oh, my God! They're not! Are they really?! Oh, no!
0:13:16 > 0:13:18- Seriously?!- Seriously.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20They could well have been running what
0:13:20 > 0:13:25- we call disorderly houses or houses of ill repute.- Oh, my word!
0:13:25 > 0:13:29They're weren't necessarily actively pursuant in being prostitutes
0:13:29 > 0:13:35themselves, but running disorderly houses or houses of assignation,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38- rather like motels, where people could...- Rent a room.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41- ..by the hour, yes. - Oh, my goodness!
0:13:41 > 0:13:46All I can say is, this morning, I found my inner Jew and,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50this afternoon, I found my inner whore!
0:13:50 > 0:13:54I mean, it's like... I just... I was not expecting that.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Who Do You Think You Are?'s reputation for uncovering scandal
0:13:59 > 0:14:02has inspired quite a few comedians.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04Before appearing on the programme for real,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Alexander Armstrong did it for laughs.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I play myself deeply vain, you know, and I basically decided to do it
0:14:11 > 0:14:13because it's been moved up from BBC Two to BBC One,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15so that's my main reason for doing it.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17I think it might be good for the career.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Therefore, having committed to it, I'm hoping...
0:14:19 > 0:14:21I'm very much hoping that I will be
0:14:21 > 0:14:25the discussion round the water coolers the following morning.
0:14:25 > 0:14:26- Wow! Fantastic. - Yes, she's here.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30- This is the 1921 Census...- Yeah.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33..and she's in here with her four sisters, your great aunts.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35- Here we go.- Oh, there they are.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Florence Agnes Davies of
0:14:39 > 0:14:4414 Tanmartin Road, aged 20, whore.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46LAUGHTER
0:14:49 > 0:14:55And I discover, at every turn, my forebears were all prostitutes.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58'It just gets worse and worse and worse.'
0:14:58 > 0:15:02And what's also interesting is that all of her sisters are here,
0:15:02 > 0:15:03so your great aunts as well.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08Here we are. Edith Berther, aged 20, whore.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Victoria Mary, aged 19, whore.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Eliza Jane, whore.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20And Susan Elizabeth, who's just 16...whore.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23LAUGHTER
0:15:23 > 0:15:27My main guest today is one of the genealogists
0:15:27 > 0:15:29from BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?
0:15:29 > 0:15:32- Please welcome Henry Spring. - Hello.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Alan Partridge also got a shock when the people from
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Who Do You Think You Are? looked into the Partridge family tree.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Well, the coroner's report says the cause of death was syphilis.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Right. You can make eye contact with me when you say that, you know.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48- I haven't got syphilis.- Sorry.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50You're looking away, like that, like it's, you know...
0:15:50 > 0:15:53You should careful, banding around causes of death willy-nilly.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Well, the coroner's report does state it, so we can be pretty sure.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59If I was going on a man's radio show to accuse
0:15:59 > 0:16:02one of his ancestors of having a sex disease,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04I'd want to be more than pretty sure.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08I'd want to be the next one up, which, presumably, is uber sure.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11- OK, then, we're uber sure. - Why are you doing this?
0:16:11 > 0:16:15I... I have sponsors who will walk away like that
0:16:15 > 0:16:16if they get a sniff of VD.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21However optimistically the search begins,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26those long-gone relatives so often fail to live up to expectations.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Now we have Thomas Irons of B Division.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34"Absent from his beat for 30 minutes and found drunk."
0:16:34 > 0:16:37He has 37 reports against his name.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Jeremy Iron's great-great grandfather was a policeman in 1839
0:16:41 > 0:16:44who wasn't always well-behaved.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48- 37 times he was on report... - He liked the beer. Well, well.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51But he might have only had that to drink, so...
0:16:51 > 0:16:53He apparently spent too much time in the pub.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55But, of course, when he was a policeman,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59there wasn't drinkable water, so you would drink, you know...
0:16:59 > 0:17:01on a day like a hot day today,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04wandering around the streets, you'd want to go in
0:17:04 > 0:17:06and cool your thirst, and you should do.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10But they didn't seem to appreciate that, so he was given the elbow.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14From Jeremy Iron's drunken policeman to David Mitchell's
0:17:14 > 0:17:17great-great great grandfather, the Reverend John Forbes,
0:17:17 > 0:17:22who wasn't as forgiving as you might expect from a man of the Church.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26I'd spent the best part of a week being told what a great guy he was,
0:17:26 > 0:17:30and he seemed to be very respected and a very devout man
0:17:30 > 0:17:35and a very learned man, and then I was given his will...
0:17:35 > 0:17:40In which he basically slags everyone off, leaves nothing to his wife
0:17:40 > 0:17:43because, he says, she's an alcoholic.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46"To my beloved wife, personally, I cannot entrust anything
0:17:46 > 0:17:50"because she has, during the last 18 years previous to this date,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54"proved herself to be utterly unworthy of trust or confidence,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57"being unfortunately addicted during this period to the
0:17:57 > 0:17:59"vice of intemperance."
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Stop smiling, this is very tragic.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05- Oh...- "Contracting debts without my knowledge or permission,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09"imprudent and without any proper regard to necessary economy,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11"generally disobedient to the admonitions,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14"advices and directions that were kindly and faithfully given
0:18:14 > 0:18:18"to her for her own best interest and that of her family,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21"both by myself and also by my relatives and friends."
0:18:21 > 0:18:24"Constantly trying to evade the vigilance that has been used
0:18:24 > 0:18:26"to prevent her from going wrong."
0:18:26 > 0:18:30To be honest, you read that and I'm not surprised she drank.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36For many, exploring the lives of their ancestors has taken them
0:18:36 > 0:18:38to the four corners of the Earth
0:18:38 > 0:18:41using any available mode of transport.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43HORN BLOWS
0:18:46 > 0:18:48Isn't that great? Isn't that fantastic?
0:18:50 > 0:18:54I feel very at home here, actually. I do.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59We're right by the Ganges, which is all dried up at the moment.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02This is certainly not a place that English people hang out.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10Rory Bremner looked relaxed on a nice little boat,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14and Laurence Llewellyn Bowen tried to look relaxed
0:19:14 > 0:19:15on a much bigger boat.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Some other people should probably have stayed at home.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25HE WRETCHES
0:19:29 > 0:19:31HE WRETCHES
0:19:40 > 0:19:44Well, we're in Kaliningrad and I've just been incredibly violently sick.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Er...
0:19:46 > 0:19:47One of those big sicks where
0:19:47 > 0:19:50I just thought it was actually never going to stop.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52And, rather unfortunately,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55I've actually been sick on my nice document bag,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58which includes the letters written by my grandmother.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Barbara Windsor sensibly decided to travel to Clacton by train.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Very easy getting on and off a train, if you know how.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16SHE LAUGHS
0:20:16 > 0:20:19You can see I haven't been on a train for a long time.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24I stood there waiting, thinking the doors would open.
0:20:24 > 0:20:25Having arrived at their destination,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29the celebrity genealogist can still be faced with the most
0:20:29 > 0:20:31challenging difficulties.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Well, look, the car's in there. I can't...
0:20:37 > 0:20:39I was really looking forward to finding out
0:20:39 > 0:20:42why the Kilners went bust, but I'm afraid it's all over now.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48I reckon you could jump over that...
0:20:48 > 0:20:50with a good run-up.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Oh! Damn! Now look what's happened.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10This is it. This is the ancestral home.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16Thousands of miles I've gone round the world and here I am...
0:21:16 > 0:21:20in the middle of a circle of stones that...
0:21:20 > 0:21:22That I suppose I should call home.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28And, actually, I want to leave! HE LAUGHS
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You genuinely do not know anything.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33You don't know what they've found out.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35I knew what part of the world I was going to,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38so I then had some idea, but that's all.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40What was particularly hard was just kind of saying,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43"OK, this is me. What's next?"
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Because normally I'm slightly in control of my life.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50On the morning that we began the first interview in London,
0:21:50 > 0:21:51in my flat,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56and they said, "And when you come to join us this afternoon
0:21:56 > 0:22:00"at the Imperial War Museum, bring a change of clothes for four days
0:22:00 > 0:22:02"and your passport."
0:22:03 > 0:22:07And... Then my curiosity was really whetted by that.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11I'm not used to not having all the information at my fingertips.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16I hated sort of me going, "Well, when are we going to start?
0:22:16 > 0:22:19"Are we having lunch? Where are we going to be for lunch?
0:22:19 > 0:22:20"Where are we?"
0:22:20 > 0:22:22And they'd just go, "You'll see."
0:22:22 > 0:22:25And I'll be like, "Argh! I want to know! This is so frustrating."
0:22:25 > 0:22:29I loved it because I never knew what the people were going to say
0:22:29 > 0:22:31and I never knew what I was going to say.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Once the question is asked - Who Do You Think You Are? -
0:22:39 > 0:22:41it's hard to say what the answer will be.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Some people know who they are and some people don't.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49I like the ones where people are very, very sure that they're Irish
0:22:49 > 0:22:50and then they find out they're not.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Was it John Hurt that wanted to be Irish and wasn't?
0:22:55 > 0:22:58You see, knowledge is a frightening thing.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04'Family legend has it that my great grandmother was the illegitimate
0:23:04 > 0:23:06'daughter of an Irish lord.'
0:23:08 > 0:23:11And there is something beguiling
0:23:11 > 0:23:15about the Colleen from the west of Ireland.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18There is something deeply beguiling about that.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23He just wanted to be a bit Irish, almost everyone is a bit Irish.
0:23:23 > 0:23:29He seems like he would be, he's got that sort of Celtic warmth. But no.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31So, the whole...
0:23:31 > 0:23:36The whole family story...is rubbish.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37- Nonsense.- Yeah.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41Poor old John. Delve into your past if you dare.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44You know, there was John Hurt thinking
0:23:44 > 0:23:48he was Irish, my friend Alistair McGowan who's thinking
0:23:48 > 0:23:51- "I'm Scottish" - and- I'm- more Scottish than Alistair.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53When I first went to the Edinburgh Festival, I felt a great
0:23:53 > 0:23:55connection with Scotland and every time I filmed in
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Scotland, I thought, "This is home." I felt very much at home there.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59So I was sure that with my name
0:23:59 > 0:24:03and the number of people who seemed to accept me as a Scot and expected
0:24:03 > 0:24:06me to be a Scot that that was where my family history lay. That's where
0:24:06 > 0:24:09my time on the programme would be spent. Not at all.
0:24:13 > 0:24:14Welcome to Calcutta.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23You are Anglo-Indian.
0:24:27 > 0:24:28So there we are.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33He was so sure that he was Scottish, if he has to go anywhere,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38it'll be up to Scotland where his great-grandfather was
0:24:38 > 0:24:45the laird of the manor and all this, and he has to go back to India.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Meeting the McGowans in Jalalabad was extraordinary. There they
0:24:48 > 0:24:51all were in that one little enclave, it was extraordinary.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54And also in the middle of Jalalabad, which is just like any other town
0:24:54 > 0:24:58in India now, and suddenly there was this tiny little bit - McGowan.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59McGowan, McGowan.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Very nice to meet you, I'm Alistair...McGowan.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08- I'm Reggie McGowan.- Hello, Reggie. - My son, Brian McGowan.- Hello, Brian.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11- Hi, I'm Alistair McGowan. You're what McGowan?- Bertie McGowan.
0:25:11 > 0:25:12- Bertie?- Yeah.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Cyril? Hello, I'm Alistair.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19- Hello, you must be Aubrey.- Yes, yes. - Hello, Aubrey, nice to meet you.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23More McGowans. Hello.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Who Do You Think You Are? is a brilliant title.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28There's an inherent joke in there - who do you think you are?
0:25:28 > 0:25:30We're going to show you something different.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32And who do you think you are? Kind of like an arrogant thing
0:25:32 > 0:25:35about you think people are going to be interested in you, do you?
0:25:35 > 0:25:37It's a perfect title for the programme.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39It's a bit like going in for one of those procedures where,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41I'll put this as delicately as I can,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46where they put a camera up you, you know what I'm talking about?
0:25:46 > 0:25:50It's a bit like that because it's something that's very personal.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Occasionally, there's a chance for a long-lost relative to meet their
0:25:56 > 0:26:01new famous celebrity relative who maybe isn't as famous as we thought.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09No, sorry, should I know you?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12- No.- No.- No.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Not unless you're a Vic Reeves fan.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17- A what?- No, no.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22- I don't know Vic Reeves. - I don't blame you.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26- What, does he sing or dance? - No, he doesn't do much.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28I'm Rupert.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29Oh, are you?
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Some people just don't do their homework before meeting
0:26:32 > 0:26:37their famous relatives, like Rupert Everett's great-auntie.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39- I like naughty boys. - I like naughty boys too.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41THEY CHUCKLE
0:26:41 > 0:26:42We've got something in common.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47- You're not playing for the other side, are you?- Well, maybe.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50- Now, I'm learning things now. - Well, that's life.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52- How terrible. - I know.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56But you're family tradition. Naughty but nice.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Naughty but nice, that's what I am. You are naughty, I like you.
0:26:59 > 0:27:00I like you.
0:27:00 > 0:27:01THEY LAUGH
0:27:05 > 0:27:09One thing our ancestors could never have expected was to end up on
0:27:09 > 0:27:11the internet, and trying to track them down
0:27:11 > 0:27:13has resulted in Who Do You Think You Are?
0:27:13 > 0:27:16showing more celebrities on computers than any other
0:27:16 > 0:27:19television programme.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22John, I bet you never thought I'd be finding out
0:27:22 > 0:27:26more about you on something as devilish as this kind of machine.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30I've found them.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33French chambermaid, Elise.
0:27:33 > 0:27:34Right, we're searching.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Come on. Come on, machine.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41- Where's that?- Ireland.- Ireland! - So, there you go.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44SHE SINGS JIG
0:27:47 > 0:27:49He's a greengrocer.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52He's a greengrocer, that's fantastic.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55With the internet, a whole world of census details
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and family records are just a click away. Maybe.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I don't know, it's not that clear what it is.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04Oh.
0:28:04 > 0:28:05Lost it completely.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Useless from Leicester here is having a bit of a nightmare
0:28:08 > 0:28:10on the computer.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13I'm going to put in place names of Skye.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Yes. Go.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30I sort of feel I should be able to kind of relax
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and enjoy the fact that I'm just away from it all
0:28:33 > 0:28:36and I can't contact the world, the world can't contact me
0:28:36 > 0:28:38but I'm not enjoying that part of it.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41I like the countryside and everything, the quiet,
0:28:41 > 0:28:46but I don't see why that can't come with superfast broadband as well.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50I don't know what it's like now cos obviously the technology moves
0:28:50 > 0:28:54very quickly but five years ago, the Wi-Fi on Skye...
0:28:54 > 0:28:55HE CHUCKLES
0:28:55 > 0:28:57This could be a new folk song.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01But five years ago, the Wi-Fi on Skye wasn't up to much,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04certainly not in the little bit we were,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06and that's frustrating when you're trying to
0:29:06 > 0:29:13google about your ancestors who were only rotting just down the road.
0:29:13 > 0:29:14But you need details.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Why didn't we green-screen all this?
0:29:18 > 0:29:23Just done it at Shepperton, they've got exemplary internet access there.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Just scan in a postcard, stick it behind me.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33We wouldn't have all the trouble we've been having getting lattes.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44The dream of everyone searching through the generations
0:29:44 > 0:29:48is to find a royal connection - a prince, a princess or a king.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53O-R-O-U-G-H. Father.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56George IV.
0:29:56 > 0:29:57Sorry, sorry.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59Baronet, baronet, baronet, baronet
0:29:59 > 0:30:02baronet, baronet, baronet, baronet
0:30:02 > 0:30:06and eventually, you've got a crown and things, you see.
0:30:06 > 0:30:07Rather grand.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12- So, tell me about...- That's the Royal Family's coat of arms.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15Gosh, do you think we've got royal blood in us?
0:30:15 > 0:30:17I think... Don't get carried away now.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20I think people are just fascinated by this subject
0:30:20 > 0:30:26and I think we all secretly believe that we are connected
0:30:26 > 0:30:31to each other and to historical figures in some sort of way,
0:30:31 > 0:30:33if only we could find it out.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39Boris Johnson travelled to Germany to see if his grandmother's
0:30:39 > 0:30:44claim to royal blood was true or just a family myth.
0:30:44 > 0:30:45We never believed a word she said.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Well, sorry, we took it with a huge pinch of salt.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Here are remarks made later by somebody.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56Prince Paul von Wurttemberg.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58- Ah-ha!- Ah-ha!
0:30:58 > 0:31:02- Ich habe der mystery cracked.- Yeah?
0:31:02 > 0:31:06Natural father was Prince Paul von Wurttemberg.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08This is all too good to be true.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10I mean this stuff in pencil,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13how do I know the BBC hasn't crept in and written this?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17- To make this show more interesting. - No, they did not do.- You sure?
0:31:17 > 0:31:20I'm sure, I keep the records.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25After discovering his ancestor was the illegitimate daughter
0:31:25 > 0:31:27of Prince Paul von Wurttemberg...
0:31:27 > 0:31:29Hello!
0:31:29 > 0:31:32..Boris went on to Ludwigsburg Castle to be shown
0:31:32 > 0:31:35a painting of Prince Paul's mother.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39- She is, of course, Augusta Caroline, Princess of Brunswick.- Oh, yes.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And her mother is...
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Her mother is...
0:31:44 > 0:31:46Oh, look, Augusta Hanover!
0:31:46 > 0:31:48Yeah, Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland.
0:31:48 > 0:31:49Stupefying.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52I remember saying at the time you could've knocked me down with a feather.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56I can't remember what I said but it was very, very surprising.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58BORIS SPEAKS INCOMPREHENSIBLY
0:32:00 > 0:32:04- I'm completely bewildered here. - Her father...
0:32:04 > 0:32:09Her father is Frederick Louis Hanover, Prince of Wales in Britain?
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Well, yes, there is only one Prince of Wales.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14I just want to nail this down.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17And his father...
0:32:17 > 0:32:19No.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25King George II of Great Britain and Ireland.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31OK, so if you take this from the top here, Rafael,
0:32:31 > 0:32:33he is my...
0:32:33 > 0:32:35great-great-great-great...
0:32:35 > 0:32:39- great-great-great-great-grandfather. - Eight times, yes.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41I am...
0:32:43 > 0:32:47..more than surprised, I'm stupefied by this.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Boris' grandmother's claim to a royal connection turned out to lead
0:32:50 > 0:32:57all the way back to King George II, more royal than even she realised.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00We thought that she was wildly exaggerating her claims
0:33:00 > 0:33:05and it was the subject of great amusement to us as children
0:33:05 > 0:33:08and it turned out that she was right.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10And so fair play to her.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15To be able to trace a link to royalty,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19it's essential to be descended from an uninterrupted line of toffs,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22knights and money, just like Alexander Armstrong.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26There is no period where Alex's family are not sufficiently
0:33:26 > 0:33:30posh that all written records are about him.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33I thought that was very, very funny.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38This is from the late Elizabethan period.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40This is vellum, so this is calf skin.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44What a beautiful document, look at that.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46- Here's Sir Charles. - Charles Somerset.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50Yeah, he was an illegitimate son of Henry who was the second
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Duke of Somerset.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57So his father, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and Duke,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01this comes back down here to John of Gaunt.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06- And he was the son of Edward III. - Goodness.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08'It was fantastic, we got to the College of Arms'
0:34:08 > 0:34:14and he had that wonderful vellum which had all the Stuarts and Tudors.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Here, we've got Edward III here, your direct ancestor,
0:34:18 > 0:34:26and we can go back all the way here to William the Conqueror in 1066.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31- I have reached the pinnacle of my line then, haven't I?- That's right.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33That is incredible.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39It was funny - a number of people who followed me
0:34:39 > 0:34:42on Twitter had said how smug I looked.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47How smug I looked when I discovered that I had royal connections.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52I wasn't feeling smug, I was feeling very excited. It is exciting!
0:34:52 > 0:34:57I mean, it is! What do they want me to do, look miserable?
0:34:57 > 0:35:00It's not every day you discover that sort of thing.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent
0:35:05 > 0:35:07traced his line ever further back,
0:35:07 > 0:35:09making a link to William the Conqueror
0:35:09 > 0:35:11look a little bit insignificant.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16We're back into pre-history here.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18And the dates have run out.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Yeah, just as well, I think, cos otherwise they'd be laughable.
0:35:22 > 0:35:23There's Woden.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29- There's Jesus.- Stop it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34We go back. There's King David.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40You may get a sense of which direction we're going in here.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Back again, further and further.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48And so we've got Cain and Abel.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Adam and Eve.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56And at the top of your pedigree...
0:35:56 > 0:35:58there is God.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01So you are directly descended from God.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03Well, we all are, of course.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07It's very nice to find a distant royal connection.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11But finding a hero closer to home is more of a reason to be proud.
0:36:14 > 0:36:15SHE GASPS
0:36:15 > 0:36:18Oh, don't, cos I'm going to start crying.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21Ah, brilliant.
0:36:21 > 0:36:22There's a portrait.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26The pride that I felt when my great grandfather,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29when I went to the museum and I saw his portrait on the wall...
0:36:31 > 0:36:32It was really...
0:36:32 > 0:36:34It was really amazing.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39I mean, I felt such immense pride. Yeah, it's lovely.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42JK Rowling found a heroic character in her family.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Her great grandfather Louis Volant
0:36:45 > 0:36:49was a corporal in the French Army and fought in the First World War.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52"With the greatest calm, he...
0:36:52 > 0:36:53Oh, my God!
0:36:53 > 0:36:57"He killed several German soldiers."
0:36:59 > 0:37:02For protecting his position and defending his comrades.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Oh, my God!
0:37:04 > 0:37:09For his bravery, your great grandfather won Croix de guerre.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14The Legion d'honneur is an award for officer class.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18So, Croix de guerre, it's an award for the fighter.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22It's better. The Croix de guerre is much better
0:37:22 > 0:37:25than Legion d'honneur, for me.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28- Here...I have...- You're joking.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31I have Croix de guerre with a bronze star.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Exactly the same that your great grandfather won.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39And I will be very, very honoured if you accept it...
0:37:39 > 0:37:44- Thank you so much.- ..in memory of your great grandfather.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48- Thank you very much indeed.- Please. - Thank you.- You're welcome.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52You can be very, very proud of your father.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54He was a fighter.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00You can consider your father as army on its own.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03- Goodness me. Gosh.- Yeah.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Who Do You Think You Are? can be an emotional experience.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08And despite their best efforts,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11for many the shedding of tears has become part of that journey.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21I had absolutely sworn to myself that I wouldn't become emotional,
0:38:21 > 0:38:25because I thought that might be indulgent in every way.
0:38:25 > 0:38:31Which was maybe too strong a promise to have made to myself
0:38:31 > 0:38:35when I was eight months pregnant and highly emotional about everything.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39I was asked about my grandparents. Perfectly anodyne question.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42Just to get the ball rolling. "Tell us about your family."
0:38:42 > 0:38:44And even just talking about my grandparents,
0:38:44 > 0:38:48I suddenly found I was getting a lump in my throat because...
0:38:48 > 0:38:49I have no idea why.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54Good lord, if I'm going to start welling up on day one,
0:38:54 > 0:38:59what hope is there for us as we get through the fortnight?
0:38:59 > 0:39:00It was very moving.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03And I thought, "I cannot cry!"
0:39:03 > 0:39:05It's too awful. I cannot cry.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09But it was really difficult to not cry at times.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Emotions were also stirred when Jeremy Paxman discovered
0:39:19 > 0:39:22an anonymous letter sent in 1901
0:39:22 > 0:39:25had caused hardship for his great grandmother.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Some bastard writes an anonymous letter.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34In June... The 8th of June and the 18th of June,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38alleging pauper had given birth to an illegitimate child.
0:39:38 > 0:39:44I was surprised by how viscerally I reacted.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46And...
0:39:46 > 0:39:49I don't know what one learns from that, really.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56There's a curious charge about the personal experience,
0:39:56 > 0:40:01and the fact that it's someone in your family
0:40:01 > 0:40:06gives it a life that it would never acquire if you simply read about it.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14Because she's guilty of misconduct, she has...
0:40:14 > 0:40:16her poor relief withdrawn.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20So this is your great grandmother?
0:40:20 > 0:40:22Hm. Committed a great sin.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Having a child.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33Do we know what happened to her after that?
0:40:37 > 0:40:40When you discover somebody's life story
0:40:40 > 0:40:43and the adversity that they have had to face,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46of course it has an effect upon you.
0:40:46 > 0:40:47And...
0:40:47 > 0:40:49I was terribly moved.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55The archives are a time capsule.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Recording the day-to-day lives of everyone's families.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00The heroes and the villains.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07"With that exorable villain George Hyde Clarke..."
0:41:07 > 0:41:11That happens to be my great-great- great-great-great grandfather.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14I've got your dad's criminal record here for you to have a look at.
0:41:14 > 0:41:15His first arrest was at what age?
0:41:15 > 0:41:19First arrest is in 1934, so he would have been 19.
0:41:19 > 0:41:20This is fantastic.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22"..an Incorrigible rogue."
0:41:22 > 0:41:25To be charged with being an incorrigible rogue
0:41:25 > 0:41:28is another one of these all-purpose charges
0:41:28 > 0:41:30that you could just hoover people up.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34He was an incorrigible rogue. He was a career criminal.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39"£100 reward. Montague Leverson, solicitor, 66, Bishopsgate.
0:41:39 > 0:41:40"Within London."
0:41:40 > 0:41:43- Oh, the Jewish persuasion. - Precisely.- Indeed, as I am.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45"Charged with fraud."
0:41:45 > 0:41:48That is worse than I ever thought.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50He had an affair with...
0:41:51 > 0:41:53With the servant girl.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56And made her pregnant.
0:41:58 > 0:41:59He just couldn't resist it.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Bit of a cad, really.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07Oh, dear.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10I've been playing those sort of part for years.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15David Couch, you naughty boy!
0:42:15 > 0:42:18- It looks as though he was telling lies on his application.- Really?
0:42:18 > 0:42:20To put it sort of bluntly. Yeah.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Blimey.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27"Food Hoarding Fines.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30"Shipbuilder and wife to pay penalty of £600 and £100 costs.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33"They were first of all charged with hoarding no less than
0:42:33 > 0:42:36"1,148lb of flour."
0:42:36 > 0:42:38Greedy buggers.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41So he pleaded guilty for Mrs Hodge.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Mr Hodge's reply, "He had nothing to do with the housekeeping,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49"his time being occupied in building ships as fast as possible
0:42:49 > 0:42:51"to save the country from disaster."
0:42:51 > 0:42:55He blamed his wife. That's disgraceful.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58"Go on, love. Take one for the team."
0:43:00 > 0:43:01It's awful.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04"On Tuesday last, at Westminster police court,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07"W Morris Crouch, otherwise Morris Beethoven,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11"late of Ebury Street, was brought up in custody..."
0:43:11 > 0:43:13Oh, my God.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17"On remand, charged with obtaining sums of money with attempted fraud."
0:43:17 > 0:43:20"Six live tame fouls.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24"Called hens."
0:43:24 > 0:43:26Oh, stop it.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29It seems to me he's nicked a few chickens.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's not crime of the century, is it?
0:43:33 > 0:43:35Says here, "Pleads guilty."
0:43:35 > 0:43:38I suppose if you've got a load of chickens on you,
0:43:38 > 0:43:39you're bang to rights.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Loath to say it was murder most foul.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Sorry.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Clueless criminals pop up with great regularity.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51But then there are the other villains
0:43:51 > 0:43:54who left behind them a trail of emotional wreckage.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Kim Cattrall's grandfather George Baugh
0:44:00 > 0:44:02disappeared from the family home in 1938.
0:44:04 > 0:44:05So where is George Baugh?
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Well, he's looking through the window there.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11So didn't want his picture taken that he would not even come out
0:44:11 > 0:44:14- for a family wedding photo. - Obviously not.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16George Baugh was a secretive man
0:44:16 > 0:44:19who abandoned his wife and three daughters.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23Nobody knew where he'd gone until Kim Cattrall tracked him down.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27Son of a bitch.
0:44:29 > 0:44:30Got remarried.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35To Isabell Oliver.
0:44:36 > 0:44:3821-year-old woman.
0:44:38 > 0:44:39Wow.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42He's a bigamist.
0:44:44 > 0:44:45Son of a bitch.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47I knew he was gutsy, but this is just...
0:44:50 > 0:44:52Now he's a criminal.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Unbelievable.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Bruce Forsyth's great grandfather also disappeared.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03Leaving six children behind in London.
0:45:03 > 0:45:04But where did he go?
0:45:06 > 0:45:09What I did was, because you mentioned America,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12so I crosschecked all the names on the passenger list.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16- So those great liners that take people out to America.- Yes.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21And, in fact, Joseph does turn up in one.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24- He is travelling with a woman. - Oh!
0:45:24 > 0:45:27Oh, dear, Catherine. Did you have to bring that up?
0:45:27 > 0:45:32I never knew that if got on a boat,
0:45:32 > 0:45:37a liner going across the Atlantic,
0:45:37 > 0:45:40that everybody's name would be there, that was a surprise to me.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44When they found out he was travelling with this young girl,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47who we didn't know at the time was pregnant, I mean,
0:45:47 > 0:45:53and she was a milliner who we found out before.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56How could they find out that?
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Frances - ditto - Johnson.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03Same name. 26.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05And look at that - wife.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07My goodness.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10So he was a bigamist?
0:46:10 > 0:46:14I cannot find a divorce for Joseph and Elizabeth.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16It's not there.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20And I can't find a marriage either for Francis and Joseph.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25- But we don't know exactly what happens when he goes to America.- No.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28He was elusive, to say the least.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31How can you have a family of six...?
0:46:31 > 0:46:35I mean, OK, I've had three wives,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39but I could never have walked out on six children
0:46:39 > 0:46:43and my wives the way he did.
0:46:43 > 0:46:48I think that was quite amazing - which made him rather devious.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Who Do You Think You Are? has never been afraid
0:46:52 > 0:46:55to explore the tragic side of history.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58When tracing family roots in the Caribbean,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02the trail inevitable leads to the horrors of slavery.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Moira Stuart searched for relatives in a register of slaves
0:47:08 > 0:47:11from the 1800s kept in Antigua's national archive.
0:47:13 > 0:47:19The slave register gives, yes, the first names of so many men and women,
0:47:19 > 0:47:21but there is no surname.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24So it is very difficult to know which -
0:47:24 > 0:47:30in this case, Billy, or John, or Prudence - Prudence who?
0:47:31 > 0:47:32I'm finding...
0:47:34 > 0:47:38..many, many names of many, many...
0:47:52 > 0:47:53..people...
0:47:55 > 0:47:56..who...
0:47:56 > 0:47:59are my ancestors.
0:47:59 > 0:48:00My family.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13I'm thinking, what a travesty.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15What an obscenity.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17What an injustice.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21I'm thinking that I'm very privileged...
0:48:31 > 0:48:33..to at least read their names.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49For Ainsley Harriott, the hardships endured under slavery felt very real
0:48:49 > 0:48:51in a crumbling church in Jamaica.
0:48:55 > 0:48:56When I started looking
0:48:56 > 0:48:58at my three-times removed
0:48:58 > 0:49:00grandmother Catherine,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03who worked on this Wear Pen estate,
0:49:03 > 0:49:09and I went there, I wanted to kind of discover where she actually slept.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12And there was nothing there except a church.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15And I'll never forget, just approaching this church,
0:49:15 > 0:49:18genuinely feeling quite excited about -
0:49:18 > 0:49:21maybe this was the place that she might have gone to worship.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23But then getting inside
0:49:23 > 0:49:27and seeing it completely crumbling to the ground, you know,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30all the floorboards had been ripped up, there were no pews,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34there was no crosses of Jesus Christ, there was nothing...
0:49:34 > 0:49:37except a couple of plaques.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40There's a Davy.
0:49:40 > 0:49:41And, see?
0:49:41 > 0:49:42- Wear Pen.- Yes.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48Died in London, 29 September 1863.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Hmm.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54This man owned my great-great-great grandmother.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58I felt a sense of anger, really.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03I just wanted to just rip it down and I said - I think, even in the...
0:50:03 > 0:50:06in the programme, I just wanted to spit at it,
0:50:06 > 0:50:07I just wanted to do something.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10I wanted to have a reaction for the hurt
0:50:10 > 0:50:14that my ancestors had endured at that time.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17I want to spit at it, really, you know?
0:50:17 > 0:50:19I want to say, "Sod you, mate."
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Let it stay up there, let people remember,
0:50:21 > 0:50:27let this whole church just crumble around that plaque.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Let it fall to the floor and smash to pieces.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36I don't even want to look at it any more.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51The traumas of the Second World War
0:50:51 > 0:50:53have also been explored by the programme.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58When Natasha Kaplinsky looked at her family background,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01she knew the holocaust would be at the centre of her story.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The first time I realised that...
0:51:06 > 0:51:11we were really going to uncover some very dark secrets
0:51:11 > 0:51:14was probably when I was met at the airport by Benny,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16who is my father's cousin.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18- Are you Benny?- Hi.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20- Oh, that's fantastic! - So happy to meet you.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22'And the team had rightly decided
0:51:22 > 0:51:24'that the discoveries that I was going to make in Belarus'
0:51:24 > 0:51:28were probably a bit much to do on my own, and so they needed
0:51:28 > 0:51:32to bring somebody in to kind of share the burden of it.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Natasha travelled with Benny to a town called Slonim in Belarus,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41where, in 1942, her father's cousins,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45two little girls aged nine and two, were killed by the Nazis.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49There was one particular moment in the filming
0:51:49 > 0:51:51where I actually just thought I couldn't carry on,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55and it was the discovery of what had happened to the two girls.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58And how they had died.
0:52:00 > 0:52:07The youngest child died on the 4th of February 1942.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10How did they go about killing children?
0:52:10 > 0:52:12I mean, you know about the death camps
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and the liquidation process, but with children it's just...
0:52:17 > 0:52:19- It's just so much more tragic, isn't it?- Mmm.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23If you ask me about the mechanism, how they did it...
0:52:25 > 0:52:26It was in the most brutal way.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30They didn't use bullets for children.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33They just did it with their hands.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37It's beyond comprehension.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39Just terrible, isn't it?
0:52:41 > 0:52:43- Can you excuse me?- Yes, please.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52I couldn't carry on the filming, and I just had to leave the room.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55And they were all very respectful, and just let me sob.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57Because I just - I couldn't...
0:52:57 > 0:53:04I couldn't get my head round the reality of killing children.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08And that they were my relatives, I found it just...
0:53:10 > 0:53:12It was just horrific.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Thank you very much.
0:53:16 > 0:53:17Oh...how do you open it?
0:53:19 > 0:53:20Thank you.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24'One of the real moments of emotion in that film
0:53:24 > 0:53:29'was when we were in a synagogue where our relatives used to worship
0:53:29 > 0:53:34'before they had been burned alive in another synagogue.'
0:53:34 > 0:53:36It's just such an incredible feeling.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39We're standing possibly right at the very spot
0:53:39 > 0:53:42where all our family came to worship.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45It's an amazing feeling.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47It was totally derelict,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50and it was very eerie, and there were birds flying around,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53and it was a very still place.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55I didn't know what to expect.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58And then, suddenly...
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Benny started to sing.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03HE SINGS IN HEBREW
0:54:44 > 0:54:47And it was so emotional.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49I mean, I just couldn't hold back the tears,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51and, bizarrely,
0:54:51 > 0:54:56I'm still stopped in the street about that moment in my film,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00because I think it struck a chord with everybody, it was so beautiful,
0:55:00 > 0:55:01it was so emotional.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Yeah, it was a real moment of heartache.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12During its 100 episodes,
0:55:12 > 0:55:15Who Do You Think You Are? has changed the lives of many people.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22It's an emotional experience that shows how important it is
0:55:22 > 0:55:24to really know where you come from.
0:55:25 > 0:55:30I feel so privileged to have been put into a position to discover
0:55:30 > 0:55:31that stuff, you know?
0:55:31 > 0:55:33Discover my family history.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36It is so, so powerful.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38It was an incredible opportunity,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40and I'll always be immensely grateful for it.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43It was just life-changing in so many ways.
0:55:43 > 0:55:48The shaft of light that can be created by this sort of programme,
0:55:48 > 0:55:50I think, is very revealing,
0:55:50 > 0:55:54and very often tells you more about how human beings are.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57That's the fascinating thing, isn't it?
0:55:57 > 0:56:00The revelations have sometimes been distressing,
0:56:00 > 0:56:02and sometimes uplifting.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04Hello, sweethearts!
0:56:04 > 0:56:06ALL CHEER
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Hello, my long-lost family!
0:56:08 > 0:56:10I'm here, I'm here!
0:56:12 > 0:56:14Whatever has happened in the past,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Who Do You Think You Are? proves one thing -
0:56:17 > 0:56:19life goes on.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23I think everyone should do this - it's very cathartic,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26it's very good for the soul.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31Families are fascinating, and they're full of secrets and surprises.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33And there's no such thing as an ordinary family.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35You know, family's family.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Dead or alive, family is family.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41I suppose everyone feels like they need to come from somewhere...
0:56:42 > 0:56:44to understand where they are.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46If you have family,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49it always goes on.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Cos there'll always be somebody that continues,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53somebody to pass it on.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56Someone to hold on to.
0:56:56 > 0:56:57And...
0:57:00 > 0:57:02..so, who do I think I am?
0:57:05 > 0:57:09I'm a link in the chain of a wonderful family.
0:57:09 > 0:57:10I'm blessed.