BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 6 Episode #1: Rory Bremner

[SamiW]

Excuse my ignorance, I live abroad, but what is 'so you think you are a royal' ?
Sami

[stoney]

Well, that's Monday evenings' viewing mapped out for a few weeks! 

But, deary me (or was that "dreary" me?  ) not starting the series with anything like a firecracker, are they!

Whilst it was interesting to hear about Rory Bremner's father, did we really need half the programme devoted to one man's exploits in one theatre of war? There was too much "general" war footage.

Again, the second half of the programme was devoted to another "military" campaign - bypassing much detail of Bremner's paternal grandmother.

We learned nothing of the distaff side at all!

And Rory looked more bemused than interested in the "facts" that were turned up.

Let's hope there is better to come!

[CatOne]

So You Think You Are Royal - They research a family who think they have a royal connection, only just found it myself last week whilst channel hopping through the freeview channels. The other day it was about a mother and daughter who thought they were related to the Queen Mother because they had the surname Bowes. By the end of the programme however, after DNA tests on 10% of males with the Bowes name in their area, Nick Barratt was certain they were not related. Their aim seems to be to prove the link and get a mention in Debretts from the couple of shows I've seen.... It was a bit silly though cos they said that a family story of their aunt playing with the young Queen Mum had been proven simply because the aunt lived in the area of a stately home that the Queen Mum may have stayed in on her way to their family home in the South, and one of the aunt's relatives may have been in service there!

Wasn't keen on this episode of WDYTYA, I prefer it when they go further back, showing census, parish records and locations the families lived and worked in, rather than just concentrating mainly on one man, his father......although I was green with envy at the amount of family "treasure" he found at his brothers!

[Guy Etchells]

I thought his family story was fascinating, I wish I had so much variety in mine, and I actually learnt something, i didnt realise Cremation had been illegal.
snip
Gaille

It wasn't that was just one of the facts Di. Stiff an archivist at Surrey History Centre got wrong.
We should not be surprised however as she also got her facts wrong when she stated that the first cremation was in 1885 at Woking crematorium.

However, Captain Hanham of Blandford, Dorset cremated his wife and mother on 8th and 9th of October 1882 in a crematorium on his own estate and indeed he himself was cremated there in 1883.

It is a small point but in a hobby where accuracy is imperative such mistakes turn the programme from factual to little more than fiction.

Cheers
Guy

[Guy Etchells]

WDYTA has been so successful - they really need to have more alternative programmes about family history -  feature some ordinary people - you don't need to be a celeb to have an interesting tree

Yes I have to agree with some of the comments above - most of it was all there locked in the old family antique desk anyway.

The green eyed mog of Katmandu

Perhaps but the Beeb have been there, done that and got the T-shirt to prove it.
Back in the dawn of time (2000) BBC 2 had a series called Blood Ties which traced the lineage of ordinary people.
One of the researchers (presenters) was a young Nick Barratt who was desperate to appear on the telly.
Cheers
Guy

[aspin]

I would have been better watching ITV I forgot it was on Whitechapel

My grt grt Uncle and Justj's inspector John Stark was one of the inspectors on the case
Am I right with the grts justj

Elizabeth

[Nick29]

The first episode of WDYTYA left me with one question.....


How come Rory Bremner didn't wangle a trip further than the Netherlands at the licence payer's expense ?

Surely he needed to do a bit more research into the family connections in British Guyana ?

Sure, the guy's father was a hero, but I really didn't see the point of making a programme out of something the family already knew ? 

[Comosus]

I feel the same: They already had all the information about their ancestors. Far more than any of us could wish for.

For most people very little survives. I don't know what my grandfather did in WW2 and there's probably no way of finding out for another 40-odd years.

I also wish they'd stop concentrating on the wealthy ancestors... not everyone has those!

[skewbald]

I thought his family story was fascinating, I wish I had so much variety in mine, and I actually learnt something, i didnt realise Cremation had been illegal.
snip
Gaille

It wasn't that was just one of the facts Di. Stiff an archivist at Surrey History Centre got wrong.
We should not be surprised however as she also got her facts wrong when she stated that the first cremation was in 1885 at Woking crematorium.

However, Captain Hanham of Blandford, Dorset cremated his wife and mother on 8th and 9th of October 1882 in a crematorium on his own estate and indeed he himself was cremated there in 1883.

It is a small point but in a hobby where accuracy is imperative such mistakes turn the programme from factual to little more than fiction.

Cheers
Guy

How did she get it wrong Guy?

Meanwhile, on 26th March, 1885 the first official cremation at Woking took place. Mrs. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles, was the first of three cremations that year. Mr. Charles William Carpenter was cremated on 19th October and in December the third cremation, even though the body of a fourteen stone woman, was again successfully performed in only 11/2 hours. In 1886 ten bodies were cremated.

http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html#1stcremation

skewy.