It's great to see WDYTYA back on our screens, to give a bit of focus to the otherwise lazy, free-flow period of the summer holidays. I will confess, I was looking forward to the episode on Brian Blessed's family because he is always value for money, and tonight's broadcast did not disappoint.
Catch it here on iplayer, if you missed it!
In many ways, the success or failure of any episode of WDYTYA depends entirely not on how interesting the family tree uncovered is, but the personality of the chosen celebrity. Many of them accept at face value what they are told and find it a deeply emotional but not intellectually stimulating experience. There are always some unexpected participants who turn out to be natural historians, always asking the next question and seeking the explanation, the justification, the broader family experience that gives the whole picture; but these are relatively few.
This week, in Brian Blessed, I think the BBC may have struck gold, and found the perfect participant. Brian's persona (and voice!) are larger than life at the best of times, but he got so far inside his family history, talked about the whole family experience, made it into a coherent narrative and then narrated it so well that it felt more real and visceral than any other episode I've seen. In truth, he could make a Tesco receipt sound visceral when read aloud, but he brought something special to this episode of WDYTYA. He truly connected with his ancestors, sitting quietly in the churchyard in Portsmouth where he felt they were at peace after a short, hard, life, and he could feel close to and at peace with them too. The moment when he imagined the marriage ceremony between Barnabus Blessed and Elizabeth Atkinson in 1801 at St Pancras Old Church and intoned the well-know phrase "Barnabus Blessed, do you take Elizabeth for your wife?" was truly affecting; it brought the whole family into sharp relief.
The details of the family too, were well explained and threw up some interesting wider information for the casual historian. Barnabus Blessed was a bookbinder just off the Strand in London, at Bull Inn Court, with his own shop (rented), a wife, a child and a well-heeled clientele. Brian made them seem a real, happy family and hoped for the best for them when they removed to Portsmouth by 1814, following the booming bookbinding trade that the Navy made use of. Sadly, the boom ended and both Elizabeth and Barnabus had died as paupers by November 1822, when their orphaned children (Martha, 14, Barnabus Charles, 8, Jabez, 6 and Elizabeth, 2) were promptly sent back to London to claim Poor Relief in their "home" parish of St Martin in the Fields, even though only Martha had been born there. Sent to the workhouse, the two girls died within weeks, possibly of the same illness that took their father and Barnabus Charles and Jabez were split up.
Little more focus was given to Barnabus Charles Blessed from here on, who was apprenticed to a shoemaker and went on to apparently live a largely blameless and successful but quiet life. However, Jabez Blessed was clearly the personality spark that has been passed down to his great-great-grandson Brian. Jabez dragged himself out of the workhouse (by running away on at least one occasion), and worked on a Newcastle maritime vessel for a period. In 1840 he married Ellen Hobson in Kingston-upon-Hull and by 1851 had established himself as a seller of china and glass in Brigg in Lincolnshire working with his brother-in-law, Thomas Hobson. Jabez and Ellen eventually had 13 children. When he was widowed, Jabez married again in London, from the house of his brother Barnabus Charles, and eventually died in 1890 aged 73. All his 13 children lived to adulthood ( quite unusual for the 19th century) and it was his 6th son, George Jabez Blessed, who continued the line that lead to Brian.
Despite the sadness of some of the tales exposed this evening, the overpowering sense was one of hope that a human being could better themselves - that life could be made to go right, by sheer force of will. Although really, that is the triumph of hope over experience, for one precious hour this evening, Brian Blessed and his booming delivery made the world a more cheerful place with the hope of better things to come.
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