This genealogy show on the Beeb has lots of back episodes on iPlayer. I watched a couple last night.
Josh Widdicombe's is a classic one: his great, great etc, grandmother is Mary Boleyn, sister of the decapitated Ann Boleyn.
But the one I liked was of footballer Alex Scott. She is bi-racial with a Jewish father and Jamaican mother. Her grandfather lived at the time of Mosley's fascist Blackshirts. Now, for Terry Pratchett fans, do you remember his Discworld novel "Night Watch"? In that book Commander Vimes of the City Watch gets catapulted back in time and is involved in the Battle of Cable Street in Ankh Morpork. In the Alex Scott WDYTYA episode it is told that there is a real Cable Street in the East End of London and in 1935 there was a real Battle of Cable Street between Mosley's fascists, anti-fascists and the police in which Alex's grandfather was possibly involved, Jews being targeted by he fascists.
TP obviously lifted that and incorporated it into Night Watch, even down to the barricade that was erected.
Well I never!
If you haven't read any Discword novels, well, what are you waiting for?
Who Do You Think You Are?
Who Do You Think You Are?
In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
(Terry Pratchett 1948-2015)
(Terry Pratchett 1948-2015)