BBC genealogy show bought by NBC

[WritersBlock]

NBC is to make a US version of the hit BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, which will be co-executive produced by Friends star Lisa Kudrow.

The US network has ordered a series of the format from its UK producer Wall to Wall, which was recently bought by Shed, the company behind Footballers' Wives and Rock Rivals, although it is thought to be dependent on finding suitable celebrities to appear in it.

Producers are researching the family trees of several interested candidates to see if they have compelling enough backgrounds.

In the UK version, which began life on BBC2 before transferring to BBC1, celebrities ranging from Natasha Kaplinsky and Jeremy Paxman to Stephen Fry and Moira Stuart have taken part.

more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/11/television.bbc?gusrc=rss&feed=media

[iverglas]

1. CBC has recently done a short series

I've never seen the BBC show, but people there love it.

The Canadians profiled on the CBC series were:

http://www.cbc.ca/whodoyouthinkyouare/

Avi Lewis -- journalist, husband of Naomi Klein, scion of big NDP family
Margaret Trudeau -- wife of
Measha Brueggergosman -- opera singer
Don Cherry -- obnoxious hockey broadcaster
Scott Thompson -- Kids in the Hall
Randy Bachman -- The Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive
Mary Walsh -- comedian
Gen. Lewis Mackenzie -- of former Yugoslavia fame
Chantal Kreviazuk -- singer
Sonja Smits -- actor
Stephen Page -- Barenaked Ladies
Margot Kidder -- Lois Lane
Shaun Majumder -- comedian

I missed about half of them, but I expect they'll rerun.

They were fascinating -- Margaret Trudeau's mother's family was involved in the famous Raffles hotel in Singapore (where the "Hindu princess" in her family lore came in), Scott Thompson's family came from the village next to where my grx2 grandmother was born in Cornwall, Measha Brueggergosman had DNA testing done to trace her African-American roots (four generations in Canada) to Africa:

To better understand the story of John, Rose and Fanny, Measha heads to what was the last loyalist and free-black stronghold at the end of the Revolution – Staten Island, New York. There, she meets Graham Hodges a historian and specialist in black revolutionary history. During the American Revolution, many slaves were promised freedom in exchange for service in the King's army. Because John Gosman's master had died in 1779, John likely took this opportunity to flee Connecticut to get behind British lines in New York. Rose was also listed as a slave in Rhode Island up until 1779. Somehow they both escaped to New York City and to the British promise of freedom.

At the end of the Revolution, the peace treaty signed by American commander George Washington promised compensation to the American slave-owners who had lost their slaves to the loyalist cause. Each slave, in turn, received a certificate of freedom signed by the British General. Measha’s ancestors would have had one of these passports to freedom and Canada.

Measha's journey ends with a phone call from the DNA lab. She logs onto a webpage that lists all of her genetic matches. The lab has found one person from Cameroon who is an exact match to her brother's Y chromosome. He is from the Bantu-speaking group known as the Bassa, a tribe renowned for its musical traditions. Measha Gosman's ancestors likely came from that part of Africa during the slave trade.

In the end, Measha's investigation into her background reveals exactly what she had hoped for – a profoundly moving story of triumph over adversity by men and women of strength and courage.

I don't doubt that the series to be produced in the US will be just as fascinating. If we can find celebrities with all those varied backgrounds and engrossing tales in this small population, I think you can do it. But I wonder whether it will include anything like Avi Lewis's findings. ;)

Avi's investigation begins with grandfather David Lewis. David died in 1981 when Avi was a teenager. Twenty years after his death, it is revealed in a newspaper article that the RCMP had been closely monitoring David's actions for most of his life in Canada. The RCMP security and intelligence branch file on David has been declassified as per the Access to Information Act. Avi heads to the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa to see it with his own eyes.

(I missed that one! Will be monitoring the rerun line-up closely.)