Who Do You Think You Are? (Irish TV series)

Who Do You Think You Are?
Genre	Documentary
Directed by	Ingrid Gargan Imogen Murphy Mark Warren Gerry Hoban
Narrated by	Arthur Riordan[1]
Composer(s)	Mark Sayer- Wade
Country of origin	Ireland
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steve Carson Miriam O'Callaghan
Producer(s)	Isobel Nolan Marie Eschenbach
Editor(s)	Gerry Hoban
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Mint Productions
Release
Original network	RTÉ One
Original release	15 September 2008[2] – 19 October 2009
Chronology
Related shows	British version of Who Do You Think You Are?
External links
Website

Who Do You Think You Are? is an Irish genealogy documentary series that first aired on RTÉ One in 2008. It is made by the production company Mint. In each episode, a celebrity goes on a journey to trace his or her family tree. The series is based on the original version of the franchise, broadcast by the BBC in the United Kingdom.

Notable discoveries

In the first episode, RTÉ news reporter Charlie Bird discovered his great-great-grandfather had been involved in the Battle of the Nile (1798) and served under Admiral Nelson himself, whilst Bird also discovered that his grandfather was a bigamist.^[3]

In the fifth episode, RTÉ presenter Pamela Flood travelled through "19th-century Dublin, taking in red light districts, millionaire solicitors, pawnbrokers, contested wills, illegitimate children and murder". She met historian David Nolan, who has written a history of Corballis House, where her granny was sent to stay; they subsequently discovered she was born out of wedlock.^[4]

In the first episode of the second series Ryan Tubridy discovered he was a descendant of Edward III.^[5]

List of episodes

First series

Second series

Response

The first series was criticised for its attempts to mimic the original BBC version. The Irish Independent remarked that: "Our [the Irish nation] pool of talent is so small that the entire country knows exactly what Charlie Bird's lifestyle and personal circumstances are. He is an RTÉ "personality", to be wheeled out in each and every situation ... ad nauseam. He is meant to be a working journalist, not a personality star. It muddies the waters of credibility when supposedly serious journalists become personality acts".^[6]

Just before the first episode was broadcast, the Evening Herald ironically compared RTÉ's "awkwardly titled" Where Was Your Family During the Famine? (also broadcast in 2008), in which celebrities traced their family histories back to the darkest period in Ireland's history, to the BBC version.^[7]

Mention was also made of the high proportion of RTÉ employees involved in the series (Bird is a news reporter, Duffy a radio broadcaster, Flood a television presenter and Martin appears frequently on RTÉ), with a suggestion that the series ought to be renamed Who Do RTÉ Personalities Think They Are?^[8]

References

External links

• Official website (archive link)