BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 8 Episode #1: - Bruce Forsyth

[Windsor87]

Mmmmmm.......looks like Find-a-Grave would have been helpful to the researchers:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38916259

I think much of this has been done off the back of the programme. Wikipedia seems to have been updated at around the same time.

[marcie dean]

Does it not seem as though history has repeated itself?

Similarities between Jacob and Bruce.

What did anyone else think?
marcie

[josey]

I don't think the findagrave website had been updated since the programme.

If you follow the link for Charles Forsyth Johnson it shows the headstone in Plaistow cemetery with Joseph's correct date of death or 17 Jul 1906.  That picture was placed there on 2 Aug 2009.

Josey

[aspin]

Hi Windsor

How are things up your way just now
glad you too have enjoyed the programme

I wonder if anyone on the wdytya could find our Isabella,s grave and has she got a head stone and what about her Mum and dad have they
Hope all are well

Aspin

[snowyw]

I haven't checked back on the thread ... but did no-one check where the man was in 1901, in UK ??   


Very good programme ... I like Brucie now ! 

No Lydart, they didn't.
But excellent programme & very moving.

[coombs]

He was buried the day after he died apparently.

My ancestor looks like he is buried in Robinson run Cemetery in Allegheny, PA with his eldest daughter as another member has found the deeds to the plot with 8 graves and all are filled but no mention in them of who is buried but I believe my ancestor is one of them.

[downside]

Similarities between Jacob and Bruce.

What did anyone else think?

I presume you mean Joseph?

I can't see many similarities.

Joseph was bigamist and Bruce is a trigamist.
Joseph seemed to abandon his families, whereas Bruce has made a financial provision for the familes from his previous relationships.
Joseph died aged 67 in relative povety, whereas Bruce is 82 and very wealthy and he probably drawn up a will.

[chrispaton]

I think I'm going to be a lone voice here! I actually found the programme a tad tedious, only really picking up pace and interest about 40 minutes in. I didn't have a problem with Bruce, I thought he was quite genuine, and I'm used to a lot of the pseudo-genealogy that occasionally passes for true process in the series. I just thought it was a bit slow, and a tad unremarkable. The only highlights for me were when he met the cousins in the US, and the final scene at the graveside, a situation I'm sure we've all faced when looking for rellies in cemeteries.

I think WDYTYA works for me when it touches on issues of identity, so progs like Bill Oddie, Kim Cattrall etc, when there is a definite impact that can be gauged from the celeb about the findings revealed. Shows like Ian Hyslop, where standing on a rainlashed Scottish island, he pretty much confirmed his own feelings that the family had moved on, and he was an Englishman only too happy to live in the big city etc! But I didn't really get that tonight, and just felt that Bruce got top billing because he was 'BBC aristocracy'. There was no sense of why Joseph's story was so important to Bruce, except that he had received a letter.

Not a disaster of a programme by any means at all - just a bit 'meh' for me compared to some others in previous series. I suspect there are better stories awaiting us further down the run.

A minor gripe though was the title sequence style has changed - felt a bit more like the US series titles with the big celeb facial close ups.

[danuslave]

I think I'm going to be a lone voice here!

Not quite   

All a bit dull really.  Unfortunately, men abandoning one or more families isn't especially uncommon (even now). 

As for not having a headstone - when you come from a long line of Ag labs and miners like me, that is quite normal.

There was a distinct feeling that it's heading the same way as the US version - not A Good Thing at all!

I prefer previous programmes that have followed more than one line

On the plus side, Bruce came over very much better than I expected.  I'm not his biggest fan (in fact I never watch him 'performing') but he did seem genuine in this.

Hope the rest of the series is more interesting.

Linda