Tears, tragedy, mystery ... Charles Dance hits the genealogy jackpot

What a cracker of an episode to launch the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1), and you may be sure the bosses at the Beeb were turning somersaults when they realised what they’d got.

No doubt the researchers’ hearts started racing the moment actor Charles Dance casually remarked that he knew little about his mother and barely remembered his father, who had died in 1949 when little Charlie was not quite four years old.

this history show always has most fun when the revelations and scandals are hiding in the lowest branches of the family tree.

While it’s diverting to discover that a celebrity’s ancestors were criminals, royalty or celebs themselves ten generations ago, it’s riveting to watch people learning about their own parents.

Dance, who was once known for romantic roles but has matured into a villainously charismatic star in Game Of thrones and the like, began by saying he had just two photographs of his mother . . . and one of his father.

to the selfie generation, who snap themselves constantly, that must be impossible to comprehend. But Mrs Dance was a housekeeper (‘for the landed gentry,’ said her son) who had started in service aged 13 as a parlourmaid.

She left few traces and seemed to like it that way. Both her sons grew up believing that Walter Dance — who claimed to be 50 when he was closer to 75 — was their dad.

In fact, Charles’ older brother had a different father, whose identity was never revealed.

Within the opening five minutes, this family saga had become satisfyingly murky and convoluted. We forgave Dance a short digression into the Victorian era, where he discovered that his great-greatgrandfather once ran an art studio at the Marylebone address that is now home to Daunt Books: we knew there was better to come.

But no one could have guessed how much better. Charles discovered his father, a Boer War veteran, had been married for 40 years and widowed before he ever met the second Mrs Dance.

Walter and his first wife had two daughters, Charles’s half- sisters. One was killed in a freak accident, aged five — the tragedy happened 30 years before the actor was born but, as he stood outside the house where little Mary Dance died, emotion overcame him.

Everyone weeps on Who Do You think You are? but Dance, who was trying to be sardonic and offhand, lost the power of speech too. his rich, mellifluous voice simply dried up.

and that was before he traced his other half-sister’s life, all the way to Pretoria in South africa, and uncovered her handwritten memoir . . . as well as numerous photographs. this really was the genealogy jackpot.

tracing your ancestry can be risky, as fans of the costume romance Outlander ( More4) know very well. this steamy historical adventure, a sort of Poldark in kilts, first appeared on a U.S. pay-to-view station three years ago, but has only just reached the UK’s Freeview network. Caitriona Balfe stars as a World War II nurse in the Scottish highlands, who travels back in time almost 300 years and is caught between the rascally Celtic brigands and the cruel English redcoats.

Odder still, her husband’s wicked forebear, Black Jack Randall, is the first to find her, and immediately makes plain his designs on her body.

It’s pure hokum, but lavishly done. If your once-a-week fix of passionate clinches and heroes on horseback with Cap’n Ross and Demelza is no longer enough, Outlander will leave you sated.