On 2013-06-16 12:22:45 +0100, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com said: > A new series starts on ITVI on Tuesday June 25, made by Wall To Wall > Television, the same people who make Who Do You Think You Are? > > This will focus on celebrities who are horrified/shocked/appalled (choose your > own phrase) to discover they had an ancestor who ended up in the workhouse. > > I read a whole-page blurb in yesterday's Weekend magazine (the Daily Mail's TV > listings mag). The stars featured include Felicity Kendal, Fern Britton and the > novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. These are some of the stories..... > > Felicity Kendal, discovering her great-grandmother was branded a woman of low > repute because she had two illegitimate children, though she also had nine > other legitimate ones. Kendal makes a "pilgrimage" to an unmarked grave of one > of the children who died young. "It's heartbreaking" she says. > > Fern Britton is "visibly distraught" when she discovers her > great-great-great-grandfather went into a workhouse at 91. His son Jesse died > in a workhouse and his body was given for medical research. Britton is > described as having tears pouring down her cheeks. > > Barbara Taylor Bradford (who started out as a journalist in Leeds, tough as old > boots, one imagines) is similarly upset, "her features becoming more and more > pinched", as she discovers her mother was put into a workhouse by her > grandmother. > > And Scottish actor Brian Cox apparently became furious and outraged when > learning that his great-grandfather ended up in a Scottish workhouse, "at one > point Brian looks as if he might punch the archivist"..."B******s!" he declares > as the full horror of his family history is laid bare. > > Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure it will be an interesting series, I know > some of the Wall to Wall People (indeed, I was in one of their programmes > about the comedian John Bishop) and I recognise the exigencies of television > demand a bit of emotion! However, am I being unfair in thinking these showbiz > luvvies can turn on the tears and emotion to demand? Clearly, none of them can > be family historians since people such as ourselves would take it all in our > stride! Wouldn't we??? I do wonder, in 100 years time will my descendants look at the notes I have made about my childhood and turn on the tears (whether paid to do so for the entertainment of others, or not). We (like many of my generation) grew up in a draughty. non centrally heated house with poor insulation and we would often wake to see ice on the inside of the bedroom windows. We walked miles to go to school, in all weathers. Our family did not have a car, a car actually going up the street was unusual - any deliveries (milk/coal etc) were done by horse and cart. We didn't have a television or a telephone till I was in my teens. By todays standards our life was extreme hardship - but it wasn't really, it was our life and we didn't feel badly done to at all. These sort of programmes always seem to 'play to the gallery' rather than try to put the events they discover into the context of the times they happened. -- Tickettyboo

On 16/06/2013 16:21, Tickettyboo wrote: > On 2013-06-16 12:22:45 +0100, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com said: > >> A new series starts on ITVI on Tuesday June 25, made by Wall To Wall >> Television, the same people who make Who Do You Think You Are? >> >> This will focus on celebrities who are horrified/shocked/appalled >> (choose your >> own phrase) to discover they had an ancestor who ended up in the >> workhouse. > I do wonder, in 100 years time will my descendants look at the notes I > have made about my childhood and turn on the tears (whether paid to do > so for the entertainment of others, or not). > > We (like many of my generation) grew up in a draughty. non centrally > heated house with poor insulation and we would often wake to see ice on > the inside of the bedroom windows. We walked miles to go to school, in > all weathers. Our family did not have a car, a car actually going up the > street was unusual - any deliveries (milk/coal etc) were done by horse > and cart. We didn't have a television or a telephone till I was in my > teens. Luxury! (etc etc) ;-) I wonder if future generations will have conquered cancer, alzheimer's, strokes etc. Perhaps war will be a distant memory, Perhaps they'll live fit, happy lives to age 150+. Will they shed a tear for us? -- Phil C.