BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 10 Episode 8 Celia Imrie

[mshrmh]

There was no mention of any research to authenticate the tree she was given - it seems to be a theme of the series that there is no mention of research that would verify "facts" that are the basis of the programme   How long would it take to say "genealogists were able to verify the tree that Celia was given by her cousin"?

I found I was "drifiting" more than once during the programme - not the most interesting of the series as far as I was concerned.

I have never before turned off an episode of WDYTYA, but after I'd given it a good 20 mins Grand Designs on C4 got my viewing.

We record both WDTYA & Grand Designs, but watch the WDTYA recording with a short delay so we can stop it to see documents properly, maybe we should have swopped last night!

[Scarletwoman]

Far too much history, far too little family history, and much too much of Celia Imrie reading aloud.

[doktorb]

I really enjoyed it! (And yes, more awfully, rahhly middle clarse women please, BBC)

The State papers showing more scandal than Take A Break or Closer would dare print were a revelation too.

[Nick29]

I'd like to see WDYTYA do O J Borg (the guy who often compares the National Lottery).  His real name is Oliver James Borg D'Anastasi.

Sounds intriguing    Apparently the name has Maltese connections.

[Suffolk Mawther]

I must be the only one who found it interesting in that we found lots of places to research that do not often come up - I learned about a couple of new resources last night. 

Pat ...

[LizzieW]

we found lots of places to research that do not often come up

We did, but I wonder how accessible they are to the general public.

[Mike in Cumbria]

I agree with most of what's been said.

I didn't like the formulaic "and for the next part of the story, we need to go to the .......".   It was telling her a story, rather than research. The story itself was interesting, though, and that was a VERY rude poem about her ancestor.

It was interesting that they covered the "Glorious Revolution" in the same week that Michael Portillo tackled some of the myths around this event in the fabulous Radio 4 series "Things we forgot to remember".

[IMBER]

I've been trying to persuade my wife that family history is fun with lots of detective work and so on.  At long last I managed to persuade her to sit down and watch WDYTYA. Boy, did I choose the wrong one. Kiss of death doesn't begin to describe it.

[Plummiegirl]

All I could think when watching this was - My she has the bare bones details of a really good history book here - sex, scandal and murder all the things you want to make a true life history book.


Notice there was no 'family' there to greet their long lost relative!!!