"Who Do You Think You Are", Series 14: #10 Ruby Wax

[Finley 1]

Uhm..... decided to have a quick google.................

AND found her too easily and her Mothers WOES and her daughters Comedy act .. I am now  wondering if ...

This WDYTYA was just another 'self promoting' WAX prog.. disappointed .....


Still it is the last one for now   and no doubt - The other participants - hoped the show would ----- awaken the public to the fact that they existed.

(this sounds a totally bitter and twisted post  sorry  -- will go and hide away again    )



xin

[Lydart]

An interesting story, and so sad about what would seem to be genetic mental illness.   At least it wasn't really yet another Nazi/death camps story.



(Can I add a little nosey query ?    What has she done with her eye-brows ?   Being always high up on her face makes her look permanently startled .... is this plastic surgery gone wild ?   Or is her often strange look all part of her own mental illness ?)

One brave lady to 'air her dirty linen' in public .... good for her .... the tragedy of mental illness is so often ignored.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I'd never been very interested in her, and almost didn't bother watching it, but found it oddly interesting. You got the feeling that her parents must've squashed their past - some guilt about failing to assist the dentist relatives, probably, and possibly also an awareness of the mental health history of the family on her maternal side. Many non-observant Jews didn't want to talk or think about the past, so that doesn't seem too unusual.
But although it didn't go very far back in years, overall it worked.
- When's the next series?

[ankerdine]

I agree with jillruss Ruby Wax was a very brave lady to allow the archives to be opened and shared with us all. I was absolutely gripped by her story from beginning to end. So sad for many reasons.

Judy

[Mowsehowse]

An interesting story, and so sad about what would seem to be genetic mental illness.   At least it wasn't really yet another Nazi/death camps story.

   The Nazi genocide killed about 6 million people, and since that time there has been continual mass murder going on somewhere around the world.  Seems to me even if we had "yet another Nazi/death camps story" every day for the next 165 years, we would still not begin to scratch the surface of this gargantuan flaw in the human psyche.

[Millmoor]

There is some additional footage on the WDYTYA magazine website which takes her family tree back further in Moravia. I too found this a gripping programme and can only admire her in helping to bring mental health issues to the fore.

William

[Regorian]

An interesting story, and so sad about what would seem to be genetic mental illness.   At least it wasn't really yet another Nazi/death camps story.

   The Nazi genocide killed about 6 million people, and since that time there has been continual mass murder going on somewhere around the world.  Seems to me even if we had "yet another Nazi/death camps story" every day for the next 165 years, we would still not begin to scratch the surface of this gargantuan flaw in the human psyche.

Theresienstadt was most definitely a concentration camp and was run by the SS. It was designated for older Jews to expire naturally, except they were helped on their way and some were sent to Auschwitz.

[Rena]

I found the episode interesting too, but I couldn't help wondering why nobody put two and two together about the ancestors health history which I think was probably the result of working in dentistry which used mercury for filling teeth.

Old fashioned Hatter manufacturers who used mercury to style their hats was where the saying "Mad as a Hatter" originated.

[Mowsehowse]

I found the episode interesting too, but I couldn't help wondering why nobody put two and two together about the ancestors health history which I think was probably the result of working in dentistry which used mercury for filling teeth.

Old fashioned Hatter manufacturers who used mercury to style their hats was where the saying "Mad as a Hatter" originated.

Good point, except that I think it was the other sister, and their mother who had the mental health condition.