Merton’s ancestor jailed for attack with a banjo
PAUL MERTON has discovered his flair for performance comes from his busking great-great-grandmother, who was jailed for attacking two people with a banjo.
The Have I Got News for You panellist delved into his past on BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? He found out that Caroline Plunkett, his father’s great-grandmother, was a talented singer who was arrested aged just 14 for her role in the bizarre assault.
Plunkett, who was illiterate but learnt songs off by heart, was hauled before a judge along with four other buskers at the Old Bailey in 1867, accused of using the instrument to knock a couple to the ground. Despite her pleas that she “never touched” them, she was jailed for six months at Wandsworth Prison.
“It’s great to learn that there’s a performance gene somewhere back in my deep past and I wasn’t the first person to embarrass myself publicly,” Merton said during the programme, which will be broadcast on Aug 28 on BBC One.