BBC 1 WDYTYA: Series 11, Episode 2, Brian Blessed

[mrs.tenacious]

I wish once in a while the producers could drop a hint to the sleb that large families were the norm before television and contraception.

I was thinking exactly the same thing watching his reaction to this 'surprising' piece of information!

[bibliotaphist]

Julie Walters' didn't grab me, but I enjoyed last night's episode, for the following reasons:

• I thought the she story of Jabez was a good one and well told.
• It featured Brigg, which I know well and where I have family connections of my own.
• I work with one of last night's experts/guides and I didn't know he'd done this, which was a nice surprise.
• Brian Blessed declaiming every line, quoting poetry and generally hamming it up with the best of 'em.

[panda40]

Great episode, apart from one part right at the beginning. When Brian caught the train to Yorkshire first class and found out his family was from London so had to come all the way back again. Hubby sitting watching it from a non family history point of view shouts out what a waste of licence fee money. Surely they could have found that out first and saved home the journey and the cost of a first class train ticket.
Regards panda

[Ayashi]

I watched BRIAN BLESSED! (it's got to be done lol) as well and the thing that made me laugh was that his Jabez was doing the Newcastle-London coal trips about the same time as my 4xgt grandfather Mark Brady, it'd be funny if their paths had crossed at some point.

Yeah, he definitely wrote his own stories about them... for all he knew Barnabus might have been abusive lol I joked to my mother that the next thing they were going to show was a newspaper article about how Barnabus beat his wife so she turned around and killed him or something.

One thing I did object to though was when they said Martha had learning difficulties and he indicated that this must have made her incapable of leading the family- it could have been dyslexia for all we know, doesn't mean the poor girl was stupid.

But yeah, the man is, as my mother says, mad as a box of frogs.

[WelwynGC1]

I wondered how things would pan out after he started making train noises but the episode went from strength to strength for me, anyway.

Really enjoyed it.

Looking forward to Sheridan Smith, (SWOON!!!)

[Petros]

we thought it the best one for some time, far more interesting, and moving, than Julie Waters' on Irish problems.

The way it was structured made the best story out of it too

[Annette7]

Following on from my earlier posting (which I'm surprised no-one has commented on) re. 2 other children of Barnabas and Elizabeth Blessed.   There was also another son:

George Wilkinson Blessed b.2/8/1804, bp.15/11/1804 St. Georges, Bloomsbury, son of Barnabas and Elizabeth Blessed.   (His baptism has been transcribed under surname Wilkinson, rather than Blessed.   He too was a Book Binder - married 1823 (and one of his children named Jabez).  He died in 1846.  Family transcribed under 'Blissed' in 1841.

So the 2 young orphans in 1822 actually had 2 older brothers, Book Binders like their father, living in London (George marrying 1823, and William 1825).

Annette

[Lostris]

BB is a (not very close) neighbour of mine, so quite used to his 'little ways' ..... I must ask him why they didnt go back to even earlier generations ... I'm sure its been mentioned previously that Family was originally from Cambridgeshire.

Brian will have lots of 'Lost Cousins' to track down now!

[Ray T]

It has to be remembered that they're making a programme for the general public, and not genealogists, to watch. It has to make a modicum of sense and fit within the one hour timescale they're allotted.

This explains why they went straight back several generations and came forward - it made more sense as a story doing that - and didn't go further back - they had enough material to fill an hour.

What I heartily dislike is the prevalence of hour long programmes cunningly squeezed into six, hour long, episodes.