Anyone else see this?
I don't watch any of the soaps, so didn't recognise any of the characters, but thought I'd see how the tests worked out.
The programme turned out to show a mixture of DNA testing and "traditional" genealogy.
They used a saliva test, which narrows it down a little, but surprisingly there didn't seem to be any product placement or sponsorship.
The geographical distribution maps showed little to surprise any of us. However one woman went on the usual "jolly" to her childhood home in Cornwall to be told that rather than having a Spanish sailor as a great great grandfather, the 8% of DNA claimed to come from the Iberian peninsula was actually normal for any Cornish family. This presumably came as a surprise to the people providing the tests.
Another trailed all the way to India to find out that she was just as Indian as her test indicated, and that her Portuguese surname was the result of renaming when her ancestors were converted to Christianity.
There were introductions made to members of the public, presumably located when their profiles already online matched with those submitted for the cast members.
There was very little explanation of what effort was involved in any of this; it was very much "Here's a wonderful technology. Look what we found!"
With the claims being made by the various companies getting bolder by the day, I was not surprised to see in the credits "DNA results correct at the time of filming".
I've just checked and it is available to stream online from ITV Hub.
