BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 10 Episode 8 Celia Imrie

[ReadyDale]

Not sure why, but this episode didn't work for me.
I don't think it was how far back it went, as the Matthew Pinsent episode went back further - connecting him to royalty, Charlemagne, Jesus and God, and that was OK.
Maybe by parachuting Celia in to the 17th century, without any confirmation of her link (on-screen at least) made it feel more like a history show than WDYTYA.
This series has been very contrasting - too many episodes going back just one or two generations, often culminating at WW1 (important though this era is), then this one that jumps straight back over 300 years.
Nevermind, still two more episodes to redeem it.

[Petros]

There are two unused scence on line

one discusses her ancestor the Marquis of Granby. The other in another librray full of old manuscripts confirms the tree she was given and picks out additional points on the male line.. The comment on the femal line was amde that its easy to accurately compile tress that descend through baronetcies.

Perhaps the whole episode demosntares the ease of tarcing back any aristocratic ancestry, becuase it is betetr, and more extensively documented.

[Skoosh]

Much of the stuff about the Russell's she could have found out for herself online, interesting though it was.
Her father's family was dismissed as trade and that was that!

Skoosh.

[Lydart]

'Trade' is usually easier to trace than 'ag.lab' !!

[scintilla]

Much of the stuff about the Russell's she could have found out for herself online, interesting though it was.
Her father's family was dismissed as trade and that was that!

Yes, I think that was part of the thing that turned me off the programme. I haven't looked, but I'm sure there must have been many books written about Lord Russell and the politics of the time. It would have been more interesting to have discovered something that wasn't well documented.

[Lydart]

But the history of her family WASN'T all in one book or one record collection .... it was all over London, and the BBC brought it together.   

I like this series of programmes; they have been different to the previous series.  The only thing I would like to have seen in one or two of the programmes would have been 'the reveal' to stunned members of the celebrities families !

[Skoosh]

Just checked my own books, "Mr Croft, the King's Bastard", Lord William Russell's story is largely contained therein. I had to walk into the next room.

Skoosh.

[Suffolk Mawther]

But the history of her family WASN'T all in one book or one record collection .... it was all over London, and the BBC brought it together.

My point entirely Lydart, I found it interesting in that there were so many places around London to find yet more records.

Pat ...

[scintilla]

But the history of her family WASN'T all in one book or one record collection .... it was all over London, and the BBC brought it together.   

I didn't say that the history of her family was all in one book, only that the story of Lord Russell, on which the first section of the programme concentrated probably was, as Skoosh has confirmed. The information may have been in different collections all over London, but they were just recreating what had already been done by someone who wrote a book about it. If you have an interest in that part of history all well and good, but for me it departed from the "discovery" angle of WDYTYA.