WDYTYA? - Clare Balding

Clare Balding's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? existed mainly to make the rest of us feel common and unconnected.

Apparently this was the less posh side of the family. Wow.

Basically, Clare Balding is very, very, posh.

She is the descendent of socialites, Earls, Lords, and Madison Avenue types (literally - as in, they actually lived on Madison Avenue in the 20s.)

It turns out part of Clare's family is also very American.

We always tend to think of her as a British treasure, but her grandmother was from the state of New Jersey, and fell for a young English polo player.

And there was a look into the social life of another of Clare's family members, Malcolm Bullock, MP.

Malcolm, with very fancy friends, had had a relationship - almost certainly romantic - with the painter Rex Whistler, at a time in which same-sex relationships were illegal.

An interesting and solid little episode.