The new series is here!
Who Do You Think You Are?
Thursday 6 July, 9pm BBC One
Charles Dance has often played posh during his career, yet according to the actor: “There’s nothing aristocratic about me – at all.” Rather, his mother was an underhouse parlour maid, someone whose life was largely spent toiling downstairs rather than upstairs relaxing in grand rooms. As for his father, Charles knows little about a man who died when his son was just four years old, not even where he was born.
If this seems an unpromising starting point for Charles’ research, it’s soon easy to see why his family’s story has been chosen to lead the first tranche of episodes in the 14th series of WDYTYA?. Not only does the star of Game Of Thrones and Jewel In The Crown discover royal connections, but he also travels to the other side of the world to meet close relatives he never knew he had.
The series continues with TV sports presenter and outdoorswoman Clare Balding; a journey into the past kicked off by curiosity about her maternal great grandfather’s sexuality and family tales that involve “a whiff of scandal”, an intense friendship and personal letters being burnt after his death. She also traces an American link that leads back to when the New World was first being colonised by Europeans.
Citizen Khan creator Adil Ray is curious about his Asian and African heritage. He knows his maternal grandparents were a mixed-race couple who married in British East Africa, modern Kenya. What were their lives like and how did they meet? It’s in part a tale of emigration from colonial-era India. The final episode in July features Noel Clarke, who traces his family back to the slavery era and a tiny Caribbean island. Jonathan Wright