Who Do You Think You Are?

[megagem]

I know there are a couple of fans on the board of WDYTYA. I learned about this show when I visited England in '07 (same time I learned about QI). One of my aunties raved about it and it got her into finding out about our family history. The current season of the American version of WDYTYA is being shown every Friday at 8pm on NBC (last Friday was Reba McEntire's episode which I found interesting, although Lisa Kudrow's episode from last season will probably always be my favourite). For some reason, I never thought to look up all of the people who have taken part in the English version and I was so surprised to find Jeremy Irons, Bruce Forsyth, Alan Cumming, JK Rowling, Stephen Fry, Julian Clary, Julia Sawalha, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen ( ;D childhood crush), Martin Freeman, Ainsley Harriott...! (there's a full list of the celebrities who have taken part in the show on IMDb). I went on youtube and I've found some of these episodes have been posted (unlike the American version). I haven't looked to see if every episode has been posted, but from what I've seen, most of them are there. So, American fans of the show, check out the original English version!

I'm watching Alan Cummings' episode right now: youtu.be/-zR5GS767sY

[Petruchio - Good God]

thank you so much for posting it.... so I watching WDYTYA with Jeremy Irons right now ... sigh ...

[kygal]

I really dont watch this but know about it. Looks interesting though.

[judypatooty]

Thanks for the link to the UK episodes, Meg! I've been doing genealogy for about 15 years now and I love this show. I even bought the box set of the first 4 (or is it 5?) seasons of the UK version. You could say I'm passionate about genealogy.

[soapbox] The thing that frustrates me the most with the show is how they have to cram everything into an hour. So the viewer is given an unrealistic sense of how much time the research can really take. It really makes me cringe when they state assumptions as if they were facts. (Don't get me started ...) [/soapbox]

[francesca]

I am surprised how many of you non-Brits like this programme, although I can understand the interest in Big Names.
The two that moved me both to laughter and almost to tears were Stephen Fry and David Tennant.
If you are interested in this sort of thing you may like to see the BBC/Wales series 'Coming Home'
This is similar but much more gentle and reminiscent,less 'documentary'. It researches the family history of people who know they have Welsh ancestry but don't know very much about it. It gives them the opportunity to visit where their family came from in a much more soft approach.
it is also visually beautiful programme.
People who have been on it, include Alison Steadman. Trevor Eve( who changed his name professionally from the Wesh spelling of Trefor), Michael York. Olivia Newton John . Donny Osmond .

Catch it if you can!

Who knows they may ask Rufus one day.