BBC WDYTYA Series 10 Episode #9: Marrianne Faithful

[Meezer]

This one wasn't for me I'm afraid. I only stuck with it for a way as I  was bored rigid!

[roopat]

I was distracted all the way through by the fact that she spent years drinking, on drugs - heroin addict, as a down and out in Soho  etc. and yet her face was so clear & unlined - compared with mine which looks like an unmade bed - AND she's older than me! Please tell me she's 'had work done'. 

I'm afraid I didn't find this a very engaging episode. As bearsome already said, the one with Stephen Fry along similar lines was harrowing.

I would have liked to hear more about the resistance work mentioned.

But this series is certainly different.

[loobylooayr]

Obviously WW2 family histories can be harrowing and the bravery of people in terrible circumstances is interesting and moving. Marianne's mother and grandmother suffered 
But sadly, as much as I wanted to, I didn't find this episode very engaging either. I thought there was little content spun out over an hour.
Watching repeats on Yesterday channel, makes me yearn for the old format.
Looby

[M.R. Dien]

I haven't watched many episodes in the current series but if the MF episode was a measure of the other shows I think I'd rather go and watch some paint dry.

[Hystericalwriter]

I enjoyed it, she wasn't emotional about such difficult facts, very pragmatic about the difficult times her grandmother and mother lived through in Austria.

I have never thought the programme of these later series was anything other than"family history" which could span many or few generations, depending on what records/documents survive.

The beauty of this series is that it has shown that there is more to family history than seeing how many generations one can get back to, it's finding the stories that make our relatives come alive and that they become more than just a name in a parish register.

And don't forget the programme has to appeal to the World and his wife!

Anne

[genjan1953]

I'm afraid I didn't like this one either, for the reaons many have already said.  The fact that she was presented with a ready-made tree, that she was simply handed endless documents and letters without much explanation of how and where they were actually found and that it was more a documentary about MF and her mother.  I found myself glazing over a few times and losing interest which I don't usually do! 

Like Looby said here, I prefer the old format - give us some genealogy!  I don't mean going back to William the Conqueror but just a few more ancestors to get a broader view of the subject's ancestry.  Are you really going to find out who you are by researching just one or two of your ancestors?

For me this series began really well, interesting and enjoyable, but the last two episodes have been disappointing.  If a programme tries to appeal to the 'world and his wife' it's in danger of appealing to nobody in the end.  And what a mixed bag of contrasting comments here ~ brings to mind that saying "you can please some of the people some of the time ...etc". Just my thoughts         

[mosiefish]

I am afraid I too "nodded off" during this episode (and others too) and whilst appreciating the content I haven`t found many of the subjects on this series as watchable as the old WDYTYA format.

Mo

[ThrelfallYorky]

I quite agree about it's not really going back into family history any great way, or discovering really new ground, and i do find it more interesting when there's not quite so much about the subject herself but having said that, and being of the same generation of the subject, who I'd really not had much memory of other than "As Tears go by", and a vague feeling that she'd been one of the silly girls who kept getting caught up in Drugs busts, etc, until she'd become famous for being famous ... I did feel a little bit more kindly towards her.
There was little new. I knew of the Sara / Israel convention, but really they did seem to come out of the War better than very many others who were part or wholly Jewish in Berlin or Vienna, didn't they? I know of others who did not.
It really does seem as though they're aiming for a different structure this time - new voice over, and more the immediate family. Would be very handly to be the subject if you were planning a new Autobiography.....

[bearsome]

I have posted earlier on this thread, but I just wanted to add something. I had no great problem with what was covered in this programme, but more how it was done. Yes, to be honest, I find it generally more interesting when the programme goes further back into history, but my interest in this particular episode waned because of the approach. If I have to look at sheets of paper, then I'd rather read a book, and look at photos of documents close to, or look at them on the computer screen. In this programme, each document was flashed before our eyes, then MF read out bits of it. No matter who the subject had been in this episode, this approach wouldn't be particularly engaging. Watching and listening to someone else reading a number of sheets of paper for information, just isn't interesting tv, and Marianne Faithful, lovely lady though she seems, doesn't have the most expressive of voices. The material and subjects (ie MF's mother and grandmother) were both thoroughly worthwhile, but so much more could have been done about the presentation to make it engaging for more of us.