Genealogy with a genial gent...

I’VE always had a bit of a soft spot for Sir Ian McKellen, ever since he did a tour of school and university unions warning kids about the perils of not preparing for their all-important exams.

Spoofing his famous line as Gandalf from a climatic moment of Lord of The Rings, he’d gleefully ask the pupils and students what would happen if they didn’t put in the necessary revision. The answer? “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” Yes, it was corny and everyone knew it was coming from the minute that impish smile played across his face, but it marked him out in my books as a good egg and a thoroughly decent chap.

And those feelings were confirmed upon watching him on last week’s edition of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1).

Tracing his family tree back a few centuries he learned that he was actually far from being the only luvvie the McKellen clan had ever known.

Indeed, it turned out his great-uncle Frank had also been a jobbing actor across the theatre circuit of the North, earning himself rave reviews for his performances – news of which clearly gave Sir Ian a huge kick. It was impossible not to delight in the look on his face when handed a manuscript of a melodrama his ancestor had starred in, and drawn glowing notices for o much so he practically danced onto the stage of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton to run through the lines with one of the show’s historians. “There you go, Ian, you’re reading the very same words Frank himself would’ve spoken on stage over 150 years ago,” said the academic.

“Oh, stop it!” he replied, fizzing like a bottle of pop.

Unfortunately the happiness wasn’t to last, Sir Ian soon discovering that life spent treading the boards was a lot more precarious in the time of TB.

Frank’s initial success, it seems, had worn thin over time, resulting in him having to eke out a living doing bottom of the bill turns at low-rent travelling music hall productions.

Worse still, that was followed by separation from his wife, bronchial problems and internment in the Liverpool workhouse.

“Oh no. Oh Frank,” sighed Sir Ian, rubbing his eyes as his forebear’s death certificate was inevitably presented to him.

Its one saving grace, however, was that this last piece of earthly admin would go on to describe Frank’s occupation as “actor”.

“He would have been pleased with that,” sniffed Sir Ian with a sad smile. Indeed, there was a great deal of melancholy to this episode of WDYTYA? generally, Sir Ian cutting a somewhat lonely figure as he travelled around the country in search of clues about his blood line. Childless, with his only sibling (his sister) having passed away in 2003, he spoke of being the last of the McKellens with a ruefulness which, had it been some big screen blockbuster, would have resulted in there being nary a dry eye in the house.

Thank heavens then for the ray of light that was great-great-grandad Robert Lowes – a man who, in his capacity as a tireless campaigner for workers’ rights, oversaw the introduction of a national half-day holiday each Saturday, thereby making him the pioneer of the modern weekend.

See, I KNEW there was a reason I liked this McKellen guy.

I THOUGHT the EastEnders (BBC1) bus crash was a bit OTT.

And, having spotted the destination named on the front of the ill-fated doubledecker, it seems someone on the show’s production team agreed with me.

The 764 to Barking? Barking bloody mad, more like.