DNA Journey
ITV From 7 March – catch up on ITVX
Friendships can grow from unlikely encounters. Just ask Downtown Abbey star Hugh Bonneville and comedian John Bishop, who first met at a Covid-19 vaccine centre and have since become the closest of pals. Close enough, in fact, to agree to go on a road trip together to Ireland for ITV’s genealogy programme DNA Journey.
Its fifth series dropped into the schedules shortly after our last issue went to press and the format remains essentially unchanged in following celebrities as they not only travel together, but hear stories of their respective families and, having taken DNA tests, meet relatives they never knew existed.
There’s inevitably an ancestral link between the celebrities featured in each show, too – for example, Bonneville and Bishop uncover a connection in Dublin between their Irish forefathers.
Another three new episodes are also available, with the programme featuring comedian Johnny Vegas and The Last Leg co-host Alex Brooker being just as funny as you would hope. The show also features an encounter between one of Brooker’s relatives and Jack the Ripper, and the story of how Vegas’ family came to live in St Helens – a tale in which the then-booming industry of glassblowing plays a key role.
There’s also another Irish journey, as actors Adrian Dunbar and Neil Morrissey, who first met over 40 years ago when they auditioned for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the same day and later costarred in Line of Duty, head west.
The remaining episode features Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse and her sister Oti, who won the programme twice dancing with celebrities Kelvin Fletcher and Bill Bailey, and has become a judge herself on Dancing on Ice. The duo travel to South Africa in search of their roots.