Cheryl’s blast from the past
It’s fair to say that The Former Artist Known As Cheryl had a few shocks during last night’s Who Do You Think You Are?
For me though, the biggest surprise came in the opening few seconds as we witnessed Cheryl in the recording studio working, one presumes, on some new songs.
Given how quiet she has been on that front since her last album flopped in 2014, I’d naturally assumed Cheryl was giving the music thing a rest until the inevitable Girls Aloud 20th anniversary tour in 2022.
Not so, it would seem. And if she was seeking lyrical inspiration, I’m sure she would have found plenty during the weeks she spent giving her family tree a shake for the BBC.
On her journey – during which she sported so many different hairstyles it should have been renamed Hair Do You Think You Are? – Cheryl heard tales of short-tempered ancestors getting into drunken fights, babies being born out of wedlock and families being driven apart by dark secrets. All a far cry from her own life obviously but you could tell she was fascinated by her history, even though the excitement didn’t necessarily show in her one-pitch Geordie drawl. Like so many others who have featured on this programme over the years, Cheryl’s research took her to the battlefields of the First World War.
As she stood on the very spot by the River Somme where her paternal great-grandfather dug trenches for his country, she was clearly affected by the scale of his sacrifice.
To her, it was further confirmation of something she’d always suspected: that the Northerners from whom she is descended were all “made of tough stuff”.
That’ll come in handy on the 3am feed, Chezza.