BBC 1 WDYTYA: Series 11, Episode 6, Mary Berry

[Stanwix England]

To me she didn't seem like a snob but like someone who was with a very particular set of values. She is 79 after all and from what seems like a pretty traditional middle class background and she is bound to look at things with the view of the values she grew up with.

I think it was very telling the way she reacted to the elder Mary Berry having children 'out of wedlock' as she put it. We take that very lightly now but when she was a girl most women in that situation would have been social outcasts, so she probably views it in that light.

I don't think she was being a snob about it and I didn't think that she looked down on the elder Mary Berry, I think it just resonated with her in that way.

I appreciate not all 79 year olds will feel that way, but I think a lot would.

I did think she was an apologist for the baker though! 

[chirp]

One of the better episodes I thought. It was interesting and didn't dwell too long on just one person. I thought Mary was lovely and nothing snobbish about her at all. She comes from a middle class background and speaks well; don't judge her on that.

[Familysearch]

Mixed thoughts on this one, although I did think it more thorough than previous programmes.  It has prompted me to obtain the death certificate of my great grandfather - a baker - who died age 45. I had not appreciated that bakers gernerally died at a young age, so am interested to see what my ggf died of!

Rather felt for Mary in her feelings for the earlier Mary.  "Our" Mary has experienced the loss of a child, and her feelings were quite genuine in my opinion.

FS

[jess5athome]

Rather felt for Mary in her feelings for the earlier Mary.  "Our" Mary has experienced the loss of a child, and her feelings were quite genuine in my opinion.

FS

I watched a programme about Mary Berry, and she spoke of the loss of her son when he was 19, it was heartbreaking viewing.

Frank.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I got the impression that MB was quite disconcerted to find that the Canon (?), who she mentioned as an ancestor near the start of the thing didn't surface from the solid Victorian family that she had anticipated! That was a part of why she came over a bit snobbish, I suppose. Mind you, I knew nothing whatever about her until the start of the programme - she came over to me as rather a WI of the old school type.
Her interpretation of the Baker as an "entrepreneur" or whatever rather than a bit of a spiv, was interesting, and I suppose understandable, we all want to think the best of our families, I suppose, but she did sound a bit naïve about the reason for those children having no named father!
But it was a lot nearer to the original format than some of this series, and far more interesting in that she did seem to be finding out things that she hadn't known prior to the start of the research, - and of course, that it did go back some generations.
I do find the "acting out of grandpa's job" bits rather a waste, but - well, I suppose they have to put in more mass-appeal! Certainly better than most in this series.

[LizzieW]

Mixed thoughts on this one, although I did think it more thorough than previous programmes.  It has prompted me to obtain the death certificate of my great grandfather - a baker - who died age 45. I had not appreciated that bakers gernerally died at a young age, so am interested to see what my ggf died of!

Rather felt for Mary in her feelings for the earlier Mary.  "Our" Mary has experienced the loss of a child, and her feelings were quite genuine in my opinion.

FS

My g.grandfather was a baker, originally from Lincolnshire he moved to Manchester somewhere between 1861 and 1871, he died in 1910 aged 67 from Bronchitis and Heart Failure, neither of which I would have thought would have been related to being a baker - although perhaps the flour could have caused bronchitis.  None of his children became bakers, although one of his granddaughters (my mother's sister) became a confectioner/baker.  She died aged 91.

[sancti]

Just got around to watching it on 'catch up'. I enjoyed the social history content but couldn't understand why they didn't check the 1841 census for Mary with her illegitimate children.
In the 1851 census they didn't show that Mary's sister Sarah was living with her which gives a false impression of a single mother struggling with her 2 children.

[groom]

In the 1851 census they didn't show that Mary's sister Sarah was living with her which gives a false impression of a single mother struggling with her 2 children.

That wouldn't make such an interesting story though. 

[LizzieW]

Often we - people who are serious about family history - see things on the census that are never pointed out, or information on death certificates etc.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed instantly that there wasn't a father's name on the birth certificate Mary was shown, yet Mary apparently didn't notice that until it was pointed out to her.

Lizzie