WDYTYA is coming to SBSTV in OZ

[MarieC]

Whoohoo, dee!!! 

Ruskie, no, I think you would need the full hour of WDYTYA and then some to do that background justice!

MarieC

[Ruskie]

Suppose it depends how the programme is presented ... if, like WDYTYA, the celeb travels to many places to see where the ancestors hailed from, and there are close ups of tears and lingering shots of hugs with new found rellies etc, then it should take more than half an hour, but if they just sit ONJ n a room and present her with their findings, then it may be able to be crammed in such a short time. And this IS for St.David's day so I imagine only her Welsh ancestry will be covered.

[Martin Briscoe]

You won't be able to watch in Australia but if you have any relatives in the UK who can record the program.

DOCUMENTARY: Coming Home
On: BBC 1 Wales (1)   
Date: Saturday 1st March 2008 (starting in 3 days)
Time: 18:30 to 19:00 (30 minutes long)     VideoPlus: 59

Olivia Newton John.
Specially to mark St David's Day, international singer Olivia Newton John makes an emotional journey to Wales to discover the extraordinary story of her Welsh ancestry, beginning in her father's home town of Cardiff.
(Stereo, Widescreen, Subtitles)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=7346

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

Martin Briscoe

Just watched this programme on the BBC iPlayer service.  Very much on the lines of Who Do You Think You Are but perhaps more fun that many of their programmes which is perhaps to be expected with two sisters let loose in a foreign country!

Olivia Newton-John's sister is a bit older and remembers a bit of Wales from her childhood.   She was very amused to find that her very prim and proper Grandmother had been a barmaid in a pub in Cardiff - in what would have been a very rough part of Cardiff!

They went to the small village St Mary Hill where the John family had lived and saw a memorial inside the church to some of them back to the 18th Century and the house nearby which was a pub run by one.

They visited a fascinating chapel in Cardiff associated with one of the family.  The block was bought up by the owner of a department store and incorporated into it so the front of the chapel is inside the store and the house where they had lived was part of the rear of the store.

Excellent programme, you try and get it shown on TV in Australia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/cardiff/pages/olivianewtonjohn.shtml

When Olivia Newton-John talked of country roads taking her home she never dreamt of their ultimate destination - Cardiff.

The Grease star and elder sister Rona were brought up with vivid memories from their father Brinley, who was born in a pub in the Welsh capital, and where Rona remembers being taken to chapel five times on Sundays.

Now Olivia is making her first ever visit to Cardiff to trace her Welsh roots in Coming Home: Olivia Newton-John and discovering ancestors dating back to the 1720s in Wales.

Olivia and Rona start their search with Welsh genealogist Michael Churchill-Jones, who has traced the John family in Wales back to 1728.

But the sisters are most intrigued to find out about their barmaid grandmother, to visit the chapel where their great-grandparents married and to get a rare glimpse of the place they lived - in a surprising part of Cardiff.

Olivia continues her search to find her father's Cardiff roots, which have ties to the St Mary Hill area, near Bridgend, along the way finding new relations, and catching up with a few she hasn't seen for years.

But there's an even bigger surprise when she discovers what her father actually did in World War Two - top secret doesn't begin to cover it!

The St David's Day journey makes Olivia Newton-John the latest international celebrity to be invited to trace their Welsh family tree by Cardiff-based production company Yellow Duck, who have also tempted Donny Osmond, Petula Clark and Susan Sarandon to discover their family histories.

Martin Briscoe

[MarieC]

It does sound really interesting, Martin!  Maybe we Aussies should start a petition to SBS....

MarieC

[Ruskie]

Sounds great - thanks for letting us know Martin. Now, do you think 1/2 hour was enough?

On a different note - who watched David Baddiel from the UK series of WDYTYA tonight? I really enjoyed this, though I wasn't expecting to. I do like David Baddiel but wasn't expecting to enjoy his family history. I thought he came across really well, combination of compassion and "seeing the funny side" eg with his cousin (?) David Baddiel. Nice guy - like him. Again, a bit different.

[toni*]

Martin, i watched Coming Home and although they didnt actually do much research it was a very enjoyable programme.

[Martin Briscoe]

Sounds great - thanks for letting us know Martin. Now, do you think 1/2 hour was enough?

On a different note - who watched David Baddiel from the UK series of WDYTYA tonight? I really enjoyed this, though I wasn't expecting to. I do like David Baddiel but wasn't expecting to enjoy his family history. I thought he came across really well, combination of compassion and "seeing the funny side" eg with his cousin (?) David Baddiel. Nice guy - like him. Again, a bit different.

They fitted into half an hour well without it seeming rushed though I am sure they could have expanded to fill a full hour if they had been given an opportunity to do so.  

They did not mention her mother's family because the programme was about the Welsh ancestry and did not go into detail about the move to Australia.  One amusing bit when the genealogist showed her tree and she spotted a Richards - "I might be related to Cliff!".  

BBC Wales has a certain amount of independence from network but it is probably easier to fit a 30 minute programme into their schedules than a full hour unlike BBC1 which can run Who Do You Think You Are between 21:00 and 22:00.

Martin Briscoe

[Martin Briscoe]

Martin, i watched Coming Home and although they didnt actually do much research it was a very enjoyable programme.

It always seems a bit phony in Who Do You Think You Are when the celebrity "researches" through some records and "finds" their ancestor.  They did not do that as much last night, the two sisters were taken to various locations and left to find the building or object with someone on hand to help so not too much time was wasted in the programme.

Martin Briscoe

[deeiluka]

My Aussie WDYTYA DVD has just arrived....and wouldn't you know it....I have to go out today!     

.....dee