I record it and it's interesting to watch, as it shows a different (mercenary!) approach to the sort of thing most of the people here are doing for their own interest.
It does surprise me a little that there is sufficient money in it to run a company like Fraser & Fraser and all its employees, let alone them and all their competitors. Presumably these companies work on being able to get a percentage of the estate from the beneficiaries who "sign up" with them (hence why they won't normally say who's died until the beneficiary has signed on the proverbial dotted line). I suppose it must just be the sheer quantity of intestate deaths and the occasional real biggie that makes it viable. Though I expect they also do other work chasing missing people who are beneficiaries in wills, where your average local solicitor/executor isn't going to have the ability (not meant to be a dismissive turn of phrase) to do much more than place a few adverts in the press.
I'm also surprised that we don't see the office-based researchers looking at internet genealogy sites (ancestry, findmypast etc) to see if anyone's already researching the family - but maybe that would count as advertising and Auntie Beeb won't show that.
Was it yesterday's programme that showed them sending their researchers racing round London registry offices? I thought that was just bizarre. You get someone to drive into central London to go to a registry office (inevitably sitting in traffic for ages), when the firm's office is based in central London? Errrmm ... buy an office bicycle or moped and send the tea boy!
Of course, we don't know how much "drama" is "created" in the editing!
