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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
The complete fourth series of Who Do You Think You Are? features an all-star line-up of Natasha Kaplinsky, John Hurt, Griff Rhys Jones, Carol Vorderman, Alistair McGowan and Graham Norton, and also includes the Nicky Campbell Adoption Special in which Nicky researches the history of his adopted parents to see if shared traits spring from their family tree. One star finds herself related to Polish Jewish Resistance fighters; another finds that his roots are buried in a deeply different culture; while another finds himself embedded in the opium trade before uncovering a Royal connection... Who Do You Think You Are?: The Complete Fourth Series continues the popular series which takes a look at the family trees of some of the UK's most recognisable celebrities. Each episode is pretty formulaic and almost always starts by showing each celebrity in their working environment - I assume so as to inform those that haven't got a clue who they are. I have to admit to finding the whole documentary feel, that is so carefully orchestrated to each episode, to be more than a little stomach churning. I mean, come on. Who is honestly going to believe that we are discovering things with the celebrity? And who is really going to accept that each guest is doing the majority of their own research (with a little help from a researcher)? It's quite obvious that everything has already been researched and planned out well before the cameras start rolling - otherwise we'd have a pretty dull program where each celebrity finds it hard to find anything in their family's history of any real interest. Let's be honest, most people from the last few generations hardly left a mark on the world. Whatever their profession, unless they died in a violent way or committed a crime their exploits were hardly likely to have been recorded in any real way for future generations to glance over. The Nick Campbell Adoption Special (the very title of which sounds like some sort of sick joke) kind of makes a mockery of the whole point of tracing your family tree, as Campbell traces back the roots of his adoptive father's family. It appears that Campbell has already traced back the roots of his real mother's family tree independently as there is a brief explanation of this thrown in to the mix. While Nicky no doubt loves his adoptive family, his real family should have been the focus of this show. But then, as this episode was originally broadcast during an adoption awareness week, you can excuse this. If you can stomach the fake surprise on the celebrities faces when they pretend they are discovering something for the first time then you'll probably enjoy this series. If nothing else, it does show them in more natural surroundings, with their family, which at times is refreshing to see that they are as human as the rest of us. Extras include the text based Celebrity Biographies and Useful Links (in case you fancy tracing your own family tree). 6 Darren Rea Buy this item online
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