BBC: Eddie Izzard follows his DNA Trail

[Rena]

Did anyone see the trailer for this forthcoming programme?   I shall definitely be watching.

BBC One on 20 February at 9.00pm to 10.00pm

Eddie Izzard, the comedian, is using his own DNA as the road map to follow the migration trail of his ancestors starting his journey in the seat of humanity in Namibia then northward through Turkey and Europe.  Eddie is the first person in Britain to use his own DNA to retrace his ancestors' journey across thousands of miles and nearly 200,000 years of history. A two-part special screening on consecutive days, this is the epic story of humanity’s journey from our shared origins in Africa 10,000 generations ago

[davidft]

I read a bit about it in  my TV mag.

Its in two parts and the first covers his mothers ancestry - which is poignant for him as she died young. he gets to go all over the place although I'll be interested to see how they work out the migrational route they reckon his ancestors took

[supermoussi]

I'll be interested to see how they work out the migrational route they reckon his ancestors took

It will be based on ongoing DNA studies of the world's population such as Dr Spencer Well's National Geographic Survey:-

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/about/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Wells

[BordersCrafter]

Have just set my digibox to record this - sounds fascinating.

[Springbok]

An interesting slant on the BBC series by Doctor Alice Roberts , which also traced the human evolution by DNA,but around the world.

Eddie's has followed this European branch in more depth.Really fascinating


Spring

[GrahamSimons]

Just watched the first programme. From what I know of the biology, the science is reasonably accurate; I enjoyed the connections that the programme developed with the various steps along the way.

This website provides some background: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

[Mavals]

Better explanation of DNA  concepts 1than the Richard III programme! Having to record tomorrows edition as off to WDYTYA Live

[DevonCruwys]

I was somewhat disappointed in this programme. I thought the Alice Roberts' series "The Incredible Human Journey" covered the subject in a much more scientific way. I thought it was very misleading to state that Eddie Izzard is "Viking" on the strength of a T2f1a1 haplogroup assignment. It was also somewhat confusing the way that the haplogroups were described as "markers".  It should be noted that anyone who wishes to have a detailed mtDNA haplogroup assignment needs to take a full mitochondrial sequence test. This test is not offered by BritainsDNA, the company who did the testing for the Eddie Izzard programme:

http://www.isogg.org/wiki/BritainsDNA

Family Tree DNA (the sponsors of the DNA workshop at WDYTYA Live) are currently the only company that offer the full mitochondrial sequence test.

[davidft]

Well have to say I was disappointed. The two programmes were just a series of missed opportunities. It would be interesting to see the viewing figures to see how many watched on each night and if there was a big drop off.

In my opinion the programme would have been immensely improved if they had shown the Y DNA tree and the mtDNA tree and the global map of migrations. As it was a lot of people must have been sitting there perplexed at how it all fitted together.
I would also have liked to know what it is on the DNA sequence that indicates Neanderthal ancestors. Is it just on one part of the DNA or spread all over it, what do you look for.

In short a disappointing missed opportunity in my opinion.