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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Lydart on Thursday 06 July 17 22:21 BST (UK)
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Interesting. And also, did anyone notice how like Prince Philip he is ??
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Never noticed it before....
I have a link to a Gold family from Hackney.......I could be some time!
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I found it interesting as well. Whoops his father was 26 years older than was thought and a few other revelations.
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I thought it was a thoroughly interesting and absorbing episode
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I thought it was a good programme, but would have liked to know a bit more about more recent generations on his mother's side. Or did I miss something?
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I found this very interesting, and in fact was quite enthralled by it. Anna
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I found it quite interesting....how strange it must have been to have read about the kind of person his father was and to see the photos of him....I found it quite touching.
Carol
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Thought it was absolutely brilliant! A really good start to a new series! Well done WDYTYA team(s).
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Really enjoyed this first episode of the new series. He was quite emotional when he was learning all about his dad and it was amazing that he hadn't realised that he dad was as old as he was
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Great start - so interesting on both / all sides... lovely twists and turns.. without too much 'drama' on his part.
He (seemingly) coped very well with the emotional side of learning so much - I was desperate to pop on the net to discover more myself.
Thank YOU CHARLES DANCE
lovely man -- always thought so.
(I wonder can anyone find a newspaper report of his little sisters death?? )
xin
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They referred to the quick remarriage after death of Walter's first wife, Louie. However, she died the same year they returned from South Africa - 1932 - and Walter didn't remarry until 1938, some 6 years later!
Annette
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I found it really interesting especially seeing his fathers medal. My grandfather was awarded the same one, sadly my Mum had to sell it due to needing money . He came across as a truly interested man , I wonder if he's been bitten by the bug now.
Barb
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This was a really interesting programme. Hope this augurs well for the rest of the series!
Kooky
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Really enjoyed watching this Charles Dance came across as a very genuine person ...Hope the next one is as good
Rosie
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Like everyone else I really enjoyed this first episode and hope others measure up too.
I've always liked Charles Dance in everything he's done and I did feel quite sorry for him that he had no recollection of his father at all. Very pleased for him that he had all that wonderful memory that his half sister wrote to fill in all those details for him.
There didn't seem to be much emotion going on with his 10 year older half brother which was a pity - their Mother certainly was a secretive person and such a shame not to tell Charles in later life all about it. Perhaps embarrassment with Walter being so much older.
I hope he has more contact with his gt. neice in SA as she and her family seemed a jolly lot.
Well done to the team doing the research it was a fascinating tale.
Caroline
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I really enjoyed this episode too. What a great start to the new series.
His South African family seem to be really nice and I think there is a lot more he can learn from his Gt. Niece and that treasure trove box.
Am I right that it was mentioned that his father had siblings ? Maybe he will look into this part of his family for himself.
Dorrie
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As soon as they first said his father had been divorced I wondered if there was another family.
One thing that was so different was that for a lot of us I think (I know many here are of an older generation though) we look back on resources like the 1911 census with interest and somewhat more detachment from closer family, looking for grandparents, great grandparents, even great great grandparents... but to look on there and see your own father, your sister you never knew and to see another sibling who died and to get emotional over that was sad to see.
I also wonder if they were able to find any information about his brother's father, like bastardy records or something. Somebody might have looked into it.
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Good first episode. I would have liked more family tree graphics to better show the mother's family line and to know more about the half brother's attempts to find his roots.
Blue
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Thought it was absolutely brilliant! A really good start to a new series! Well done WDYTYA team(s).
I couldn't agree more! fascinating and totally absorbing - the hour flew past.
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Hi all
Oh dear! I think I must have been the only one to fall asleep :o It was when he was in the bookshop.
With regard to the episode, I just felt they kept leaving out parts of the story - The story of Charles' father was particularly interesting and like someone else I would like to have seen some graphics of the family tree as it was rather confusing. Also, they didn't actually say if Norah knew her father had remarried and had a son. And did Charles' mother know her husband had a daughter and grandchildren?
No one has mentioned our new voice over artist of Phil Davis! Sadly, rather lack lustre I thought. I kept waiting for a bit more interest in his commentary but it never came. Early days I know. I have always been a real fan of Mark Strong - so hard to outshine him.
CD
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I really enjoyed it, both sides of his family, I image more research, more questions.
A good first program
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I really enjoyed it too
Surely if his brother was ten years older he'd have remembered a bit about his stepfather's personality ...I wanted to know who his father was and how Walter dance had met his second wife ...and about her next husband ...there is always too much to fit in one episode .
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As a big fan of Phil Davis (his hilarious Jed in Poldark etc) I must defend him for doing his job appropriately in just conveying the information humanely and sensitively. My own (small) criticism is the young lady's not realising that a gross of paintbrushes (144 for you 40-somethings) would be a lot more than a painter would need for his own efforts. Good show.
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Oh dear! I think I must have been the only one to fall asleep :o It was when he was in the bookshop.
No... me too! I hated the first half and voiced to hubby that it didn't bode well for the rest of the series if they were leading with such a dull episode. Once it moved to the story of his father it was much more interesting, but by then hubby had given up and gone to bed!
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What day and time is the "Who do you think your are" programme. I will set the series link
I missed the first episode in this series, no doubt it will be repeated some time in the future.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08xfyrv/who-do-you-think-you-are-series-14-1-charles-dance
Blue
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I've already watched a repeat via iPlayer! Really enjoyed it.
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I'm in Ireland so I do not have access to Iplayer.
I should have taken note of advance notice given on another thread.
I have set to record the remainder of the series.
No doubt it will be repeated in the future.
Thanks JFCH
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BBC1 10th July has WDYTYA (repeat) listed for 12.00 ....midnight! No other details but could be Charles Dance.
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THANKS
It is the Charles Dance episode according to my Sky box info. I have it set to record.
JFCH
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I enjoyed the episode and I'm glad to see it back on the telly and at this time of the year! I was on holiday in the New Forest at the time it was broadcasted but was able to see it on the night via iPlayer.
It was a good start to the series and had an interesting stance with Charles trying to find out about his own father. His great niece seemed very nice and so did her family. The first half was also good but did go a bit slow - especially in the book shop.
I did notice that he did do some research himself, although I'm not totally sure if the BBC just made it look like that, especially with the order they showed the screen for the 1911 census. They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?! ??? Bit sloppy from the BBC there.
However, he did look interested which is only a good thing. I'd give it a 4/5 though.
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They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?! ??? Bit sloppy from the BBC there.
Come on, we've all messed up the search first time round, haven't we? :D
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They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?! ??? Bit sloppy from the BBC there.
Come on, we've all messed up the search first time round, haven't we? :D
Suppose! ;D ;D ;D Especially when looking at his screen it's all on exact (with the right information)! :D
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I'd seen this on the programme guide on my telly, but assumed it was a repeat (I can't remember seeing any trails for it), but set it to record anyway. It was only when I was looking at twitter during while the programme was on, and saw Ancestry and FindMyPast tweeting lots about the episode that I realised it was a new series.
I'm glad I had set it to record, as this was a really interesting programme. It was a little confusing in places, largely because the story it was telling was complicated. One thing that particularly confused me at the beginning was the age of his father: as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents. So it was a little difficult to get my head round the idea that it might actually be his father (early on in that bit of the programme, I was expecting an expert to leap out with evidence that Walter Dance wasn't actually his father!) He must have been a very well preserved chap to have got away with passing himself off as 50 when he was actually 75!
I couldn't work out (maybe I wasn't paying enough attention), whether the postcard of the Marylebone High St shop, was actually his ancestor's shop, and whether the interior of the modern shop was the original interior from that time, or pure chance that it's been restored like what the shop might have looked like. (If you see what I mean.)
What a treasure trove that trunk in South Africa was! But a bit bizarre when his great niece took one of the photographs of his father out of an album, and said he could have it. Presumably that bit was just for TV as I'd hope someone from the production company would have said they'd be able to copy it.
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I've always liked Charles Dance in everything he's done and I did feel quite sorry for him that he had no recollection of his father at all. Very pleased for him that he had all that wonderful memory that his half sister wrote to fill in all those details for him.
How lucky was he!
I really enjoyed this episode - and it was great they spent a bit of time on his ancestor who was a 'japanner' - a couple of mine were, too, and I was pleased to discover that it was considered quite a skill.
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One thing that particularly confused me at the beginning was the age of his father: as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents. So it was a little difficult to get my head round the idea that it might actually be his father (early on in that bit of the programme, I was expecting an expert to leap out with evidence that Walter Dance wasn't actually his father!) He must have been a very well preserved chap to have got away with passing himself off as 50 when he was actually 75!
I agree, I was expecting them to say the man in the photo was his grandfather! Most of us would have bought the father's death and marriage certs before trying to work out the military connection... I suspect the actual research did go down this route first but that wouldn't have created enough same drama for the programme. I'm also pretty sure his half brother would have known how old his stepfather was when he died. The brother would have been about 14!
Other than that, I thought it was a brilliant start to the new series. I was left wondering what his great niece meant when she said something about "Here comes the Dance boys? "..... I shall to watch it again as I initially got they were more half brothers to Norah. How lovely to come across the trunk full of memorabilia, I am just a teeny bit envious.
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I was left wondering what his great niece meant when she said something about "Here comes the Dance boys? "..... I shall to watch it again as I initially got they were more half brothers to Norah. How lovely to come across the trunk full of memorabilia, I am just a teeny bit envious.
I really enjoyed the programme. I thought the reference to the Dance boys was a tale that Walter Dance told Norah from his youth and referred to him and his brothers.
Kay
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I really enjoyed this one! I identified with having an older father, - as mine was 56 when I was born... From the sound of it, his mother didn't speak much about family in general, - and I think that was the case, (as a generalisation) for that time.
I couldn't help wondering if the elder brother ever found out who his own father was?
Romilly.
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I was left wondering what his great niece meant when she said something about "Here comes the Dance boys? "..... I shall to watch it again as I initially got they were more half brothers to Norah. How lovely to come across the trunk full of memorabilia, I am just a teeny bit envious.
That reference was in Norah's memoirs. The Dance boys were Walter and his brothers (so Norah's father and uncles). It was mentioned when she was saying how lucky they were to live both in London and at Broadstairs at times. I had to look it up yesterday as I couldn't recall either at the time as it passed so quickly
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Thanks David, I shall watch it again tomorrow... got plenty of time at the moment as I'm supposed to be resting, I broke my wrist after a fall on Friday.
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This episode of Charles Dance was very good.
Surprising how little he knew of his parents. The South Africa part was a revelation.
I loved the contents of the old trunk.
To reach his age and not know you had a half sister is unusual. Charles did not even suspect there were family in South Africa. I wonder did Charles mother know that she had a stepdaughter.
I liked the part about his mother's Belgium roots
Well worth watching
Jfch
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I too really enjoyed it from start to finish. I loved how much he had to discover.
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I did notice that he did do some research himself, although I'm not totally sure if the BBC just made it look like that, especially with the order they showed the screen for the 1911 census. They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?! ??? Bit sloppy from the BBC there.
Hah. Did you notice the Electoral Roll search he did - it gave a "perfect" result set, in date order, of ALL the entries for his father, with no false hits at all. He's not a bad genealogist/searcher, that Charles Dance!! :-)
The program, of course, told the story in the best order for the story, and the "reveals", not the order the research would actually be done in.
Since his father died in 1949, I did a FreeBMD search, for Walter Dance, with a +-1 window (i.e. 1948-1950) in England.
It only gives one hit (!!) and the age-at-death is 75, which gives a DOB 1949-75=1874
So there's one big reveal spoiled...
And when I did the "obvious" search to get the 1911 Census, Anc*y actually had the South African trip in "Suggested Records", so the TV version about the researcher looking for the ticket having (amazingly) found the advert by "W.D." is dramatic license of the first order!
I'd really expect the death of the Norah's sister to be in the local papers though - "tragic death of child" is always a favourite with Editors, then and now.
Anyone recall the name and DOB?
BugBear
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I'd really expect the death of the Norah's sister to be in the local papers though - "tragic death of child" is always a favourite with Editors, then and now.
Anyone recall the name and DOB?
Yes I thought they would have looked that up and produced a newspaper report.
I'm thinking she was age 5 and born 1898 but that's just from memory of the programme.
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No the 1898 was Norah :-[
Mary Rowley Dance born 1903
Death 1908 age 5
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Courtesy of iPlayer and freeze frame:
Death (from cert) was 16 July 1908, 100 Goldsmith Av, Acton.
BugBear (off to the BNA)
Add (later):
Always difficult to prove a negative, so I won't say there isn't a newspaper report.
But I can't find one.
BugBear
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. . . as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents.
Sorry I'm a bit late to this thread. My father is on the 1911 census, age two. As well as him I knew his elder brother and mother while I was growing up, so have never felt that far away from the Edwardians and Victorians. :)
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. . . as someone has already said above, usually when we're looking at the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the only people (at best) whom we might have known and met are our grandparents.
Sorry I'm a bit late to this thread. My father is on the 1911 census, age two. As well as him I knew his elder brother and mother while I was growing up, so have never felt that far away from the Edwardians and Victorians. :)
My Father was a Victorian! (Born 1896) And so I too am quite close to the Victorian era...
Romilly :)