Who Do You Think You Are? star Vicky McClure: 'It has been a life-changing experience!'

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Who Do You Think You Are? 2024 begins on BBC One on Thursday at 9 pm for its 20th anniversary series and the opening episode finds Vicky McClure delving into her roots to uncover the truth behind two harrowing family stories.

But the Line of Duty and Trigger Point star admits that she was rather wary about what she might find out when she signed up for the genealogy show.

"I don't like the unknown, so I was like, 'What have I done?’," shares the Nottingham-born actor. "You don’t know what anyone’s going to tell you."

Here, we look at the discoveries Vicky McClure made in Who Do You Think You Are?...

A difficult upbringing

Vicky was always close to her beloved late paternal grandmother, "Nonna Jean", and she headed to Jean's birthplace in Grimsby, Lincolnshire as she was keen to find out why Jean was given up as a baby and raised by foster parents who were cruel to her.

“I knew that Nonna Jean was taken in by awful people that treated her badly, it was horrendous,” says Vicky. “But we’d never got to the bottom of why she was abandoned and the story behind it. I was hoping they [her birth family] had a good reason not to keep her.”

Vicky discovered that her great-grandmother Ruby, known as Winnie, already had three older children when she gave birth to Jean in 1925, and that Ruby’s husband, Thomas Compton, a ship’s steward, was not Jean’s father.

“Thomas maybe couldn’t bring up a child that wasn't his. And they didn’t have space. So the most reasonable thing would be to give Nonna Jean away. That breaks my heart. But I think Winnie assumed she was putting her into good hands,” explains Vicky.

“Nonna had such a bad start, so I think she tried to break that chain. She was so loved. I don’t know anyone as jolly as her, she was so into family, so all about love, so happy. And she had a great life. I feel a beautiful connection to her, and I’m sure she’d be pleased we did this. That’s going to leave me and my family with peace.”

Wartime tragedy

Vicky then wanted to investigate the tragic fate of her maternal great-grandfather Harry Millership, and she first visited a Yorkshire colliery to learn about his gruelling work as a coal miner.

"On the 1921 census, Harry was 14 and a collier’s labourer, and he worked in the mines for 18 years. And Charles, his father, was also a coal miner,” she shares. “It was a dangerous job but I’m proud that Harry and his family were working hard. They were tough."

Harry later served with the Army during World War Two and was posted to South East Asia in 1941. But after Singapore, then a British Imperial Territory fell to the Japanese, Harry was captured and eventually sent as a prisoner of war to Taiwan. When Vicky travelled to Taiwan, she was appalled to hear about the brutal conditions in the copper mine where he and his fellow prisoners were forced to work and where he died, aged 35, from a fall, leaving behind five children, including Vicky’s late grandmother Iris.

“He was such a family guy, but didn’t make it home,” says Vicky. “It’s like a horror movie. One account said they were packed “like old boots in a cupboard” [on the boat to Taiwan]. He must have been petrified. And there’s an irony that he worked in a mine again. At every single point, they were tortured. There was no mercy.”

Although finding out what happened to Harry was a harrowing experience, Vicky is honoured to be bringing his story to light.

"For all the action-packed shows I do and the fact I seem hard as nails, I couldn’t be further from that. In Taiwan, I felt far from home and I was learning information that was horrific," she reveals. "But my family kept reminding me, ‘Imagine if Harry had known his great-granddaughter was going to travel all this way in his memory, and he wouldn’t be forgotten.’ And standing in that mine, there was an overwhelming feeling of connection, I know he’s been there. I’m extremely proud to be his great-granddaughter.”

A greater understanding

Vicky’s discoveries have also given her a fresh perspective on the challenges later faced by her grandmother Iris, who was a child when Harry was killed.

“Nonna Iris was a hard character. I didn't have the closest relationship with her because I was probably an annoyingly happy kid. But she was unhappy, and I would be if this had happened to my dad. Maybe this is why she always had a photo of Harry’s grave, it was a heavy burden on her,” reflects Vicky, who now feels even stronger ties to her family, after filling in the gaps in their history.

“The whole thing has been the most incredible, disturbing, life-changing experience. A lot I haven’t found easy, but I hoped I’d have that Millership strength, and I do somewhere!”

The new season of Who Do You Think You Are? begins on Thursday 15 August on BBC One at 9pm and will also be available on BBC iPlayer.