Who Do You Think You Are | Series 21 Preview (BBC One)

This summer, the esteemed family history show returns to BBC One and iPlayer, celebrating 20 years of delighting and astonishing the nation with Britain’s best-loved celebrities exploring the mysteries of their family trees.

Spanning centuries of history, this series will reveal an extraordinary array of stories from circus antics to embezzlement, a life-changing accident, the Cold War, and stirring tales of triumph against the odds. It will take viewers across the UK and around the world including Ireland, Taiwan, Jamaica and Latvia as the celebrities search for answers. 

In the first episode of the new series, actor Vicky McClure was watched by millions when she played Detective Inspector Kate Fleming, tracking down corrupt coppers in Line of Duty. Now Vicky wants to solve some mysteries in her family tree.

Vicky starts with her late grandmother on her dad’s side, her Nonna Jean. She knows that Jean was given up by her family when she was a child and wants to find out why.

There is also another family story that Vicky wants to get to the bottom of, about her mum’s granddad, Vicky’s great grandfather, Harry Millership. The family knows that Harry died as a Japanese Prisoner of War in World War Two.

Following in her great grandfather’s footsteps, Vicky travels over 6000 miles to Taiwan. To a homebody like Vicky it feels a long way from Nottingham and she can only imagine how harrowing it must have been for her great grandfather Harry as a POW.

Closer to home, presenter, actor and comedian Paddy McGuinness discovers his grandfather’s crucial role during World War Two and investigates his McGuinness surname in Ireland, discovering he nearly wasn’t a McGuinness at all.  

BRIT nominated popstar Olly Murs heads overseas to Riga in Latvia and is delighted to discover his circus performing ancestors, revealing that entertainment does in fact run in his blood.

Former Spice Girl and musical artist Melanie Chisholm (Mel C) unearths a political activist and the story of how her family survived the Great Famine in Ireland. Actor, presenter and disability rights campaigner Rose Ayling-Ellis unveils an incident which uncannily mirrors an episode of EastEnders, having taken place in a pub in Birmingham. 

Elsewhere, emotions run high for Essex-born reality TV royalty Gemma Collins, as she meets a family member she never knew she had and discovers her Essex roots go back even further than she thought. 

Olympic gold medallist and former heptathlon world champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill travels to Jamaica, where she learns about her relative’s journey from being enslaved to owning his own land.  

Simon Young, BBC Head of History, says: “This year we have a stellar line up to mark twenty years of the nation’s favourite social history series. Time and again it proves the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction, while helping us all to understand the history of Britain and the world much better, so it’s clear why our audiences have taken this series to their hearts. I’m so grateful to all the celebrities who have shared their family histories, and to the incredible production team that pulls it all together.”

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? launches w/c 10th August on BBC One.