Scandal and surprises
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE
BBC1, 9pm SPORTS presenter Clare Balding has a sneaking suspicion about one of her ancestors.
No one ever talked about her maternal great grandfather, and Clare is curious to find out more.
“I just wonder,” she muses, “and this has been sort of whispered in the family – could he have been gay? It would mean I’m not the first one to be in a same-sex relationship and to be gay.”
Clare, who lives in London with her wife Alice Arnold, adds: “Being gay would have been illegal and hugely shameful at the time.” Beginning with the usual photographs and chats with relatives, before heading into the archives with various experts, Clare takes everything in her stride as she learns more about her family history.
But there’s a story of tragedy that finally catches the usually stoic Clare unawares.
“There’s me saying I wouldn’t cry, pull yourself together,” she says as she reads letters written by one of her grieving ancestors.
“It’s amazing how you can feel attached to someone by hearing their voice,” says Clare, who admits it’s rare for her to be reflective.
In the space of a few days she goes from knowing nothing at all about people who were just faces in portraits to knowing the secrets of their lives.
But that’s not the end of her story, as she heads off to find out more about her father’s relatives.
“I had great fun with mum’s family, full of scandal,” she tells her dad, horse trainer Ian Balding.
And this new search doesn’t disappoint either. It takes her to New Jersey and New York, where she uncovers an extraordinary dynasty and American roots stretching back for generations.