BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 5 Episode #8: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

[kizmiaz]

I must admit I did enjoy this a lot one more than one or two of the others in this series.

No emotional baggage being dragged heavily in the background made a nice change, and it was interesting to see the efforts the BBC went to for dramatic effect, all of which failed to move him! The stately rolling back of the carpet in the church, the trip to "the enemy" archives, the visit to the old family house... he took it all in his stride. Refreshing

I thought he came across as someone who was interested on an intellectual level but, past his grandparents level, had no emotional connection, and was intrigued by the family stories without needing to be dragged (kicking and screaming) into the people's woes and calamities in order to find out more.

It was interesting to see the honest Mr Trickey who fairly and squarely bought the property being turned into evil land robber Mr Frickey by family rumour. I think this must happen a lot!

And it was good to see the censuses being searched without using Ancestry!

Glen

[jc26red]

anyone fancy reading the Chancery account regarding the disputed Will of George Yeo which they skipped over quite quickly

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hbADAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=George+yeo#PPA275,M1

[Trees]

We sat through it and enjoyed seeing straight forward research being done,apart from the quick visit to Germany all home grown at last. It showed the importance of researching even well established family stories. He used many of the basic tools so familiar to us all, census, wills, Parish Registers, military records and memorial stones as well as family recollections  infact all the things we advise beginners to try. perhaps this should have been the first in the series rather than the last
Trees

[Willow 4873]

I quite enjoyed it

It was interesting that the evil house stealer turned out to be anything but and it showed how a story could be distorted

It made me laugh that Roger Twist told porkies that took 150 years to be found out. As my mum used to say lies are always found out lol (think she didnt mean quite that long though)

Willow x

[Nick29]

Just wish they'd covered the Llewellyn side - purely for the selfish reason that I have Llewellyns in my tree. But I suppose the likelihood of there actually being a connection was pretty minimal!! 

I spent the last 20 minutes of the programme shouting "Where are the Llewellyn-Bowens ?" at the screen !

His mother's side was all very intriguing, but we do recognise the personalities by their father's names.

[carol8353]

I spent the last 20 minutes of the programme shouting "Where are the Llewellyn-Bowens ?" at the screen !

That must have been cos there was nothing of interest to be said about them Nick 

I wonder if the name only became double barrelled to hide illegitimacy like they do nowadays.

I laughed when he was in the record office talking to camera,and half expected that blonde lady next to him to turn round on go Shhhhhh 

Not one of the best I have to say.

Carol

[Nick29]

That must have been cos there was nothing of interest to be said about them Nick 

....... or too much ?    Not many WDYTYA's where the father's name is barely mentioned at all.   When Mr L-B was talking about his Welsh roots on the train, I did assume that they would at least get a mention, but nothing !

P.S.  There is a family tree on Ancestry covering Laurence's mother's side (the Downe family tree), but nothing at all about Trefor Llewellyn Bowen.

[Necromancer]

anyone fancy reading the Chancery account regarding the disputed Will of George Yeo which they skipped over quite quickly

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hbADAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=George+yeo#PPA275,M1

Well, that seems a lot more complicated than the programme outlined !

[BuddysMummy]

I thought it was all rather dull and superficial.

They skipped past several names to get to a few of the more interesting bits, but I, too, was frustrated that they only looked at his mother's side.

Refreshing that this one was mainly UK, with just the one trip to Germany for the U boat records, but did anyone else think it was a pretty trite insert? And only as an after thought did they mention that no lives were lost; the main interest for me!

I am afraid that this is the first series I have seen, and I have enjoyed the previous three. But if this had been the first one I watched I may not have watched any others.