Comedian Josh Widdicombe embarks on a rollercoaster ride through his extraordinary family history. After a less than promising start with an ancestor who was cut out of the family fortune, Josh is delighted to discover a courtier with very personal access to King Charles I. From there it’s a dizzying journey back to Elizabethan and Tudor nobility by way of a royal love triangle, through an incredible ancestral line that prompts Josh to ask the expert he meets, 'Be honest. As a historian, are you really jealous?'

English

Shakespearean actor, movie star and national treasure Dame Judi Dench's journey begins with her father Reginald Dench, who never spoke of his experiences during the First World War, as she tries to find out how he won his gallantry medals. Judi’s investigations then take a truly epic turn, leading her to 16th-century Denmark and nobility. Judi also discovers, to her delight, some incredible Shakespearean links.

Presenter and former footballer Alex Scott learns about her Jewish ancestry and travels to Jamaica for the first time in her life to find out about her great-great-grandmother.

Comedian and presenter Joe Lycett manages to find humour everywhere, but apart from his Edwardian great grandad – a member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes in Nottingham – Joe uncovers a darker family history. Joe finds out that his two-times-great grandfather Robert Wilkinson was a boy chimney sweep in the 1850s. Joining the Royal Marines, Robert travelled the world; but his involvement in razing villages in China following the Opium Wars leads to alcoholism and a breakdown.

Singer-songwriter and talent show judge Pixie Lott hopes to confirm a family story that she has Italian ancestry from Verona, but instead discovers ancestors battling poverty and hardship in London. On her dad’s side, Pixie learns of her great-grandfather’s harrowing and surprising experience in the First World War. And, wondering if she has any musical genes, Pixie is delighted to discover three generations of military musicians, whose legacy gives her an opportunity to sing with the band of the Household Cavalry.

YouTuber and actor Joe Sugg uncovers some incredible stories in his family tree, with a little help along the way from fellow social media star and big sister, Zoe. Joe, very aptly, discovers a great-great-great-grandfather who was involved in the earliest days of communications technology – in electrical telegraphs. Pushing further back, he finds seven-times-great-grandparents who fled religious persecution in France, and a goldsmith who survived the Great Fire of London.