The first episode of the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? aired on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC One, and featured presenter Zoe Ball, as well as a brief cameo by her father, the comedian Johnny Ball.
Zoe was expecting her family to be from the North-East — which many were. Others, however, were from as far away as Glasgow in Scotland, and Camborne in Cornwall.
This was a varied episode taking in lots of different aspects of Zoe’s family history, including the mental health problems of her maternal grandmother — a part of the past that it’s important to acknowledge and speak about.
It’s only in recent decades that the world has become a little more open about mental health problems; but, where they occurred, they are as much a part of an individual’s history — and a family’s history — as any other aspect of life.
One minor criticism of this episode is that it did, at times, feel a little disjointed, simply because of the amount of things that it was trying to cover in one single episode.
I’ve noticed a few times that this has happened in recent series, but really, it’s simply a sign of how much information — how many stories — our own family’s pasts can lead us to.
A good, solid, start, then to this new series.
Ready to start your own family history journey?
I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.
No comments:
Post a Comment