BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 10 Episode #1: Samantha Womack

[mrs.tenacious]

In fairness, who is going to want to sit for 10 x 1 hour episodes looking at what family history research is really like? .....or (if you're really lucky) the chance to tramp round an overgrown, damp graveyard peering at headstones...

Just what I found myself doing for most of this afternoon! 

Fair comments from previous posts; agree with most of them. Also, I wish we'd been told (even briefly) what happened to Beatrice after she rejoined her mother in the US. SW may possibly have relatives descended from her, but it wasn't touched upon.

[Nick29]

I didn't see the programme, so can't comment on the content but I can comment on the process.  The filming process is done in rough chronological order, so the 'reveals' are happening there and then..... 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that ?  Now, when someone walks into a registry office or library, surrounded by a film crew, and is handed a couple of books which conveniently have bookmarks in them at the exact page where the critical information is to be found, then I think I am right in assuming that the whole thing is a pre-rehearsed job?  I'm sure that lots of people are not aware that the whole thing is pre-rehearsed, but then many people in the UK are convinced that Albert Square and The Queen Vic pub are real places 

Of course it's quite hard to look surprised at a 'reveal' which may be the 4th or 5th take of a particular scene, which is presumably why the actors and actresses who have been featured have always looked much more convincing when they act surprised.

 

[Lydart]

Let's face it, these programmes are not family history research as we know it !   

I think watching them, as so many of us do, is a kind of voyeurism .... being nosey about someone famous !   

[Archivos]

I didn't see the programme, so can't comment on the content but I can comment on the process.  The filming process is done in rough chronological order, so the 'reveals' are happening there and then..... 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that ?  Now, when someone walks into a registry office or library, surrounded by a film crew, and is handed a couple of books which conveniently have bookmarks in them at the exact page where the critical information is to be found, then I think I am right in assuming that the whole thing is a pre-rehearsed job?  I'm sure that lots of people are not aware that the whole thing is pre-rehearsed, but then many people in the UK are convinced that Albert Square and The Queen Vic pub are real places 

Of course it's quite hard to look surprised at a 'reveal' which may be the 4th or 5th take of a particular scene, which is presumably why the actors and actresses who have been featured have always looked much more convincing when they act surprised.

 

I mean that the celebrity has no idea before the filming what they are about to see.  It's not rehearsed, the celebrities don't have a script.  If there is more than one take, it's because someone has fluffed what they're saying (the experts aren't usually used to being on camera, and it can be quite nervewracking for them).

So it's not pre-rehearsed, apart from the odd time there is more than one take, either for fluffed lines, or for different angles of shots.  When the celebrity is shown a document, they don't know what it is until they see it. 

The amount of research which goes into WDYTYA is immense, and the reasons there are bookmarks in the pages is because someone has spent hours looking for the information and marked the pages so they can be easily found. 

The experts know what's going on, but the celebrity doesn't until they're shown it.  They know that something interesting will be shown to them, but they don't know what.

[Parmesan]

I think we're all aware of the amount of research that goes into it, just from doing our own family trees!  I think I was probably aware that the subject doesn't get to see stuff before the reveal but maybe the process is rehearsed?

Maybe you can tell us if the subject is 'directed' in their responses because SW was SO over the top as to be extremely irritating.

To be fair, I suppose folk who watch the programme that aren't researching themselves might find it less so.

[Nick29]

Not as 'over the top' as one well-known actress 

[Ronbucks]

Loved the episode and thought they packed a lot of content into a hour. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Ron

[stonechat]

I did enjoy the show and that to make a story they show the story not in the order in which we would all do research

[omega 1]

I had never heard  of Samantha Womack before but i found the programme very interesting.