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Genealogy
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Do you really care what your ancestors did? Watching Patsy Kensit just now and...

149 replies

PeaMcLean · 13/08/2008 21:56

wondering why she's getting soooo emotional about what someone did 200 years ago.

Now, I am only half watching, and I am interested in what my ancestors did, but I don't think it would move me to tears.

She seems to really think that what her ancestors does somehow reflects on her.

Am I odd in thinking that who your great great great great great grandad was does not impact on who you are today.

OP posts:
edam · 13/08/2008 22:57

Dilly

I guess the celebs are a way into the family history.

DillyTanty · 13/08/2008 22:59

i've seen it. you haven't.

i'll be watching the jerry springer one tomorrow, will report back.

tbh regardless of the editing i have NEVER seen anyone as emotionally incontinent on that show before, it happened at every single reveal, i fail to see how they could have cut it, she couldn't keep it together even once.

WilfSell · 13/08/2008 23:00

I think it is good history: they focus on different themes to illustrate key historical issues and that is great.

But it also satisfies our thirst for human interest. Who didn't like Paxo and Fry EVEN MORE when they blubbed at the misfortune of suddenly real people? And god, even Baddiel and Oddie seemed less robotic.

Great telly.

And I suppose this week (were the editing team just double bluffing us?) really did just show the real vacuous bint person that is Poutsy?

BigBadMousey · 13/08/2008 23:00

Yeah - that's why I was MNing instead but from the bits I saw she seemed pretty genuine to me.

embarrasing fact - I had to ask DH who she was (he went to school with her) because all I knew was that she was married one of the twats brothers from Oasis.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 13/08/2008 23:01

Well, the show is called "Who Do You Think You Are"...........

It's like a historical schleb reality tv thing innit?

WilfSell · 13/08/2008 23:01

You can nick that erudition Dilly. If you need to like.

Original poster
PeaMcLean · 13/08/2008 23:01

Ranting, I can appreciate where you're coming from. Though in comparison to the nazis, the krays are fairly small fry, so I'd have less sympathy for her. And (I'm guessing you're Jewish?) being Jewish means a whole history of prejudice as opposed to being "Patsy Kensit".

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WilfSell · 13/08/2008 23:02

Oh god yes she is genuine. But she is just genuinely vacuous.

WilyWombat · 13/08/2008 23:03

I really dont swallow the bit about her "learning" about her father's past - im fairly sure that is something she has always known. I can remember yeeears ago (decades in fact) when she was in a rather dodgy group Eigth Wonder with her brother the gangland connections were mentioned at that time - dont the Kemp brothers from Spandau Ballet have similar connections?

She does mildly annoy me though as shes never struck me as the sharpest pencil in the box

ranting · 13/08/2008 23:04

Ah I see PM, (yes there is Jewish connections although my dads dad fought for the nazis, too complicated by far that family) but, my point was that sometimes what your ancestors did, can shape how your family are iyswim.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 13/08/2008 23:04

genuinely vacuuous is perfectly acceptable

themildmanneredjanitor · 13/08/2008 23:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Heated · 13/08/2008 23:05

There are lots of skeletons in the family closet on both sides & plenty of 'bad blood' - one was hung, drawn and quartered for plotting treason against the monarch.

Given both Patsy's parents are now dead and needing a sense of self, I can understand her emotion.

HappypillsGalore · 13/08/2008 23:05

yes graham norton, thats it.
he was good
i liked that one.
i liked how he said he was always made to feel somehow 'lees irish' grwing up as a prod in ireland.
then when he learned his history, he found out why.
duuuuuuuhhhh.
but he was great. i like him.

edam · 13/08/2008 23:05

I think the Kemps played Ronnie and Reggie, don't know if there was any RL link.

DillyTanty · 13/08/2008 23:05

exactly. sincerely, utterly, heartfeltly thick. and fair play to her, she's done Very Well off it. i'm pleased for her, i just don't think she was very good on that show because i, like edam, was very pissed off that she never asked the question about the beadle's son doing the dirty on the girl he got up the stick.

and thank you wilf... an excellent summary of why it's normally such compelling television.
i love tv. really i do.

Heated · 13/08/2008 23:06

What was so moving about the Paxman episode?
I missed that one

pointydog · 13/08/2008 23:07

Well, I say this through gritted teeth but I did sort of understand Patsy's emotion. I was hoping she'd be a blubbering incredulous mess but she held it together, even if that was thanks to the botox.

One of my aunties got some family research carried out and I found it really interesting and quite moving to imagine these people and their connection to my mum and aunties and uncles. It makes you think a lot about your own parents who you do know rather than a man who lived 200 years ago.

ranting · 13/08/2008 23:08

The Kemps grew up in Islington, (on the Hackney /Islington border) don't think they had connections, as in gangland.

DillyTanty · 13/08/2008 23:09

the bill oddie one was HUGE i thought, just devastating. AND he was a bit of a weirdo i thought... so it all fitted nicely.

and ranting, that's the ordinary stories i find amazing tbh. although i recall finding natasha kaplinsky irritating as well because some tear-filled shots had to be set-ups. although an AMAZING story. nothing about patsy's story was that brill imo.

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PeaMcLean · 13/08/2008 23:10

ranting, fair enough, they can shape who you are. I guess I'm comign frm the point of view of someone who has one (maybe two) dodgy rellies and I've had people try and suggest I'm tarnished with the same brush. Their behaviours are nothing to do with me. Curious though, and interesting. Doesn't make you bad though.

OP posts:
Mamazon · 13/08/2008 23:10

edam i can happily say that you are perfectly safe deabting with me.
I am far more likely to stomp off with a sulk than "send the boys round"

WilfSell · 13/08/2008 23:10

Paxo was genuinely horrified by the relentless injustice of a woman with no hope having no husband and IIRC many members of her family cut down by TB and poverty: child after child died.

Paxman was quietly but dramatically distraught at its horror. He almost couldn't cope.

Some of the attraction was the contrast with his normal privacy. Gripping but still, incredibly revealing about turn of the century poverty in the flesh.

pointydog · 13/08/2008 23:11

so what was it with oddie? What was the drama?

DillyTanty · 13/08/2008 23:11

ranting, did you see ep 2 of the vanessa engels doc The Jews? the rest weren't great, but there was one doc on how parents who'd been in the camps had gone on to treat their children. really interesting, kinda much as you'd expect in that they were mostly wrapped in cotton wool but it seemed to result in generations of fearfulness. (not unsurprisingly, of course, but it was v interesting).