Who Do You Think You Are?

A family history well worth tuning in for
Michael-Moran1Venerable BBC staple Who Do You Think You Are? has been lumbering on, it seems, almost for ever. The format was never exactly gripping. Genealogy isn’t a spectator sport. After a somewhat routine start the format quickly got tired and it would need a very special guest to persuade me to recommend an episode to you today.

Well, guess what… The producers have found an excellent, perhaps a perfect, subject. From a colourful, exotic background, Marianne Faithfull leaped to the epicentre of the Swinging Sixties In Crowd. Her celebrated relationship with Mick Jagger soured at the end of that turbulent decade though, and Faithfull spiralled into a near-fatal decline.

This absorbing journey of discovery fills in some of the gaps in that exotic background and as it does so offers some insight into what made Marianne Faithfull a survivor.

Cutting a broad sweep through history from the ‘Cabaret’ era of the Weimar republic through book-burnings, the Anschluss and the secret resistance against Hitler, right up to the early days of Swinging London, it’s a remarkable journey.

It’s interesting, too, how the delve into the past unpicks some classic maternal myth-building on the way.

NOT TO BE MISSED

Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 6.50pm, Sat)
The reality show it’s OK to like settles into a new run. More Generation Game than Come Dancing it’s honest family fun.

Pat & Cabbage (ITV, 8.30pm, Thurs)
Good-natured silliness from Barbara Flynn as Pat and Cherie Lunghi as Cabbage. They are getting older, but no one can tell them when to grow up.

Vera (ITV, 9pm, Sun)
I’m not sure there’s been a better-pitched Sunday-night TV show since the Inspector Morse era. And Vera’s audience keeps growing.