Who Do You Think You Are? is a British genealogy documentary series produced by Wall to Wall Television which delves into the family history of celebrities, tracing their ancestry and revealing secrets and surprises from their pasts.
The series premiered in the UK on the BBC on 12 October, 2004. An eighth season premieres in the UK in 2010. Episodes are an hour in length.
Who Do You Think You Are? originally premiered in South Africa on DStv's Zone Reality channel on Monday 5 March 2007, at 19h00. It later aired on DStv's BBC Knowledge channel, beginning with the fourth season (the first three seasons did not air on BBC Knowledge).
See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 6 premiered on BBC Knowledge on Tuesday 2 March 2010, at 20h30. New episodes air weekly. There are five episodes in the sixth season.
Synopsis
In each episode one of Britain's best-loved celebrities traces their family tree to reveal the surprising, extraordinary and often moving stories of their ancestors.
This is the story of a country told through the extraordinary family histories of popular celebrities. It tells the story of who we are and how we came to be in an original format that for the first time on TV uses genealogy as a way of unlocking history programming.
Each celebrity is chosen so that this or her journey touches a key theme in the country's history.
In a series of self-contained films each star embarks on an intense personal journey to discover their family past. The intention is to expose the real person behind the celebrity, as they come to understand who they truly are, the lives their ancestors lived and their identity and place in their country's history.
Each episode reveals the surprising, extraordinary and often moving stories of our ancestors and offers a new way of producing history programming in a narrative-driven format.
Celebrities
Season 1
1. Bill Oddie
2. Amanda Redman
3. Sue Johnston
4. Jeremy Clarkson
5. Ian Hislop
6. Moira Stuart
7. David Baddiel
8. Lesley Garrett
9. Meera Syal
10. Vic Reeves
Season 2
1. Jeremy Paxman
2. Sheila Hancock
3. Stephen Fry
4. Julian Clary
5. Jane Horrocks
6. Gurinder Chadha
Season 3
1. Barbara Windsor
2. Robert Lindsay
3. Colin Jackson
4. David Tennant
5. David Dickinson
6. Nigella Lawson
7. Jeremy Irons
8. Julia Sawalha
Season 4
1. Natasha Kaplinsky
2. John Hurt
3. Griff Rhys Jones
4. Carol Vorderman
5. Alistair McGowan
6. Graham Norton
7. Sir Matthew Pinsent
Season 5
1. Patsy Kensit
2. Boris Johnson
3. Jerry Springer
4. Esther Rantzen
5. Ainsley Harriott
6. David Suchet
7. Jodie Kidd
8. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Season 6
1. Rory Bremner
2. Fiona Bruce
3. Rick Stein
4. Zoë Wanamaker
5. Kevin Whately
Seasons
Season 1 (10 episodes)
Channel: Zone Reality | Premiere: 5 Mar 2007 | Finale: 16 Mar 2007 | Weekdays, 19h00
Season 2 (6 episodes)
Channel: Zone Reality | Premiere: 14 May 2007 | Finale: 30 May 2007 | Mon/Wed, 20h00
Season 3 (8 episodes)
Did not air in South Africa
Season 4 (7 episodes)
Channel: BBC Knowledge | Premiere: 3 Sep 2008 | Finale: 15 Oct 2008 | Wednesdays, 17h30
Season 5 (8 episodes)
Channel: BBC Knowledge | Premiere: 14 May 2009 | Finale: 2 Jul 2009 | Thursdays, 21h30
Season 6 (5 episodes)
Channel: BBC Knowledge | Premiere: 2 Mar 2010 | Finale: 30 Mar 2010 | Tuesdays, 20h30