TV Review: Who Do You Think You Are?, BBC One, Wednesday 20 August, 9pm
What do I think of Boris Johnson? My personal opinion is that as a politician he sucks. I was outraged and ashamed that such a person was voted in as London Mayor. As a person who appears on TV from time-to-time, he's good to watch. He's very clever, very posh and, sometimes, very stupid (although I'm pretty sure he just puts that on). As a subject for WDYTYA? I wondered what there was to tell. But, of course, every family has a story to tell, and it turns out the Johnsons have many, many stories to tell. They were told last night, and they were extraordinary.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. That's his real, unexpurgated name. It sounds rather grand and, after the first scene (where Boz reveals that his ancestry is a mongrel mix of German, French, English, Russian, Georgian, Lithuanian and Lord knows what else) you realised that there was possibly more to this man than general buffoonery and stupid hair.
We were told, by redoubtable voiceover man Mark Strong, that Boris has a high percentage of Turkish genes coursing through body. This revelation accompanied a picture of young Boris, looking like a Dulux dog (so luxuriously face covering and blonde as it was.. click here for a picture of the canine equivalent of the young Boris Johnson).
So anyway. Boris's grandfather, Ali Kemal, was Turkish. It wasn't until Ali's daughter's grandmother (Margaret Johnson) came to England with the family that she changed the name to the more English Johnson. Throughout his childhood, Boris had always been told that Ali had met an untimely death and wanted to find out what had happened to him.
It was an extraordinary story. It turned out that Ali was a high-profile journalist who, at the start of the 20th century, was railing against the Nationalist government - he wasn't that impressed when they promised revolution and delivered something very different. Boris saw these views first-hand when he visited a newspaper archive and was shown one of Ali's articles and a byline. Boris punched the air in triumph and was visibly proud that one of his recent ancestors fought for what he believed in.
Ali's story didn't end there though. He became a marked man and, sitting on a veranda overlooking the ocean, Boris read out a letter written by Ali's daughter, which described what happened when her father came in late one night. It described Ali, holding his head in his hands, telling his wife and mother-in-law that his name had been added to a list of men who were to be hanged, by order of the Nationalists. Ali knew he had to get out fast, and managed to smuggle himself to France. The rest of the men on the list weren't so lucky - they were hanged soon after. This was pretty amazing and dramatic stuff, and would have left many adults in tears. Typically, Boris let out a, "cripes" and a "stone the crows".
Ali's story ended brutally. After World War I, a government set up by the victorious Allies had asked Ali to become a part of it. As Minister for the Interior, he cracked down on the Nationalists who had so nearly hanged him before the war. One of them was Mustafa Kemal, who would go on to become Father of the new Turkey and a revered, saint-like figure. Back then, Ali was deeply opposed to him and his movement and finding an historian to talk about the feud proved to be difficult, even in 21st century Turkey.
It was left to Boris's cousin to reveal the ultimate end of Ali. After the Nationalists rose to power again, with Mustafa Kemal at the helm, Ali was brought in for interrogation. He explained his grievances, but when he left the building the baying crowd lynched him. Boris was shown on actual picture of his great grandfather hanging from a tree. "Bastards," murmured a visibly shaken Boz.
An amazing story and, despite modern Turkey frowning on Ali because of his anti-Nationalist doings, Boris was (I thought rightly) proud of his great grandfather.
I needed a cup of tea after all that, but it was straight on to his grandmother's side of the family for more incredible revelations. Granny Butter, as she was affectionately named, was part of the De Pfeffel family, and had always claimed that they were supremely posh. She had had the De Pfeffel silver to prove it.
Boris had always thought that the De Pfeffels were French, but a death certificate of his grandmother's great grandfather, Baron Charles De Pfeffel ("Eurotoff," as Boris describes him), placed him in Germany. Boris joked it was time to reclaim his title, so it was off to Munich to find out just how posh his ancestors were.
He found they were indeed hugely posh. Back in 1828, the De Pfeffels had a coat of arms and everything. Boris was impressed, but the De Pfeffels' story didn't end there.
There were no records of Karoline Von Rothenburg, wife of Charles. With a little bit of digging, he found out that she was the daughter of an actress. Boris was desperate to know what happened, and wanted to know who the father was. It was off to the small, inconspicuous town of Aufsberg to see where Charles and Karoline got married - an odd, low-key choice of location for such an important bloke. The mystery deepened when it was revealed that the bishop kept all records of the marriage. This intrigued Boris even more, and he speculated that it was a cover up, perhaps because Caroline was pregnant. But why cover it up? Or, as Boris asked: "Who's go their tits in the wringer. Who has political capital in this?"
The answers soon came. "Ich habe eine mystery gecracked!" Boris shouted when Karoline's father was revealed to be the Prince Paul Von Wurttemberg, younger brother to the King of the state of Wurttemberg. Not only did Boris find out that it was Karoline's mother who insisted the relationship be kept non-marital, Karoline received some silver from the King when she asked for some money... the same family silver that Boris grew up with at Granny Butter's place. Amazing.
Quite naturally, Boris wanted to check where his new, royal descedents lived. He went to check out the Von Wurttemberg's castle, which had him purring at its granduer. "Here we are... back at the family home. I'm sure they know I'm coming. Look at that schloss! A stonking great schloss! Das ist ein schloss," he chuckles.
King Frederick was the first Wurttemberg King, and as he was being shown through Frederick's apartments, more details emerged - in the gallery there were portraits of all the ancestors, and Frederick's wife was part of the Hanover line. Also part of the Hanover line is the British royal family, and Boris stood stupefied as the wonderfully camp and sarcastic historian revealed that his great grandfather eight times removed was George II, King Of England. Cripes indeed.
"I've always deeply suspected this, of course," Boris spluttered. If that news wasn't jaw-dropping enough, it turned out that Boris is a descendent to all European royal houses - the Swedish, the Dutch, the Prussians, the Romanovs. Due to the illegitimacy of Karoline, he's not dynastically related to the royals but it's still pretty amazing.
I'm going into enormous detail with this review because there was so much to get your head around in last night's episode. As much as I would have liked to have seen the look on Boris's face if he had found out that all his ancestors were peasants ne'er do wells, the stories he uncovered were absolutely sensational. Boris was funny, stupid (he did that Steve McClaren thing of trying to adopt the language of whoever he was talking to in whatever country, producing a weird mix of English and, specially, German), and this surely has to go down as one of the most incredible episodes of WDYTYA?
For all our WDYTYA? stuff, go here.
Please tell the BBC continuity announcer that the word is geneAlogy and not geneOlogy as she always pronounces it. This is a very common mistake at the BBC, I have noticed Sandy Toksvig saying it too along with a host of other people who should know better.
Posted by: Maggy Dampier | August 26, 2008 5:15 PM