Gemma Collins - Why Do You Think You Are?

[LuluBlakey1]

I watched this expecting to turn it off after 10 minutes as I am usually so irritated by her.
Actually watched the whole thing and found her quite likeable at times. She was irritating but in an oddly endearing, genuine, way. She was gloriously awful but at the same time has a bit of nous about her, didn't mind being make-up free on camera for most of the programme, was incredibly badly dressed, could talk to anyone at all and get on with them. She was totally unsnobbish and it was an interesting, sad, story of women being judged and treated badly by men and society and tough lives.
Anyone else watch it?
Along with Olly Murs last week, it is the best of the last series which have been increasingly dull.

The episode with Seb Coe was really interesting and if I recall his journey found an ancestor, a slave owner, in Jamaica. Coe’s personality shone through during the episode and he seemed upset to find details of the slave owner.
I watched the American version with Ashley Judd and her ancestor was one of the pilgrims who left Plymouth to go to America, I’m sure she even visited the prison cell he stayed in before he sailed.

I can't stand GC but, like another poster, I am fascinated by genealogy and always watch WDYTYA, just for the social history that it covers. I feel sorry for Michael Parkinson because, in the early days, the show was always looking for royal connections or connections to famous people or events in history, and his family obviously had nothing of that sort in it. Nowadays, I think the show is far more focused on telling the story of everyday folk and Parkinson's coalmining family could have still told a very interesting story.

Sorry, back to GC. Yeah, the only thing that mildly impressed me about her programme was her willingness to appear make up free, and her warmth towards her long lost family. Beyond that, the episode had very little to say, I thought.

One of my favourite episodes was Nicky Campbell's, but mainly because it ended up crossing paths with my husband's. Richard Osman's was quite interesting too.

Another one who impressed was Mark Wright. I thought he wouldn't have anything between his ears but he was incredibly appreciative and interested in what he discovered.

Jerry Hall's was funny - the incongruity of her travelling Oldham. And loved Kim Cattrall's trip to Liverpool. They don't seem to get celebs of that calibre now but, tbf, they're both Americans really.

I have to say I've found this series a bit dull, with the exception of Olly Murs. I agree, I think they are possibly running out of celebs with interesting stories.

The standouts for me have been Stephen Fry, Danny Dyer, Josh Widdicombe, Rob Rinder and Judi Dench.

I do a lot of family history so love wdytya. This episode was one of the best I've seen in a while. DH refused to watch it with me cos Gemma Collins is so annoying.

But the content of the show and the stuff about her grandmother in particular was really good.

I think doing a mini 3 part series about mental health and the history of the treatment of it, more generally would be a fantastic thing for the BBC to do tbh.

I've always felt that about Mark Wright. There is a little bit more to him than what you would expect. He has a good attitude and comes across as engaged and well mannered.

Haven't seen the Gemma Collins one yet, I very rarely get a chance to watch tv.

I did see Rob Rinder's one and it was very sad (as an aside, the programme he did with Rylan was also very good).

I saw one a while ago and can't remember who it was - one of their descendants was in the army and in doing an exercise, him and a few others drowned in a river. His young wife was left widowed, in army accommodation, with lots of young children. Incredibly sad.

I remember Sarah Jessica Parker's being interesting as it involved the Salem Witch Trials.

Regarding the comments that some celebs' family stories are too boring, do you mean that literally or is it that there are no records beyond birth certificates and census records to expand upon and illustrate their stories? I'm not a regular viewer but they seem to feature other documents, eg newspaper articles, army records etc. So the ancestors weren't necessarily boring in themselves but there weren't any other records or documents that revealed stories about them?

Well I planned to watch Olly Murs on catch up last night and did so, really interesting, although not sure I understood how the Latvian circus dad came back into the life of his son (Olly's grandad? - I really get confused with the relatoinships sometimes), and then ended up taking him to England

Fascinating story about the Soviet days and life then

I had planned to go to sleep after that but it autoplayed onto the Gemma Collins one and once it started I couldnt stop watching, I absolutely loved it, amazing and I really did like her

And who cares if she wore a top you didnt like to visit her family, what a weird comment.

Well, we don’t know, only that the producers declined to take that episode forward after having done some initial research, because there isn’t enough ‘narrative’.

Yes, one of the things it could mean is that there are simply no additional records about enough of your ancestors, other than birth, death or marriage records, for us to be able to spin a story. Of the (admittedly not many) episodes I’ve seen, those dealing with ancestors who are poor and WC, often only have additional information when those people either encountered the criminal justice system (so there were newspaper reports of the trial and prison records, or records of their transportation) or if they ended up in the workhouse.

That was Claire Foy, I think?

I remember Sarah Jessica Parker's being interesting as it involved the Salem Witch Trials. Her episode was like american history bingo! Gold Rush, Mayflower, witches - I really enjoyed that one!

I also seem to recall that Brooke Shields ancestry could be traced back to French Royalty. Sarah Jessica Parker's was fascinating too. I haven't watched the programme in years but might have to catch up!

GC did come across as slightly more bearable than she usually is & glad she found out a little more of her Grandmother’s life which may hopefully help her Mum, the saddest one for me this series was Vicky McClure absolutely horrific what her grandfather endured.

Didn’t watch it, but will now, thank you for posting.
My mum did some research and found some really interesting stuff, mostly we are from wales, but a 5x ggf was a slave in the Caribbean who somehow became a pow in the Nepolionic wars and settled in Kent. It’s such an interesting story, I would also love them to do some ‘normal’ people to get stories like our family’s. We had no idea we had African ancestors, my grandfather must have known but essentially hid it, sad but I guess understandable given the discrimination in the mid 20th century.

The programme didn’t say who she is? Didn’t mention anything at all?

How bizarre.

I also watched it. Think it was the second one I’ve ever made it through. They bore me to tears normally. Melanie Sykes was also a good one. I found myself liking Gemma. Much to my surprise.

Totally agree about doing non celeb version - I could fill a couple of series in my own.

My great great uncle, for example, was involved in a tragic accident in the late 19th c in which he accidentally shot and killed a friend of his - they were both 20. A distant cousin drowned in the Thames aged 15, they found an empty sardine tin on the bank, full of minnows he'd fished from the river.

My latest revelation has been the story of a great grandfather whose stepfather was so keen to get him out of the way, he accused him of stealing. He spent 3 weeks in Reading Gaol before being sent to a secure 'farm school' for 4 years. He was 11.

Anyone see the BBC genealogy programme a few years ago which looked at how different branches of a family had advanced or not. One family was descended from a woman (I think) who was transported to Australia, her descendants now live in Tasmania and were related to the PM. Another branch of the same family had remained in the UK and weren’t particularly well off. I vaguely remember one programme which looked at how the descendants of a woman who’d tried to drown herself and her child in the Thames had done. Really really thought provoking, especially about how mental illness etc can affect folk further down the line.

My father has done some research into our family tree on his side, and my mother's. He has gone back quite a long way but found nothing that would vaguely make a TV programme, noone outside of southern England, all with very regular jobs, no oddities in terms of dates or ages. Maybe their researchers are good at finding unusual things but I definitely think I would be rejected after initially being invited onto WDYTYA.

On the other hand, it always interests me that they pick on one branch and there are obviously many, many more potential routes to take with the widening of the tree and perhaps we do all have something if you know which route to delve hard into.

The Danny Dyer episode was mesmerising but seemed in a different style to all the other episodes. Tbf Dyer comes across in everything as a cartoon character. I have a ludicrous fantasy that he actually speaks like Eddie Redmayne or Alexander Armstrong and his whole persona is a very elaborate post modern joke.

I love the GC anyway (she was also very good in conversation with the psychiatrist woman a few years back so i know she is very different away from her GC persona)

This was fascinating - especially all the schizophrenia stuff.

Yes, she came into the public eye on The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) where she was cast as being very unlucky in love and always trying to lose weight. She cultivated a diva type persona on there and went on to be on celebrity jungle (where she went home shortly after arrival!) and pops up on tv as a host, panel shows etc.

I really like her. She's funny and it's all an act.

I'm not sure she is thick. She is a business woman. She has made a fortune out of that image. Her in real life is very different. I would call that clever!

Mandy saligari!! That is the name of the psychotherapist GC talked to on a ch5 progrsmme called 'celebs in therapy'