The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Helena’s family history call for schools
Helena Bonham Carter has said digging into her family history for a Channel 4 TV show convinced her that researching your grandparents should be part of the national curriculum.
Bonham Carter, 53, who is starring as Princess Margaret in The Crown, is one of four actors and actresses exploring their grandparents’ wartime stories.
Sir Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas and Carey Mulligan also appear in their own episodes of My Grandparents’ War.
Bonham Carter said she had become “evangelical” about digging into her past since appearing on the show, which commemorates the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.
Her maternal grandfather Eduardo Propper de Callejon was a Spanish diplomat who defied his government’s orders and helped Jews escape the Holocaust during the Nazi invasion of France.
She also learned that her English paternal grandmother Lady Violet Bonham Carter, a mother of four and liberal politician, also fought anti-Semitism as a volunteer air raid warden.
Bonham Carter said: “It’s a great family. And I’m proud now to be able to share it.
“Part of me feels like this was just the beginning.”