Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

WDYTYA? - Kim Cattrall

51 replies

TwoIfBySea · 12/08/2009 22:00

Is anyone else watching this? A really amazing and heartbreaking story for her mum and aunts. What a selfish swine of a man to do that to them. I wonder if they would feel better not have knowing he had another family who he loved while they were suffering.

OP posts:
Tinker · 12/08/2009 23:58

Yes, I would have liked to have heard how KC's mum and sisters moved on and out? Education? Her mum and dad obviously emigrated when it was easier to do so but her aunties were younger than her mum? Not sure but, if so, they may have benefitted from 1945 Education Act.

HarrietTheSpy · 13/08/2009 01:15

Winetime - your story sounds fascinating too. Would love to hear more.

I've just watched it for the second time tonight. I had the strong suspicion that we've only heard part of this guy's story. I don't believe that the family in Derby never heard from him again. I had to watch it again just to see his sister's reactions. There was just something that didn't seem quite right and I would love to know how Kim felt about it when she was speaking to them. Too many leading questions though!!

iMissEdith I agree completely that it must have been some major event that drove him off suddenly. Something happened to trigger that - wouldn't it be fascinating to know what.

Do you know I bet he was the sort of person who felt LET DOWN by his mother/family when they said no, you shouldn't leave them. If this is true. I wonder if the mother did sort of neutrally say, well do what you have to do. Why else wouldn't they have been in touch all those years with his wife and children or only vaguely in touch? That newspaper article was outrageous. I reckon there's some guilt there.

Sorry, I'm clearly fascinated with this topic, I've probably lost you all!

GetOrfMoiLand · 13/08/2009 09:38

I agree it was asbolutely fascinating, me and DP were watching the end with tears rolling down both our faces!

I thought it was very touching when the lovely old dear from Durham (her grandfather's sister-in-law) said to Kim 'Now would you like a cup of tea'. Bless her.

Kim and her mum and aunts came out of this very well. What a nice bunch they seem. I Certainly didn't expect her to be as warm and unstarry as she appeared, I thought she would be a bit of a diva. Agree also that she is stunning, and looks far better last night than she appeared in the SATC film.

What a fascinatig story. Really rivetting TV.

bran · 13/08/2009 11:06

I strongly suspect that my great grandfather did the same thing. He emigrated to America from Ireland as a young man and then came back to Ireland in his 40s, married and had children. But the kind of man that seemed to be I really feel that it's unlikely that he was celibate until he moved back to Ireland, even if he didn't actually marry someone in the States I bet he had children that he just left behind when he moved home.

There must have been some falling out between Kim's grandmother and her inlaws. Liverpool is not so big that she couldn't have kept in contact. I did feel that that relationship was glossed over in the programme.

PortAndLemon · 13/08/2009 11:19

I do think his family never heard from him again -- he was committing a crime (bigamy) and went to the trouble of cutting himself out of the wedding pictures so was hardly going to jeopardise all of that, and his nice cosy new life by turning up on his mother's doorstep. I think in order to do what he did he must have just sealed up all the pre-1938 part of his life and pretended even to himself that it didn't happen.

I am interested in what happened between Kim's grandmother and her inlaws, though. Sadly I can entirely see it being as simple as each being too proud to get in touch with the other and those positions getting more entrenched (each side thinking "well, if they wanted to get in touch they'd have done it by now") as time went on. But there may have been more to it...

bran, have you looked for him on the US censuses? It might be interesting to know, even if of no practical relevance now...

iMissEdith · 13/08/2009 11:22

Agree Bran - there was definitely more to that part of the story. P&L it could be that simple though, couldn't it?

bran · 13/08/2009 11:27

Is that easy to do P&L? Funnily enough, although our surname is relatively rare in Ireland especially with our spelling, it's more common on the West coast of America (possibly because some of them are his descendents).

I keep thinking I should do something about looking up his history. He was well known at the time, his (and my) surname was commonly used as slang for an angry bare-knuckle brawl up until the 1950's. I've even heard it used myself in a film from the time.

poshsinglemum · 13/08/2009 11:31

It made me feel so angry and emotional and reminded me off dds dad.

PortAndLemon · 13/08/2009 11:42

Searching the US census up to 1930 is pretty easy to do if you have a full worldwide ancestry subscription. How easy it is to look up other records depends on the state, though.

PortAndLemon · 13/08/2009 11:46
bran · 13/08/2009 12:17

You won't have heard it used P&L, it was a Californian thing only I think. According to my Dad the slang was definitely rooted from my great-grandfather, but the name is so much more common in the States that it could have been based on some other person.

bran · 13/08/2009 12:21

Oh and a clue for the name, John Wayne made a film in 1975 where he played the title role, and the title is the more common spelling of my surname.

sfxmum · 13/08/2009 12:35

there have been many touching and interesting episodes and last this was one of them

she did come across as a 'full person'

my least favourites are still the Jeremy Irons episode utter idiot shallow ponce, and a runner I can't recall his name, the history was fascinating but is complete lack of empathy with his ancestors was odd he came across as a shallow person

bran · 13/08/2009 12:45

Some of them are really quite dull. I was expecting the David Mitchell episode to be good, and he was quite watchable but his family history was a bit of a yawn.

lizzy77 · 13/08/2009 14:07

I really don't like this show because the celebs just come across as false to me. But who would've thought it that a Hollywood star would come across as more likeable and genuine than all our so called stars. Kim really seemed like a lovely woman. Can't wait for the next Sex and the City film!

CybilLiberty · 13/08/2009 14:09

Great programme and she looked FAB in all her outfits. I was covetting her oversized bag and funky grey leather jacket

vonsudenfedhatespauldacre · 13/08/2009 14:14

There was something that seemed to be a bit fudged though. The impression I got, when they mentioned that the first child of his second family was born in Manchester, was that there was some cross-over between the two, and that child was born while he was still in Liverpool. Or am I misunderstanding that?

CybilLiberty · 13/08/2009 14:15

There was a year between him leaving his first family and remarrying. he stayed in Manchester, not stowed away to NYC as they had thought.

vonsudenfedhatespauldacre · 13/08/2009 14:19

Yes, and he married in Durham at the end of that year.

So, either they married in Durham and moved back to M'cr and then eldest child born. Or, eldest child born in Manchester out of wedlock, chances are there was some crossover...

It's just the fact that they were being a bit cagey about dates and things, made me wonder whether there were things they had decided not to tell the first family.

MrsFlittersnoop · 13/08/2009 14:27

As far as I can work out:

He left his first family and vanished in 1938.

He went to Manchester where he met Isabella, and their first child was born in Manchester - BEFORE he married her.

They returned to her home village in County Durham where they got married in 1939 and lived for the next 20 years and had 3 more children.

I think this wasn't stated openly on the programme because there is still a stigma around illegitmacy for members of that generation, even when the parents went on to marry later. It wouldn't be something that a family would feel comfortable acknowleging, even if it had been quietly accepted at the time.

The irony is that all the children of his second marriage were illegitimate because the marriage was bigamous.

vonsudenfedhatespauldacre · 13/08/2009 14:29

Yes, that sort of works - but means she has to get pregnant very quickly. Is anyone a member of a genealogy site, as it would be pretty easy to call up Irene Baugh and find out when she was born...

As I said, it all felt a bit fudged (for example, they didn't mention the date of the Register of Voters they were using) and so I think there may be a bit more to it.

MsBrandybuck · 13/08/2009 23:25

I've just watched this episode - found it one of the best so far.

For those of you wondering about the timing of the second marriage: It took place in Durham in the September Quarter of 1939. The eldest daughter's birth was registered in Stockport between July & September the following year.

PortAndLemon · 14/08/2009 00:18

So sounds as though George went from Liverpool to Manchester in 1938, where he met Isabella. They went back to her parents' parish to marry in 1939 but were still living in Manchester/Stockport, so that was where Irene was born. Then they actually moved to Durham long-term and the other children were born there.

SleepWhenImDead · 14/08/2009 12:50

I too was rivetted by the programme, just watched it this morning as I'd recorded it. It was harrowing watching the sisters' reaction to the truth at the end. I did wonder whether the revelations would help them or give them more pain. How terrible to see your father with another family on holiday when you had been left in such abject poverty. I too want to know how they all managed to do well and all leave the country - sounds like their mother was a fighter and did the best for her girls in very difficult circumstances. I thought Kim came over so genuine and as it was such a close relative that she was finding out about, it seemed so much more personal than the other WDYTYA stories.

Babyramone · 14/08/2009 19:13

Bran
Is it Chisholm.