I will have tissues at the ready
The fascinating series tracing celebrities’ genealogy returns with a dramatic first episode that sends Sue Perkins to Eastern Europe in search of her roots.
The 52-year-old TV presenter said: “I’ve been thinking about my family a lot since I lost my dad [Bert died in 2017]. When you lose a parent or a family member, it feels like the hot-air balloon you’ve been flying in suddenly has a cable snipped. There’s a sense of precariousness and to recalibrate, I wanted to find out a bit more about my past but also about my dad.”
The show takes Sue back to the Victorian era on the trail of her grandfather, Albert, who was orphaned aged six months, and in his sixties when his son, Bert, was born
She said: “Albert was an orphan in the workhouse, which feels such an unimaginably antiquated thing but is only two generations back.”
Of her mother’s side, she knew only that the family were immigrants – but World War I saw her German grandfather interned on the Isle of Man.
Sue said: “I can’t stand to be incarcerated, I have to move all the time. My grandfather was in a workhouse, then in service, my grandma was in service, we also discover other family in camps in Germany – there’s a lot of incarceration. Perhaps my frustration of confinement comes from that.”
A personal high was her discovery that Anna, her great-grandmother, came from Lithuania – as does the family of her TV partner and closest friend Mel Giedroyc. “That made me so happy,” she said.
But a trip to Lithuania showed Anna’s family was relocated to Germany with the approach of World War II.
“You forget when you study history that there are real people who pay the price for the decisions the big guys make,” Sue said.
During the show, Sue breaks down in tears and more waterworks seem likely when she watches it with her mother, Ann.
She said: “My mum is living with me at the moment, so we’ll sit and watch it together.
“I’ll get tissues ready – as well as the Mini Cheddars, which is our snack of choice – and possibly glasses of wine.
“I might have a towel over my head because I don’t tend to watch my shows but I want to see it with my mum.
“I hope she’ll be amazed and delighted with what we found out.”