BBC WDYTYA Series 10 Episode #9: Marrianne Faithful

[bearsome]

I found this very boring. Most of the first half was nothing new to someone who is/was into 60s pop music, and is easily found by googling. Yes, what her mother and maternal grandparents went through was awful, but Stephen Fry's ancestors went through very similar situations, and worse, as shown in a previous WDYTYA. In that case, though, we were shown where his ancestors lived, he talked to people who'd been in a similar situation, people who'd known his family - which makes a person's history and ancestors come alive. I'm afraid this programme was just paperwork, and doesn't make for very absorbing tv - not for me, anyway. As said elsewhere, this was WWII history, NOT genealogy.

[lookingforold]

Had it been titled "A Wartime History of a pop star's parents" it would have been good, but as a 'WDYTYA?" programme, I found it a bit out of place.

[candleflame]

I thought it a very powerful example of the sacrifice made during those horrible war time periods. Would all of us have been able to put our families at risk by doing resistance work, knowing what would happen to our families if we were caught?
Some of our ancestors may have been involved in the war, some of our ancestors may have been/are jewish, so for me it was appropriate as part of genealogy. My Father, still alive, was RAF ground technical crew posted Uk and abroad, so very protected from many aspects of the war, but his generation were very brave and a programme like this reminds us of their bravery and sacrifice. My opinion anyway.

[Guy Etchells]

It seems I must have been watching a different program to many who posted on this thread!
Or it perhaps what they understand as genealogy or family history is not what I understand as family history.

To me this was an excellent program that vividly showed the effect of historic influences on later generations.

It portrayed exactly the title of the program "Who Do You Think You Are", and gave the viewers an insight into why the subjects turned out as they did.
Cheers
Guy

[jillruss]

I got fed up with her finishing the researchers' sentences and I got the impression that she already knew most of what she was being told.

I really don't care for this new 'here's one I prepared earlier' approach to the subject's genealogy by - as weste said - 'the customary unrolling of the chart'. WDYTYA has turned into potted social history lessons which is fine in itself but, as others have said, not genealogy.

Oh, and please can we have Mark Strong's beautiful voice back? (Nothing personal against Cherie Lunghi!) 

Jill

[jess5athome]

For  me this episode was a real   history  lesson ,! What EVIL &^%$$ that man  and his cronies were !

Slightly off topic ( as far as WDYTYA goes ), this shows exactly what they were like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(2001_film)

Regards, Frank.

Ps, I enjoyed last nights episode, but to be honest I enjoy them all.

[california dreamin]

Drat I missed it!  I was stuck at Heathrow.  Hoping to catch up with the Monday night repeat.  (Think it's on a Monday)

[jess5athome]

Drat I missed it!  I was stuck at Heathrow.  Hoping to catch up with the Monday night repeat.  (Think it's on a Monday)

Monday night BBC1 five past eleven.
Frank.

[heywood]

It does seem that we are difficult to please 

I thought it was very interesting. If you weren't around in the 1960s, you wouldn't know much about her perhaps and she was, in today's terms, an icon at that time. There were probably many convent girls aspiring to be like her!
As has been said, it is 'Who do you think you are?' and based on her experiences with her mother and her own difficulties with drugs etc, it may have helped her discover who she was by telling  a very sad, human (and inhuman) story.

Family history research provides us with lots of ancestors but these are often just names on a  tree. I have really liked the way this series has shown one or two people's lives in greater depth where the subject can then appreciate heroism, flaws and struggles in their ancestors.