BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 5 Episode #5: Ainsley Harriott

[kerryb]

Next week its David Suchet ... and another Jewish search I think; interesting, no doubt, but too many in one series perhaps ??   Time we had a different slant ... maybe colonials ?  Early settlers in the US ??

How about one that stays in Britain for a change!  What's wrong with having ancestors from Scotland, England, Ireland or Wales??

Kerry

[Lydart]

Nothing whatsoever !

But I just thought it might be intersting (if they could find someone) whose ancestors went from UK, say, with the Pilgrim Fathers ??

[kerryb]

Oh I agree Lydart, but this current series seems to be somewhat unbalanced in favour of leaving the country to do research.  New researchers might think you always get to go abroad when actually most of the time ancestry never moved much from where you live yourself!

Not that I have got anything against watching celebrities go abroad to sunny climes 

I enjoyed last night's though, Ainsley seems very interested in what he found.

Kerry

[bearkat]

A fascinating journey.

I would have been great if they could gone full circle & traced his white ancestors back to England (or wherever they came from).

[Nick29]

Nothing whatsoever !

But I just thought it might be intersting (if they could find someone) whose ancestors went from UK, say, with the Pilgrim Fathers ??

I think your wish may be answered when they broadcast the programme on Jodie Kidd.  Not quite Pilgrim Fathers, but close, I gather.  I'll be interested in this one, because one branch of my family were tobacco plantation owners in the New World in the 1600's (and yes, I'm aware of the connections between tobacco and slave traders !) 

[thornhill121]

I liked the fact that Ainsley seemed genuinly interested in what he was seeing, making notes etc like I do, rather than relying on the researchers remembering what has been said.
I don't usually like him but I thought that he came across as genuine, no tears but anger which we don't see often.

I don't think Ainsley was any more ignorant to recent history than Jerry Springer.

[silvery]

And both of them should have known more!   Both the Jewish Holocaust and Slavery were (and are) HUGE issues, which are constantly debated, both in GB and the USA.

It was a point I made about the Jerry Springer show, that he seemed to know very little of the holocaust, and similarly Ainsley Harriott appeared to know very little about slavery.  Both of which I find hard to believe/

[Hasler]

I would have liked to find out where in England the Harriots came from, and seen him visit there too

he could of gone full circle 

[kizmiaz]

, and similarly Ainsley Harriott appeared to know very little about slavery. 

Sorry, but at what point did he appear to know very little about slavery?

He knew the year of abolition, which I can guarantee not many on this board would know. He only seemed to be unaware of the detail of events relating to his family past.

I had never heard of the Hut Tax War. I never knew that slave owners sold slaves to their 4 year old children.

Ainsley was born in England, and went through the English school system which has not placed a great emphasis on world history for many years. When I went through school just a few years after he would have, there was no teaching of WW1, WW2, the Slave Trade, the Holocaust or any major world events. These were just not included in the curriculum.

How many of us know the exact details about events in our own nations history? How many could even name the monarch who was sitting on the throne at the turn of the 19th century without looking it up?

Everyone knows about the generalities of the Holocaust or the Slave trade, but very few could give detailed accounts of the actualities. Neither celebrity showed any signs of being unaware of these monumental periods of history in any way, but neither had any facts about their own families parts in these events.