BBC "Who Do You Think You Are?" John Hurt (WDYTYA Series 4 Episode 2 )

[kerryb]

Thanks aghadowey, I thought perhaps I had dropped off and missed the explanation.

Kerry 

[Floss]

I enjoyed it probably because of the connections to Grimsby (fame at last  )

Fiona

[7igerby7he7ail]

Wonder if he ever went to Cleethorpes and had a ride on a Donkey?

[behindthefrogs]

There was so much bad genealogy all the way through that I found this by far the worst of the programmes so far.

It started when there was no attempt to find the marriage of the parents when the baptism was found.  How many of us when they find both parents named in a baptism immediately assume that it proves that they weren't really the parents.  This was a terrible example all the way through, of how not to be rigorous when carrying out research.

David

[Nutty1966]

Well I for enjoyed it, I agree a few more facts should maybe have been researched, but I still enjoyed the stories and myth's I bet we all have a few of those. 

Still think next week's will be the best

Griff Rhys-Jones

Jane

[Windsor87]

What a bunch of moaning minnies. I didn't see anything wrong with that episode. For obvious reasons, it did not compare with that of last week but not every family has extraodinary roots. That was shown in the programme.

One thing that I think sets this episode apart from others, is the fact that John Hurt was not really exploring his family tree, but exploring a family myth.

As for his reaction, I'm not surprised he was feeling down. At the start of the episode he was a man who claimed to have roots in the aristocracy and an emotional attachment to Ireland. Instead he learned his so called aristocrats were fraudsters of the highest nature with no Irish links whatsoever.

[Mr. MIGKY]

May i ask a question please? On last nights show, they said that on a marriage certificate it had there ages as full. They said this ment of 21 years old plus. I have a wedding certificate of my Grandparents back in Ireland. It states that in 1919, my Gran's age on it was Full at the time of the marriage. She died in 1936 aged 36, so this would have made her age 19 when married?  As i don't have her birth certificate, which year should i be looking for her birth year? 1900 or 1898?

Migky

[downside]

There was an article in the Review section of last weeks Sunday Times in which John Hurt commented on the program.  He felt that he was stitched-up by the BBC in certain respects:-

The film makes much of his disappointment, although Hurt remarks acidly that he believe's it has been edited to make him look "a prick" obsessed by class, desparate to prove that he really comes from aristocratic Irish stock, not from the solidly lower middle-class English family in which he was brought up.

[behindthefrogs]

May i ask a question please? On last nights show, they said that on a marriage certificate it had there ages as full. They said this ment of 21 years old plus. I have a wedding certificate of my Grandparents back in Ireland. It states that in 1919, my Gran's age on it was Full at the time of the marriage. She died in 1936 aged 36, so this would have made her age 19 when married?  As i don't have her birth certificate, which year should i be looking for her birth year? 1900 or 1898?

Migky

It depends on whether you think she lied because she didn't want to get her parents permission to marry.  You need to look at both dates because the age at death is also likely to be wrong as it is only what the person who registered the death thought her age to be.

David