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

[jess5athome]

I'm with you xin, I really enjoyed it.
I enjoy them all to be honest, ( I admit some more than others) but I never dissect an episode in a, shall we say, "Professional Genealogists" point of view, I just love to see people unraveling the lives of their ancestors.

Frank 

[LFS]

I don't think you should expect them to be historians themselves - and you'd expect Brian Blessed to start weaving tales round what he learnt - but frankly, without some help it would have been very difficult for some of us (i.e. me)  to follow this family round the country.  I liked it.
Derby Girl

[missmolly]

I enjoyed this one, ordinary people with no long pedigrees etc. and a lot of the information taken from sources that (if it's survived) are available to us

Mo
 

[Aulus]

I thought it was a good episode, largely because of the sheer unexceptional ordinariness of the story and good survival of records. Only Brian Blessed's somewhat over-imaginative story-telling made the story "special".

I could much more easily relate to the moving around the country, going in and out of workhouses, etc. than I can the ones where they end up related to Hanoverian kings or Holy Roman emperors!

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.

Interesting that on Jabez's and his sister, Elizabeth's baptisms, his mother's name is incorrectly given as Jane.  I thought for a moment I'd got the wrong family. 

[iluleah]

Just watched it and wondered if I should bother when I saw who was on, however pleased I did.
His over the top ways  seemed to work well and I think we all think the same kind of thoughts as we research and find our own ancestors records simply as being human beings we feel the need to make things fit and find logical reasons for what they did where they worked and lived, he just voiced his thoughts in his flamboyant acting style 

I loved his emotional connections to his ancestors, I feel the same with mine, so many people I have never met but would love to

[Treetotal]

I enjoy it too and liked the way that he visualised the kind of ups and downs that life had thrown at his ancestors and how he embraced their courage in the face of adversity...I Warmed to his depth of feeling for the privations suffered by the orphaned Blessed children...so pleased too that the brothers remained in touch.
Carol

[heywood]

I'd forgotten all about it - busy with family and then I saw the beginning of this thread. I just caught up with it on iplayer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought he was rather quiet - not booming as much as he usually does.
The simple story of human survival was enhanced by the survival of the places - we read these addresses and it was lovely to actually see them.
I wonder how the two brothers connected again - it was such a fitting end for BB's romantic, sentimental view of his ancestors accompanied by his love of literary quotes. As you can tell, I thought it was 'marvellous' 

[mrs.tenacious]

I enjoyed the episode, probably more than the previous Julie Walters one. I do agree that there was some questionable supposition on Brian Blessed's part, however I personally find it excusable in view of the very real hardships that Jabez and his family faced. Brian was clearly emotionally connecting with the narrative that was unveiling before him. I liked the fact that the focus was on the very ordinary life of a nonetheless inspiring person. In other words, no history-changing impact on the world, no royal blood or claim to fame - just the story of a child from a broken, split up family, with a very poor start in life who managed to make something of his life and rear a large family who all seemed to have been educated and led healthy childhoods, the kind of childhood he himself had been denied by the impoverishment of his parents and their untimely deaths. It was all very human and quite gripping.

Very eloquently put, Matt - and I totally agree with you.

The phrase 'larger than life' could truly have been invented for him. 

 Carole

Quite!  Sometimes I find him rather annoying, but allowing for his theatrical ways I think he came over as quite sincere in his reactions - it's just the way some 'luvvies' come across.

After this programme I prefer to think of him as 'Brian Bless'im' 

[Annette7]

Barnabas and Elizabeth had 2 other children that weren't mentioned:

William Curven Blessed bp.29/5/1803 St. Paul Covent Garden
Elizabeth Grace Blessed bp.10/3/1811 (born 5 Aug 1810) St. Martin in the Fields

Since they had another daughter Elizabeth in 1820 one presumes the previous one died (can't find in London so perhaps she died down in Portsea).

However, son William Curven Blessed presumably didn't go with them - probably because he'd begun his own apprenticeship.   He married in London in 1825 and had a number of children.   He appears in 1841 Census where he is shown as 'Book Binder'.

I would suggest that it was probably William who made sure the 3 of them stayed in contact with one another.   Alas, William died later in 1841.

Annette