‘MY FAMILY WOULD HAVE KNOWN ANNE FRANK’
Matt Lucas loved his grandmother Margot – and was fascinated to uncover her story
The latest episode of the family history show sees comedian, actor and presenter Matt Lucas set out on the trail of his beloved late grandmother Margot, a refugee from Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Travelling to Berlin and Amsterdam to uncover Margot’s story, the search brought Matt’s own background and upbringing into sharp focus.
“I was brought up in a reformed Jewish household,” he explains. “I would go to synagogue most Saturday mornings and Hebrew classes on a Sunday. There was always something a bit naughty about going to synagogue, and then quietly going to watch Arsenal afterwards because you weren’t really supposed to do that! My mum is a typical Jewish mother – full of love. If I go round to dinner, she puts the food down and says, ‘There’s more carrots, more peas, more potatoes, more chicken.’ And then at the end she goes, ‘What are we going to do about that tummy, eh?’”
Margot was mother to Matt’s mum and came to the UK in 1939 as a Jewish refugee. “She was very German and a formidable woman and very strict,” he recalls. “When I was young, I was a little scared of her. But as we both got older, she mellowed and we became really close. We’d chat for hours on the phone.”
Matt headed to Berlin to trace Margot’s early life and try to understand what she experienced as part of a Jewish family in the lead up to the war.
“I think while you grow up, with older figures in your family, you sort of take them at face value, and you don’t really grill them on what they did,” he says. “I’d love to reconnect with her and one way I can
do that is by finding out some things about her that she never told me.”
After uncovering what happened to the close-knit extended family Margot left behind, Matt travels to Amsterdam. Some of Margot’s relatives fled to the neutral Holland, only for it to then be invaded by the Germans. There, he discovers a previously unknown family connection.
“My ancestor would have known Anne Frank, the writer of one of the most important books ever written,” he says.
After his emotional journey, Matt says, “My grandmother always made it clear how proud she was of me – and now I’m proud of her. I feel very lucky that I’ve had this opportunity to learn about my family history and to reconnect with Grandma Margot. It helps keep her alive for me, because I miss her.”