"Who Do You Think You Are", Series 14: #1 Charles Dance

[healyjfch]

I'm in Ireland so I do not have access to Iplayer.
I should have taken note of advance notice given on another thread.

I have set to record the remainder of the series.

No doubt it will be repeated in the future.

Thanks JFCH

[nanny jan]

BBC1 10th July has WDYTYA (repeat) listed for 12.00 ....midnight! No other details but could be Charles Dance.

[healyjfch]

THANKS
It is the Charles Dance episode according to my Sky box info. I have it set to record.

JFCH

[Clarkey500]

I enjoyed the episode and I'm glad to see it back on the telly and at this time of the year! I was on holiday in the New Forest at the time it was broadcasted but was able to see it on the night via iPlayer.

It was a good start to the series and had an interesting stance with Charles trying to find out about his own father. His great niece seemed very nice and so did her family. The first half was also good but did go a bit slow - especially in the book shop.

I did notice that he did do some research himself, although I'm not totally sure if the BBC just made it look like that, especially with the order they showed the screen for the 1911 census. They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?!  Bit sloppy from the BBC there.

However, he did look interested which is only a good thing. I'd give it a 4/5 though.

[andrewalston]

They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?!  Bit sloppy from the BBC there.

Come on, we've all messed up the search first time round, haven't we? 

[Clarkey500]

They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?!  Bit sloppy from the BBC there.

Come on, we've all messed up the search first time round, haven't we? 

Suppose!    Especially when looking at his screen it's all on exact (with the right information)! 

[Aulus]

I'd seen this on the programme guide on my telly, but assumed it was a repeat (I can't remember seeing any trails for it), but set it to record anyway.  It was only when I was looking at twitter during while the programme was on, and saw Ancestry and FindMyPast tweeting lots about the episode that I realised it was a new series.
I'm glad I had set it to record, as this was a really interesting programme.  It was a little confusing in places, largely because the story it was telling was complicated. One thing that particularly confused me at the beginning was the age of his father: as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents. So it was a little difficult to get my head round the idea that it might actually be his father (early on in that bit of the programme, I was expecting an expert to leap out with evidence that Walter Dance wasn't actually his father!)  He must have been a very well preserved chap to have got away with passing himself off as 50 when he was actually 75!

I couldn't work out (maybe I wasn't paying enough attention), whether the postcard of the Marylebone High St shop, was actually his ancestor's shop, and whether the interior of the modern shop was the original interior from that time, or pure chance that it's been restored like what the shop might have looked like. (If you see what I mean.)

What a treasure trove that trunk in South Africa was!  But a bit bizarre when his great niece took one of the photographs of his father out of an album, and said he could have it.  Presumably that bit was just for TV as I'd hope someone from the production company would have said they'd be able to copy it.

[mrs.tenacious]

I've always liked Charles Dance in everything he's done and I did feel quite sorry for him that he had no recollection of his father at all. Very pleased for him that he had all that wonderful memory that his half sister wrote to fill in all those details for him.

How lucky was he!
I really enjoyed this episode - and it was great they spent a bit of time on his ancestor who was a 'japanner' - a couple of mine were, too, and I was pleased to discover that it was considered quite a skill.

[jc26red]

One thing that particularly confused me at the beginning was the age of his father: as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents. So it was a little difficult to get my head round the idea that it might actually be his father (early on in that bit of the programme, I was expecting an expert to leap out with evidence that Walter Dance wasn't actually his father!)  He must have been a very well preserved chap to have got away with passing himself off as 50 when he was actually 75!

I agree, I was expecting them to say the man in the photo was his grandfather!  Most of us would have bought the father's death and marriage certs before trying to work out the military connection...  I suspect the actual research did go down this route first but that wouldn't have created enough same drama for the programme.  I'm also pretty sure his half brother would have known how old his stepfather was when he died. The brother would have been about 14!

Other than that, I thought it was a brilliant start to the new series.  I was left wondering what his great niece meant when she said something about "Here comes the Dance boys? "..... I shall to watch it again as I initially got they were more half brothers to Norah.  How lovely to come across the trunk full of memorabilia, I am just a teeny bit envious.