Who Do You Think You Are?
BBC One Thursday 26 May
It’s back! The long-awaited 19th series of WDYTYA? consists of five episodes. Sue Perkins kicks the series off, with Richard Osman, Matt Lucas, Anna Maxwell Martin and Ralf Little following in her wake.
Without giving too much away, the former Great British Bake Off host, comedian and, we learn, enthusiastic amateur boxer finds plenty of humour in her tree, even in the poignant story of an orphaned grandfather and a great grandfather interned as an ‘enemy alien’ during the First World War. But when she delves into a German branch who were living in Eastern Europe through the Second World War, she uncovers a harrowing and unfortunately all-too-timely tale of refugees fleeing across borders.
In the second episode, TV producer, quiz-show presenter and bestselling novelist Richard Osman reveals that he was close to his maternal grandfather Frederick when he was growing up. He was a military man who became an expert signaller and “a perfect male role model”. Osman traces his forebear’s life and, further back, learns about a murder case that gripped the attention of Regency Britain.
Matt Lucas of Little Britain and Bake Off fame is Jewish and wants to know more about his maternal grandmother Margot, who came to the UK from Germany in 1939. The Holocaust looms large in what he discovers, in both Berlin and Amsterdam.
Actor Anna Maxwell Martin, whose screen appearances include Motherland and Line of Duty, visits Northern Ireland and Scotland in her research. Family tragedy and a life built in the face of huge adversity feature.
The final episode focuses on Death in Paradise and Royle Family star Ralf Little. Despite seeing himself as Mancunian to the core, Little knows that he has Welsh roots. He uncovers, among others, a naval man who fought in the Pacific, and a gifted footballer who found God.