Who Do You Think You Are? The Complete Fifth Series   Starring: Patsy Kensit, Boris Johnson, Jerry Springer, Esther Rantzen, Ainsley Harriott, David Sucher, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Jodie Kidd Acorn Media UK RRP: £24.99 AV9767 Certificate: E Available 01 February 2010

The complete fifth series of Who Do You Think You Are? features an all-star line-up of Patsy Kensit, Boris Johnson, Jerry Springer, Esther Rantzen, Ainsley Harriott, David Suchet, Jodie Kidd and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. One star exposes a scandalous Baronet and a pilgrim heritage, while another finds her roots amidst criminals and curates; another starts with silver and ends up in diamonds; and one in particular is ever so pleased to find not only a heroic journalist but blue-blood royalty amongst his forebears...

Who Do You Think You Are?: The Complete Fifth Series continues the popular show 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 educate 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 in 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.

Obviously, whether you enjoy this release is more down to whether you like the personalities who are featured than what secrets they uncover. If you find Ainsley Harriott annoying, or Boris Johnson to be a bit of a buffoon, you may not want to sit through their episodes. Equally, watching David Suchet walking around without Poirot's trademark handlebar moustache and silly accent may also prove distracting.

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 text based Celebrity Biographies and Useful Links (which give you some useful starting points if you fancy tracing your own family tree).

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Darren Rea