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Who Do You Think You Are?- Ideas
21stCenturyBoy
Posts: 44,512 Forum Member
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Any celebrities you'd like to see take part.
I'd quite like-
Freema Agyeman- Actress
Jo Brand- Comedian
Sophie Dahl- Model
Barry Humphries- Comedian
Richard Madeley- TV Presenter
Jane Seymour- Actress
I'd quite like-
Freema Agyeman- Actress
Jo Brand- Comedian
Sophie Dahl- Model
Barry Humphries- Comedian
Richard Madeley- TV Presenter
Jane Seymour- Actress
0
Comments
He'd be a good one!
What a well thought-out list!
I'd also like to nominate Joan Rivers.
That would be amazing.
The Christopher Timothy one was very interesting because of the stories brought out, as was John Prescott. And who would have guessed about Cilla Black or Paul Daniels Welsh history.
In a genealogy show that is what matters not who you select.
Indeed I think one or two well known people were invited and then dropped by Who do you think you are? because they had no interesting stories once the research was conducted. Just ordinary lives (like most of our ancestors did no matter how famous their current descendent).
Michael Parkinson is one example.
Richard Madeley said a few weeks ago when on This Morning that he is already being researched for the 2011 series but was told it will depend on what they find (or not).
I suspect they do a bit of basic research before speaking to possible subjects, someone has researched Michael Parkinson's family tree and there are apparently plenty of interesting stories there. I think he is just trying to play to his image as an typical Yorkshireman by claiming he is boring.
I can't understand why Coming Home does not get shown on one of the national networks because all the programmes that I have been seen have been excellent - except perhaps John Prescott. He had too much of a political agenda and there were some doubts about claims made about some of the details of his ancestors.
I have never seen the earlier Coming Home programmes but the best that I have seen was Olivia Newton John, she brought her sister over and they were just fun to watch as they were shown their history.
There is also an Irish one which has been in the papers recently. I am also surprised that no one has produced a Scottish version, there is a very good radio series about family history on Radio Scotland but nothing on TV on the lines of Who Do You Think You Are.
Julie Walters
Dame Maggie Smith
Christopher Lee
Roy Hudd
Jimmy Perry
Joan Bakewell
June Whitfield
I'd also suggest Coast presenter Neil Oliver who surely must have some exciting ancestors.
Yes, the only requirement is that they have ancestoral links with Wales,
Donny Osmond, Cilla Black, Paul Daniels, Christopher Timothy, Janet Street Porter, Michelle Collins are amongst the many that have featured and who are not Welsh in the traditional sense.
The most recent series of Coming Home ended before Christmas.
It is available on Sky to anyone in the UK (BBC Wales features in the 900 channels) and old episodes are repeated on digital channels such as Blighty.
Might be on BBC i player, too, not sure.
I think Richard Madeley has recently been filmed for the new series.
They are running episodes of Coming Home at 01.00 and 01.30 from Tonight and also a complete run of about 12 on Saturday - including all of those mentioned above apart from Michelle Collins plus Petula Clark. Michael York, Michael Heseltine, Susan Sarandon (different family from that she later covered in her US episode - ie the Welsh line), Pam Ferris, Patrick Mower, Michael Ball and probably others I have missed.
Kathy Burke
Pauline Quirke
Richard Briers
Steve Wright (DJ)
Peter Kay
Eric Sykes
See post 7 as to what he said about this on This Morning.
They run it at 30 minutes but cut out all the shots of people researching in libraries so its not such a big drop in the actual storytelling length.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1059163/RICHARD-MADELEY-The-dark-family-secret-understand-father-beat-me.html
I think the BBC may be cautious about doing a programme about him as it may be seen as a way for him to promote sales of his book.
I would suggest the actress Sophie Okonedo, if her entry on Wikipedia can be trusted then it would be a facinating tale,
Bet they all have long tresses!
ooh I hadn't heard of this, but it sounds interesting - I have set my sky+ for the series starting on Saturday
They might be non-welsh celebs but their ancestors were Welsh;)
Below is the website for the celebs, you can view it by year to see who was on.
I havent watched all of them but the Donny Osmond and Olivia Newton John were really good. Olivia ended up visiting a pub where her great-grandmother worked and the current landlord turned out to be a distant cousin she didnt know about.
Mostly with WDYTUA its just the celeb but with Coming Home they sometimes bring family along. Susan Sarandon brought about 12 family members. There were DNA tests to prove they were related to the locals etc.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071nf4/episodes/2007
I think Michael Ball was probably one of those on the 2010 series in November/December on BBC 1 Wales.
This will no doubt turn up on Blighty later this year perhaps along with the 2009 series that had Michele Collins and John Prescott amongst others.
The ones on Blighty at the moment are from the series shown between 2006 and 2008 I think.
Thank you. I have copyrighted it BBC! LOL