BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 10 Episode 9 John Barnes

[Rishile]

I also found this episode boring and fell asleep half way though.

Maybe part of the reason is because we can't really relate to these ancestors.  I can relate to my Ag. Labs even if they didn't do anything interesting.  When they did something interesting, it seems very exciting (to me at least).  They really are the backbone of this country.  That's why Alex Kingston and Gregg Wallace were so interesting because their ancestors seemed so 'real'.

I felt last night that my eyes were glazing over - you know that look.

Rishile

[stonechat]

I for once forgot it was on, i'd been at the record office transcribing for freereg.

Good for you

[nospringchicken]

Don't think it's a question of not relating to this ancestry. It just wasn't tracing the family tree. It seems to be going on themes, carrying on the politics thread of the programme before. No attempt to trace the family tree.

[ottobottle]

Surprised to read a few comments inferring social history has no place in a genealogy programme. I'd say the two are intimately linked. No point researching who your ancestors were and when they lived if you don't consider the history of the times they lived through, surely? The Alex Kingston programme was a highlight of this series but - again - prostitution and how/why it took place in those times is social history. You can't avoid it!

Didn't watch John Barnes. I've learned my lesson on previous WDYTYA episodes that head for the Caribbean. But I think if I had family connections to that part of the world I'd relate to it better. John Bishop with the Warrior behind him in the credits infers maritime history and that's more my bag. I'm looking forward to that one even though I'm not a big fan of the man himself.

[mrs.tenacious]

I also found this episode boring and fell asleep half way though.

Me too, and not for the first time this series - it's been really disappointing (apart from Alex Kingston's episode).

What a shame, as it used to be must-watch telly for me. 

[DORAN54]

boring boring boring

[suey]

Surprised to read a few comments inferring social history has no place in a genealogy programme. I'd say the two are intimately linked. No point researching who your ancestors were and when they lived if you don't consider the history of the times they lived through, surely? The Alex Kingston programme was a highlight of this series but - again - prostitution and how/why it took place in those times is social history. You can't avoid it!

John Bishop with the Warrior behind him in the credits infers maritime history and that's more my bag. I'm looking forward to that one even though I'm not a big fan of the man himself.

I agree but I still feel there was a story to be told regarding Stephen Hill.  I appreciate the limited time in one programme but surely less of the long-winded reading out of documents - YAWN - would have been more appreciated by the wider audience.

I'm not a fan of John Bishop either, I just hope we see more of his family than a grandfather who sailed around the world and an excuse for the Beebs camera crew to visit some far-flung outpost of the British Empire

Meow...moan over...

[dinkey]

boring boring boring

I agree with this.

For the first time ever I was nodding off. Listening to John Barnes reading was like being at school.

Another point, yet again assumptions were made. When he was showed a newspaper article which was not signed  and they said that Stephen Hill probably wrote it, suddenly it becomes fact.

[Gillg]

Sadly I think this programme has now run its course.  When it first started I used to watch every one of the series and found it fascinating.  Now it has become mostly boring in the extreme and only occasionally do I watch a programme which I think might be interesting - and then have often been disappointed.  It's no wonder the programme makers have tried to introduce a different angle, but this approach doesn't seem to have pleased many of us, particularly the amateur genealogists, who like to see research to be properly detailed.

Gillg