Who Do You Think You Are? | |
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Genre | Documentary |
Narrated by |
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Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 110 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company(s) | Wall to Wall |
Release | |
Original network | |
Original release | 12 October 2004 | – present
External links | |
Website |
Who Do You Think You Are? is a British genealogy documentary series that has aired on the BBC since 2004. In each episode, a celebrity traces their family tree. It is made by the production company Wall to Wall. Twelve series have been broadcast, with the twelfth airing from August to October 2015. The show has regularly attracted an audience of more than 6 million viewers. More than ten international adaptations of the show have been produced.
Series one and two were broadcast on BBC Two, and the first was the channel's highest-rating programme of 2004. This led to episodes being shown on BBC One from the third series onwards. The current narrator is Cherie Lunghi. Mark Strong took over from David Morrissey after the first series, which was nominated for "Best Factual Series or Strand" in the 2005 BAFTAs.
In the first series, the last ten minutes of each episode featured presenter Adrian Chiles and genealogical researcher Nick Barratt giving tips on tracing a family tree. In 2007, a special episode was broadcast in conjunction with the BBC's "Family Wanted" campaign featuring Nicky Campbell, who was adopted a few days after he was born.
The theme tune was composed by Mark Sayer-Wade, who also provided the background music for earlier episodes. The music for later episodes is provided by Julian Hamlin and Edmund Jolliffe.
The episode featuring Boris Johnson was filmed and set to air in late 2007, but was pulled because at the time of transmission, Johnson was getting ready to run in the London Mayoral election, so the episode was moved to the following series in 2008.