Episode
Who Do You Think You Are?: Marvin Humes
Overview
DJ, presenter and former member of boy band JLS, Marvin Humes delves into his Jamaican and his English heritage, and finds exceptional stories on both sides of the family. Deep in the Jamaican countryside, Marvin's discoveries about the lives of his black ancestors during the time of slavery turn his expectations upside down. In England, Marvin's follows the trail of his great-grandfather about whom he knows almost nothing. But Marvin's research reveals a hero, who overcame a traumatic childhood to play a part in one of the most dramatic events of the Second World War.
Details
- Series
- Who Do You Think You Are?
- Season
- Season 15
- Episode
- Episode 6
- Air date
- 2018-08-06
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
Marvin Humes is Episode 6 in Season 15 of Who Do You Think You Are?. It aired on 2018-08-06. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 5: Shirley Ballas
Strictly Come Dancing's head judge Shirley Ballas investigates a family story that her maternal great-grandmother abandoned her husband and children for a more exciting life in America. What Shirley discovers casts her great-grandmother in a completely new light.
On her father's side, Shirley pursues a rumour that she has black ancestors - a trail which leads her to colonial Cape Town and the era of slave trafficking to South Africa via the Indian Ocean.
Episode 7: Robert Rinder
Robert 'Judge' Rinder follows the story of his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, hearing first-hand testimony of the horror of Nazi forced labour camps as well as of the hope offered by a new life in Lake Windermere.
Investigating the dark mystery surrounding his great-grandfather leads Robert to a small town in Latvia, where he uncovers a story of mental illness and trauma which will ultimately, he hopes, lay some ghosts to rest.
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On his father's side, Jonnie is captivated by his four-times-great-grandmother, branded a 'bad character' in 1841 by a local village policeman. But Jonnie's further research reveals a strong woman prepared to stand up in court and testify against the men who had wronged her.
Episode 3: Lee Mack
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Lee is also curious about his maternal grandad Joe's upbringing - deserted by his unwed mother and raised by his grandparents in County Mayo at the time of the Irish Civil War.
Episode 2: Olivia Colman
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Olivia finds records that reveal Harriot was an orphan in 1811 on a ship bound for England from (then) Calcutta. Harriot's father was an Englishman, but the identity of her mother, who gave birth to her in a remote Indian village, is a mystery Olivia delights in solving.
Episode 1: Michelle Keegan
Our Girl actress Michelle Keegan uncovers some exceptional women on her family tree. On her mother's side Michelle discovers that her Gibraltarian great-grandmother Leonor had to up sticks when all women and children and the elderly were evacuated from harm's way in Gibraltar to the apparent safety of London during the Second World War, a month before the start of the Blitz.Further back, Michelle discovers her great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Kirwan living in poverty in Manchester at the start of the 20th century. Michelle unearths a special connection to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and her great-great-grandmother's commitment to the cause that put her name on the electoral roll - voting for the very first time in 1918.