DOCUMENTARY

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

BBC1, 8pm Comedian Ruby Wax has always been completely frank about her mental health issues, campaigning for awareness.

And she confesses many therapists have heard her speak about her dysfunctional childhood, as the only daughter of Jewish parents who fled the Nazis in 1938.

Ruby, 64, describes her father as “handsome and violent”, and her mother as “hysterical, screaming in the street”.

And so it is here that Ruby’s curiosity about her past begins. She wants to know if her own mental health illness was borne of her parents’ trauma, or if it’s in the family genes?

She says: “I think I have lived most of my life in a high anxiety state. I keep blaming my parents and it would be interesting to know who they’re blaming?”

Ruby’s journey begins with a visit to Vienna where she learns some horrible truths about her parents’ lives as Jews in Nazi Europe. She also makes a startling discovery about her great aunt and great grandmother. This is a fascinating account of a tragic period of history, told through the story of one family.