BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 5 Episode #4: Esther Rantzen

[chris_49]

A few minutes on Google brought up much interesting material on Esther's great-grandfather Montague Leverson.  He worked as a patent agent, wrote a textbook on copyright, and as a solicitor one of his articled clerks was Charles Bradlaugh, the first atheist MP in the British House of Commons.  In the USA, he seems to have had a very colourful life, and eventually he became a medical doctor, with a connection to the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.  He lived until the age of 95. 

I should have thought of Googling. There are dozens of references to Montague. Among the most interesting are his involvement in the Lincoln County Wars in the then Wild West (Billy the Kid and all that) and his publication of a primer on Morals! One source names him as friend of president Hayes, though I think he just corresponded with him. His name also appears in an unfathomable poem by Ambrose Bierce. There's a book about him still to be written!

If he had been featured more fully, the program would have been more about him than Esther - and they had to get Barney Barnato in too. Esther in her Daily Mail article dismissed his output as some boring pamphlets, but that depends on your point of view. His biography of the man who (wrongly) opposed Pasteur's theories turns up a lot in the search, and his argument against the teaching of classics in favour of sciences sounds quite modern.

Not only did he remarry at the age of 83, he took his new wife back to the US (found in Ellis Island records). He was 92 or nearly when he became a British citizen again.

[DJFRENCH]

Montague Leverson ... was however on the 1900 I think as Montague K Leverson in  Brooklyn, New York described as Physician which is odd, but born England 1830 which is right - original could be R.

On the marriage certificate that Esther was looking at from when Montague was 82 years old, under occupation it said 'Doctor of Medicine', which nobody commented on at all. How did he go from being a solicitor to being a doctor? Was he actually qualified? I'd have been very interested to find out more about that.

i noticed that    ?......

Wish they would cover all the facts written on the documents.

Debz

[Simon G.]

What absolute rubbish !   
What moved Ms Rantzen to tears was that she had lived a life of relative luxury, whilst some of her ancestors were not so lucky.  What were the producers of the show supposed to do to to explain the total lack of buildings in the area of Poland where her ancestors came from ?   Make something up ?  Or just ignore it ?  She appeared to be weeping tears of both joy and guilt, IMHO.

As has already been mentioned, should people whose ancestors left London in the 1850s write about the Blitz when discussing them?  Making a point about what happened a century after the family you're discussing left an area is not especially relevant when discussing someone's life, and doesn't really tell you anything about how that person lived or the circumstances that affected them in everyday life.  As has been said, it would have been more relevant to discuss the events going on at that time involving Polish "resistance" to Russian imperialism and persecution...these were, after all, the things that would have had an impact upon the lives of these people and in the context of this episode would have been far more relevant given that it could have given a better understanding of the circumstances they left behind.  Surely that is what this episode was about...discussing the lives and times of Esther's ancestors?

[Nick29]

..... As has already been mentioned, should people whose ancestors left London in the 1850s write about the Blitz when discussing them?  Making a point about what happened a century after the family you're discussing left an area is not especially relevant when discussing someone's life.........

Only two of Ms Rantzens family left that area, and I'm sure she was acutely aware that there were many more of her family left behind whose descendants may well have suffered when the Nazis did these appalling things.  So, in my mind, it was relevant - I would be very sad to think that this was the spot where members of my family may have died, even though they were not in my immediate line of descent.

[Nick29]

These programmes are obviously fully researched before the subject is filmed, and are presented in a slightly artificial way.  This week's programme seemed to be more artificial than most. 

I think this is unavoidable.  Think about it, if you were a celebrity and you were approached by a TV film company, wanting to research your ancestors and broadcast the results to the nation, I'm pretty sure that you would insist on seeing what they had found before it was broadcast.  Apparently Patsy Kensit wanted to pull out of the show when another of her ancestors was found to have a shady past, but she was persuaded to carry on with it.

The alternative would be to just present the person's ancestral file, without any involvement with the celebrity themselves, and although I'm sure that whilst most Roots Chatters would find that fascinating, the rest of the population would find it as riveting as watching paint dry.  So, what has to happen is that the celebs take part, and they do know in advance most of what's going to happen, and they look surprised for effect.

It's still a good show, despite its shortcomings 

[Rabbit B]

I found Esther Rantzens whole attitude very strange particularly after Jerry Springer last week, when he was reliving the terrible fate of his grandmothers, and genuinely grieving for them.  
I feel she was frivolous and insincere and I hope the rest of the series concentrates on people with a genuine interest in their forebears and not the paypacket at the end.  At least with Ainsley we can be sure of an honest programme.

Glad I am not the only one who thought that Ester Rantzen is a drama queen!

Up to now most of the programmes have been very good,  but another one like that, and I will not watch it at all.

Some have been really good, so I suppose that there had to be a one that was over dramatised!

Rabbit B 

[Siamese Girl]

Mr Montague Leverson would merit a programme to himself. He appears many times in The Times. He was onboard, as the company's solicitor, when the Great Eastern suffered an explosion during her sea trials in 1859 and several stokers were killed and then represented the company at the inquest.  Charles Bradlaugh appears to have been with the firm at the time Montague scarpered to America.

He also crops up a lot on Google Books - an interesting character.... one I can't help thinking, that during her That's Life days Esther would have been keen to investigate!

Carole

[gwen j]

Have always enjoyed the series even if some episodes have been less interesting than others.Really looking forward to the one with David Suchet!Often wonder what people would think if MY family was explored on film! Hopefully the researchers would be able to find things that I have so far been unable to!

[Susan_131]

These programmes are obviously fully researched before the subject is filmed, and are presented in a slightly artificial way.  This week's programme seemed to be more artificial than most. 

I think this is unavoidable.  Think about it, if you were a celebrity and you were approached by a TV film company, wanting to research your ancestors and broadcast the results to the nation, I'm pretty sure that you would insist on seeing what they had found before it was broadcast.  Apparently Patsy Kensit wanted to pull out of the show when another of her ancestors was found to have a shady past, but she was persuaded to carry on with it.

This just isn't true.  When I did a bit of research on this film it was made very clear to me that the golden rule was that the celebs are told nothing until they made the discovery on camera.  Of course it's all researched behind the scenes beforehand.  We all know how much work goes into researching our own family history, so do you really expect a camera crew to follow Esther Rantzen round for months and months while she goes down endless blind alleys?  She certainly wouldn't have the time anyway.  And would you really want to sit down and watch someone searching for hours online for the one census entry that's relevant to them?  

The point of the programme is that they filter out all the boring bits and lead the celebs to the gold nuggets for them to discover for the first time when being filmed.  Do you really think when Paxman cried it was all an act?  If it was then the man should be an oscar winning actor rather than on Newsnight.

I read what Patsy Kensit said about pulling out.  She said she wanted to pull out during filming when she discovered her grandfather was also a crook.  If she'd been told beforehand they wouldn't have started filming at all.