BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 7 Episode #2: Chris Moyles

[thornhill121]

get a few details from the person in question
do all the research
set up the programme with various mysteries and unanswered questions for the participant
have all the experts on hand
then just film it all, with the reactions shown just as they happen, in a relatively short period of time

IgorStrav, Chris was talking to Davina McCall last week and he said that they film it all in 1 week, they aren't told what information they are going to find, they don't know what is in the envelopes they are handed etc.
I agree with the other comments this series seems much better than the last one, I hope it continues in the vein.

[lesleyhannah]

I think this was one of my favourite episodes. Because I've never heard of Chris Moyles I had no prior expectations. Many programmes feature celebrities with backgrounds a million miles from my own, but  the conditions Chris Moyles' ancestors lived in were much the same as many of my family experienced in Hull, Liverpool and Scotland.

Like other people have said, I also really empathised with his reactions to the unexpected information he kept finding - and wasn't it great to see a celebrity who was genuinely moved?

It was also good to see a bit of the spadework we all have to do, like searching censuses and obtaining BMD certificates. The programme really seems to have returned to its roots.

I think the contrast with last week's programme was very good - I do like to see different backgrounds represented too. I hope they keep up the good work.

[Petros]

Interesting comments but our feeling was that, like all of the last series (which was what it was originally filmed as part of) that it focused too much on social history at the expense of family history.

[IgorStrav]

But Petros, isn't it all about social history really?

I have found that in my research, I have put names to slots on my tree, but it is all the additional information

numbers of children dying from one census to another
numbers of people living in the same house
occupations - ag labs, ag labs, ag labs in my case, never getting much further with sons following fathers
deaths and remarriages, sometimes very quickly afterwards because of very young children
and then when you get the certificates, finding out the tb, the long term illnesses, or the very short term cholera that did for the person.

It's turned for me always from the person to the context they lived in.

That's why I'm so admiring of what my ancestors went through.

[Nick29]

Well, I wasn't a fan of Chris Moyles before the programme, and I still wasn't after sitting through it.  Although the programme featured some quite moving parts relating to Ypres in WW1, I thought that Moyles' whole approach to the subject quite juvenile.

As others have already said, this was more about social history than genealogy.   It won't go down as one of the better programmes in my book, especially with all the dumbed down stuff relating to the faxing of certificates.  It is really making the whole concept of genealogy appear far too easy....... if only ! 

[shanew147]

I thouroughly enjoyed WDYTYA.  Im not a fan of Chris Moyles, but he came across as a relatively normal chap.....loved the fact that his surname means "bald"!!!

Like Thornhill121 mentioned earlier, it would be interesting to know if any of the other "celebs" continued with what they, or the BBC had discovered.  He seemed to have caught the geneology bug like the rest of us!

I also have Irish ancestors and have found it very hard to access records, so I was astonishly surprised to see that you can search and have access to the 1911 Irish census FREE OF CHARGE!!

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie

Last series was such a disappointment, but with series 7, so far so good.   

Hazel

thanks to the National Archives of Ireland for that!

currently 1911 census data for nine counties is online. The other counties and the 1901 data is due later this year.

back to the original topic ... I thought that the Chris Moyles WDYTYA was a good episode...  bit of a change with the soldiers, city slums and workhouse after Davina's ancestors.


Shane

[lesleyhannah]

But Petros, isn't it all about social history really?

IgorStrav, I agree! I know for many genealogists the challenge is tracing their direct line as far back as possible, but that has never been my interest. I've always included the families of siblings of each generation, as most of the best stories are to be found that way.

Like IgorStrav I try to build up a picture of how the family lived. I was shocked when I found the back to back houses my great-grandparents' families lived in (in Yorkshire) shared one toilet between many families.

I'm quite happy to have more social history included in the programmes - workhouses, removals orders, diseases, the industrial revolution - all these things are an essential part of our family stories.

I don't think Moyles's reaction was really juvenile - I thought he sometimes giggled or made weak jokes etc because he was embarrassed about how moved he was. The tears looked real enough to me.

[stonechat]

Likewise did not watch live due to Midsomer Murders
Watched on iPlayer

It was good.
JUst wish I had these convenient experts to explain the miliary battlefield, the historical background etc.

Bob

[Nick29]

I don't think Moyles's reaction was really juvenile - I thought he sometimes giggled or made weak jokes etc because he was embarrassed about how moved he was. The tears looked real enough to me.

The futility of it should have us all in tears. I'm always moved and angered that so many young lives were lost defending a few hundred yards of farm land.   I wasn't impressed that Moyles seemed to think that the only profession worthy of mention in his book was a soldier.  This episode was left over from the previous series, and was delayed because Moyles kept going on about it on his radio show.