A group of celebrities are to trace their family ancestry for a major BBC2 interactive series, which is being billed as next year's Restoration, writes Leigh Holmwood.
The pitch for the 10 x 60-minute series was won by indie Wall to Wall following a three-way contest between the BBC's in-house documentaries and contemporary factual department and another leading indie after all three submitted similar ideas.
Meet My Ancestors will see 10 well-known people tracing their family trees. The series will also have an interactive element although BBC2 controller Jane Root, who commissioned the project, told Broadcast it would not involve voting like BBC2's other big events such as Great Britons and The Big Read. "It will do for genealogy what The Big Read did for reading," she said.
Wall to Wall chief executive Alex Graham said he hoped the series could expand too. "If we have got something really strong there is a chance to build a genuine cross-platform multi-media event," he said. "It is not just about well-known people tracing their family history - it will tell us a lot about how Britain has changed."
The series, which is due to air later next year, will be series produced by Victoria Watson and series edited by Ben Gale. Graham and Alex West will executive produce.
Broadcast Thursday 2nd October 2003
