I did notice that he did do some research himself, although I'm not totally sure if the BBC just made it look like that, especially with the order they showed the screen for the 1911 census. They started off with a screen having all the details filled in on the 1911 search form; then they show him typing it in and then him clicking onto the 1911 search form. Which is completely the backwards way of doing it?!?! 
Bit sloppy from the BBC there.
Hah. Did you notice the Electoral Roll search he did - it gave a "perfect" result set, in date order, of ALL the entries for his father, with no false hits at all. He's not a bad genealogist/searcher, that Charles Dance!! :-)
The program, of course, told the story in the best order for the story, and the "reveals", not the order the research would actually be done in.
Since his father died in 1949, I did a FreeBMD search, for Walter Dance, with a +-1 window (i.e. 1948-1950) in England.
It only gives one hit (!!) and the age-at-death is 75, which gives a DOB 1949-75=1874
So there's one big reveal spoiled...
And when I did the "obvious" search to get the 1911 Census, Anc*y actually had the South African trip in "Suggested Records", so the TV version about the researcher looking for the ticket having (amazingly) found the advert by "W.D." is dramatic license of the first order!
I'd really expect the death of the Norah's sister to be in the local papers though - "tragic death of child" is always a favourite with Editors, then and now.
Anyone recall the name and DOB?
BugBear
