Yeah, man! It's Sunshine Radio with Marlon McIntyre.
It's 29 degrees out there, and not a cloud in the sky.
Welcome to another day in paradise! One, two, one, two, three and...
SINGER VOCALISES
# Swim in the ocean. #
Ooh, look at that! Beautiful.
Yes, man. Patrick, thank you so much.
My pleasure. Thanks for making it Jamaica.
BOTH: Yeah! All right, man.
NARRATOR: 'Best mates since meeting in the Jungle on I'm A Celeb,
'presenter Sam Thompson and presenter and singer Marvin Humes
'are about to embark on a new kind of adventure -
'their DNA Journey.'
I was the biggest fan of JLS when I was growing up,
and then when I heard his voice come into the camp in Australia
when we were doing I'm A Celeb,
and I heard... I went, "That's Marvin Humes."
We love his energy.
You know, he's a great guy, and he lights up any room that he's in.
'He loves my family, my kids idolise him.'
'I'll speak to Marv, like, three times a day everyday.'
I speak to Rochelle, his wife, all the time.
Rochelle calls him Captain Safety, and it's true,
when we were in the airport on the way over here,
he takes everyone's passports and he like...
He's just, like, he's got a calm, cool head on him.
You having a lovely time? Jamaica is my place now. I adore it.
I feel like we should be here more often.
You should. You should.
It's your first time. It's his first time, Patrick.
First time? Yeah.
I always ask, "What took you so long?"
I don't know. Do you know what? I don't know. I feel the pull.
The moment I landed, didn't I come up to you and... Yeah.
Literally, as we were coming through the gate,
reggae music was playing... Yeah. ..he was instantly relaxed.
# One love is all you need. # All day long.
No, that's Blue. Oh, yeah.
'Obviously, Jamaica's a very special place to me.'
You know, I've got a rich heritage
of culture from Jamaica in my family.
And, you know, my grandma and grandad
were both born here then moved to the UK.
'I know a little bit
'about my Jamaican grandad's side of the family.'
But my grandma's side, we don't really know that much at all.
So, what do you know about your family, your history?
Marvin, I know nothing. Are you serious?
Marvin, I know absolutely nothing. Nothing?
PRODUCER: Why do you know so little?
Why do I not know anything about my history?
Do you know what, I... I really don't know why I haven't asked.
I feel like it's also... when you grow up sort of with...
I was on a show called Made In Chelsea
and, you know, it's the posh thing, right?
So you almost don't wanna know.
You're almost, like, "I just don't wanna know where..."
Cos you kind of... you almost feel, like, a bit bad.
You've never spoke to your mum or dad about...
Never. So, where do you think you're from?
Not a clue. Marvin, I couldn't tell you.
My name is De Courcy Thompson, and I've no idea where it's from,
but I just call myself Thompson cos one, hard to spell,
and two, you sound like a bit of a douche.
De Courcy sounds quite fancy, though.
It does sound fancy.
Mate, we've got a signet ring. We have a signet ring.
There's gonna be a lot to uncover. Yeah, see, it bums me out.
I think there's gonna be twists and turns, mate.
I want a straight line. MARVIN LAUGHS
I want a straight line. Keep us on the straight and narrow!
Don't venture off, don't turn left, don't turn right.
Can't get over how green it looks. Mm. It's very green.
Look at that.
You're not looking properly. I'm looking.
Wow! We're in the thick of it here.
Feel like I recognise this place.
No way. Don't start saying things like that.
No, dude, that spot there. "Gibraltar..."
Gibraltar Primary School... I think.
No, Giblatore! Giblatore!
OK, what I need you to do is walk up the road to Miss Pauline's shop...
Yeah? ..and a historian called Dianne will meet you there.
A historian's gonna meet us there? Oh, my God.
Go on, then, Marv. Remember, I've got you.
Right? I'm with you all the way. You've got my back.
Dianne! Dianne!
Hello.
Ahh! Ahh!
THEY LAUGH Lovely to meet you, Dianne.
It's wonderful meeting you, Marvin. How are you?
You OK? I'm fine.
Good. Good, good, good. I'm absolutely fine.
All right.
I'm very nervous, Dianne. I realise that.
Let me tell you why you're here. Yes.
Well...
way back in the day, your grandmother...
Ruby. ..Ruby...
and Randall, your grandfather, had actually moved here
when they had just got married.
See, I told you. Yeah.
When we were driving here, and I saw we were in Giblatore...
This is mad. ..I said, "I know that name."
Could be the ancestors speaking to him.
THEY LAUGH All right.
Have you ever seen this old family photo?
Yes, I love this picture.
So, that's my grandad Randall... Yep.
..my grandmother Ruby. Wow.
That's my dad, Colin. How can you tell?
Well, cos it looks like my dad. LAUGHING: Oh, right.
What do you remember about your Jamaican family in England?
At the weekends, we'd go to the house,
and my grandad would be cooking fish and dumplings and Saturday soup,
and the home was just filled with love.
That was the essence of a really good Jamaican family.
But actually, that kind of quality, essence,
comes from much earlier.
Oh, really? Yes.
Because when they had actually just moved here,
they actually carried one other person along with them.
Ruby's mother. Your great grandmother.
Wow. Her name was Miss Blanche Williams.
Miss Blanche Williams. Williams.
Blanche was born
way up into the mountains, in 1902.
At the age of 15,
Blanche got up to move to a place called Friendship
with your great-grandfather David James.
We spoke to someone who actually knew your great grandmother. No!
Really? Wow.
She was known significantly for the impeccable way in which she dressed.
Apple doesn't fall far away from the tree there.
And she also had one little quirk about her personality.
Even though she was very quiet, and she was very demure,
she would listen to everything,
and if and when she finally made her statement...
..that was the last statement that needed to be made. OK.
Tell you what as well, interestingly,
you only really speak when there's something to be said.
Yeah, you're right, to be fair.
Yeah, and I've spent a lot of time with Marvin,
like, solitary, together. DIANNE LAUGHS
You make it sound like we've been to prison.
We've been in solitary together! And...
but you do, though, you only say words that need to be spoken.
That is so true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right. Now we are in Friendship,
and the children have started to come.
I want you to take a look at something here.
It's a birth certificate, is it? Yeah.
These are the three children that came before your grandmother.
OK, so the first child... Mm-hm.
..is David. Mm-hm.
And then the second child...
Sylvie? Mm-hm.
When you're looking at it, there is a section
that's there for the father's name.
Yeah. Name and surname and dwelling place of father
and all three...
..are missing. Yes.
Now, this is because they weren't married.
OK. Usually, birth certificates in villages
were registered at the post office.
Now, in normal cases,
the father was the one who would go and inform of the birth.
And so, what is significant
is his name was not even written as informant. Yeah.
Because that then means that he was not standing up
in the way that he should've been standing up,
and that must've been very hurtful to Blanche,
because he was not owning her children.
Yeah.
Now, let us move forward to 1931, when Ruby was born.
Right after that,
David James got up and he left.
And he left for a family that he actually was having concurrently
along with Blanche. Wow.
Well, I know on my...
..grandfather's side,
his father did exactly the same thing.
And I know that my grandfather Randall's mum
unfortunately ended up in a mental hospital
here in Jamaica called Bellevue,
and that's where she died.
That is absolutely devastating. Yeah.
However, Blanche was not that kind of woman.
No. She was not going to be broken by a man.
This woman got up, she went into domestic service,
she did sewing, she did every single thing
she could do to make a future for her children.
She valued education, and she valued the church,
and she instilled these things in her children.
She sounds like an extremely strong woman.
And it's actually funny because when I think of her daughter Ruby,
my grandmother, that's exactly what she was like.
Very strong woman.
The reason that...
Blanche would have been very close to Ruby
is because, in Jamaican parlance, you actually refer
to your very last child as the Wash Belly.
Wash Belly. What does that mean?
I have absolutely no clue.
LAUGHING: OK.
Always the last child is the favourite of a parent.
Especially the mother.
And many times, they will say that when they die,
the Wash Belly will be left on their heart when they die. Aw.
Now, Blanche has...
..one more sacrifice she needs to make
for her daughter and her grandchildren.
But for that, let us head to Kingston Harbour.
Let's go! Kingston Harbour.
I think that was the most intense bit,
which is obviously about the great grandad going away.
But the positive is that it shows, you know,
yeah, the strength that Blanche had.
Oh, here we go. Wait what?
Oh, plot twist.
Why are the cameras there?
PRODUCER: So, we're pulling up, boys,
cos if you look out that window...
Mm. Up there is the house...
SAM GASPS ..that Blanche...
No! ..lived in.
No way. Oh! Bro!
NARRATOR: 'Sam and Marvin are on their DNA Journey in Jamaica.'
That's amazing. Let's go.
Come on, let's go. After you, man.
'Marvin's just discovered his great grandmother,
'Blanche Williams, lived in the mountains in Giblatore
'with his beloved grandparents before they left for the UK.'
Wow. How cool is it to, like...? The connection.
I know, I know, I know. And it's a tiny little house.
And that is where someone so close to you...
Mm. ..lived a vast part of their life.
That's the maddest thing
cos obviously when I think of my grandma and grandad, and like...
You think of England? Yeah, exactly, growing up.
And then I think they would've walked up and down here
every single day.
It's part of life that they experienced
that you weren't a part of.
Yeah.
You've got to get a photo.
Come on, stand there. No, you as well.
What, you want me in it as well? Of course!
All right. Selfie.
Oh, I'm so happy to be part of that! Come on!
So emotional. That's Humes history.
That's Humes history, man. Literally.
To the harbour!
Where we're standing right now is literally the remnants
of the original piers of Kingston Harbour. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, of course. Look at that.
I want to show you some pictures.
Yes. We love pictures, Dianne.
Yeah, so that, obviously, is the pier,
must be that one or that one over there.
Look at them big steam ships. Mm.
Take a look at this one.
WHISPERING: Wow. They look so smart.
Yeah, everyone looks so smart. Yes, they are. Yes, yes.
They're about to embark off on...
..a journey of dreams.
OK, I think I know where you're going.
Ruby and Randall, they too had that same dream.
'From 1948 to 1970,
'there were half-a-million people who left the Caribbean
'dreaming of a better life in Britain,
'most of them coming from Jamaica.
'They were known as the Windrush Generation.
'The British government had invited them over
'to fill the labour shortages after World War II.
'But it was no mean feat to save the money.
'Each ticket cost £40, a sum that could buy a farm in Jamaica,
'making it unaffordable for Ruby and Randall to bring their three kids.'
So, Blanche stepped up.
And stepped up the way she always steps up. Yep.
And she decided that she would look after the three children,
and she would go back to work...
Wow.
..to earn the travel fee to eventually send the little ones over
to their parents once the parents were settled. Wow.
Wow. Really?
Wow.
So that would've been... Your dad?
No, that would've been my uncle Dalbert,
my auntie Lorraine and my auntie Hyacinth. Yes.
But what I want to do is to carry you back in time.
In 1958...
..Blanche is standing there,
on this very pier, with...
her Wash Belly...
Yes. ..Ruby.
Yeah.
She's about to send her off...
..to join Randall... Yeah.
..who had already left,
and she is now standing here in her Sunday best. Yeah.
Ruby's wearing her Sunday best.
But...
..when people left...
they never came back. No.
Blanche is looking at her last-born child...
Yeah. ..knowing...
that the moment she waves goodbye to her...
Yeah.
..she will never see her again.
I can only think of myself being a parent,
which is heart-breaking to think that...
..she would never see her again.
That is huge.
If you think about it, it's like you've survived all the odds,
the guy's gone, you've raised four kids,
you've done everything you can to get them to that position
to go off and find this life,
and then you turn round and you go...
.."I'm alone."
She was an incredible woman. She was an incredible woman.
Without this event happening in 1958...
..I wouldn't be standing here today.
She's the reason.
Every single one of my family back home owe everything to her
for that sacrifice she made...
..on this pier... in 1958.
You know any Jamaican songs?
# Don't worry... # There we go. Wait a minute.
# About a thing Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah, dah
# Cos every little thing Is gonna be all right
# Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah, dah Don't worry
# Dah-dah, dah, dah About a thing
# Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah, dah
# Cos every little thing Is gonna be all right... #
Do you know the verse? # Rise up this morning
# Sounds of the rising sun... # Yes!
# Three little birds... #
Sitting on my doorstep. # Behind my doorstep... #
BOB MARLEY: # Pitched by my doorstep
# Singing sweet songs Of melodies pure and true... #
So, it's been lovely in Jamaica.
We've had a lovely time. Don't say it, Marv. Don't say it.
We've seen all that the island has to offer.
And aside from obviously learning lots about my family...
Yeah. ..I think it's time to pass the baton over.
No, I'm not done.
I don't wanna leave. I love it here. I love it here.
I think we just stay here for a few more days,
see it out, go home.
I'll tell you what, just bottle all of that energy up,
remember everything you've just said.
But in reality, we're going to the airport now.
Back to the UK, because it's about to take a turn.
It can't be as nice and fluffy and rainbows and unicorns
as it's been in Jamaica on this DNA Journey.
There's got to be some twists and turns, mate, and I'm...
I'm sorry to say it,
but it's looking like it's gonna be you. No!
Hello, lads. Oh, no. Oh! Brad!
Hello, how are you, Brad? Are you here to shed some light?
Possibly. OK, OK.
Oh! I love this part of the show.
Brad comes in, and it gets like... It gets real real.
Yeah, he's DNA King. Starts going like that...
He knows all about what's going on.
Yeah, it's been a good journey so far for you both? Oh, mate!
Amazing.
But that's not the end of the Jamaican story.
Oh, really? I knew there was gonna be a twist with you.
How do you know it's me? It could be you.
There's still one ancestor I want to talk a little bit about. OK.
And that ancestor...
..is Sam's four-times great grandfather.
No! Yeah. It's Charles Thompson.
Here in Jamaica. In Jamaica?
Yeah. Hold on a minute, guys.
Wow. This is gonna get deep.
This is gonna get deep.
First half of 1815.
And actually, right here, in Port Royal where we are now.
No way. That doesn't sound good.
It doesn't sound good. That sounds really bad.
So, what do you know about that period in history?
Not much.
Well, we know that... let's be real...
Don't say it, Marv, don't say it.
..slavery wasn't abolished until...
..1838, I believe. Yeah.
Erm...
It couldn't be worse.
We need to let Brad talk. Brad, just go.
So, I've got something for you...
..to look at. OK.
There's a record in here. I want you to take it out and have a look.
Pay close attention to the names at the top of the list.
This is mad. This is tense.
Charles Thompson.
He was a... He was a Major...
He was a Major? Regiment of Foot.
27th of Enniskillen.
I know where Enniskillen is! That's in Ireland.
It is indeed. Is that bad?
No.
Is it? No.
Yes! Yeah! Yes!
Go on, Thompson! Ah!
Whoa! That's amazing.
Ah, he was just a Major! Lovely!
I want to put this into a little bit of context, right.
He was here a couple of times in 1815.
Came and went, came and went.
But he was called away from here to Europe...
..because there was something else going on.
I should know this. I love my history.
Called away to Europe? 1815?
The Battle of Waterloo. Was it?
Charles Thompson played a part in the downfall of Napoleon.
Wow.
Yes! Yes!
Oh, my God. I'm so happy.
Oh, Brad, you really scared me, big guy.
We were all thinking it.
Oh, my God.
But there's a lot more to his story, obviously. Yeah.
Of course, we can't tell that here. We have to go somewhere else.
Enniskillen? We have to go to Northern Ireland.
Yeah! We're off to Enniskillen!
Let's go! Let's go!
NARRATOR: 'Sam and Marvin's DNA Journey
'has brought them to Northern Ireland.'
Oh, what's that? That's a castle.
'The boys have been sent to meet a military expert called Rocky.'
SAM: This is it.
MARVIN: Rocky! Rocky!
Hello, guys. Hello, sir.
How are ya? I'm Marvin. Not too bad.
Pleased to meet you, Marvin. Pleased to meet you, Sam.
Pleasure. Good to see you. Well, welcome to Carrickfergus Castle.
Now, you're probably wondering why we're here today.
Actually, we definitely are.
This great castle was refortified at the turn of the 19th century
in the expectation
that Napoleon Bonaparte was gonna invade Britain. OK.
Now, Sam, your four-times great grandfather...
..Charles Thompson... Yes.
..played a vital role in that invasion never ever happening. Wow.
Would you like to see where he sits on your family tree? Yeah!
By stepping Sam back six generations on his paternal line,
we're able to reveal his four-times great grandfather, Charles Thompson.
Charles was an officer in a very prestigious regiment
in the British Army, called the 27th of Foot regiment,
also known as the Inniskillings.
Yeah. Yes.
And I served 44 years in their successor regiment.
Wow. Amazing.
I did indeed, yeah. Would you like to see a picture of him?
You've got a photo? No way.
Look at that. Good looking bloke, mate!
Wow. That's unreal.
So that would be, like, around 1800, right?
Yep. Here, look. Look at the resemblance, mate.
Yeah, I genuinely think we look the same. That's mad.
It's the chin, cos I've got a baby's bum. Yeah.
Now, every hero, there has to be a villain.
Wait, he's not the villain, is he? No.
Oh! Who's the villain?
For Charles, it was Napoleon Bonaparte.
'By 1806, the power-hungry Napoleon
'had conquered most of mainland Europe
'and declared himself to be Emperor of France.
'Using terror to supress his own people AND democracy,
'he now had a new target in mind.'
The British were desperate to liberate Europe.
But to do that, they needed to get a foothold on European soil.
So the British plan revolved around a small town
in the south of Italy called Maida.
So on the third of July 1806,
Charles and his men, along with 5,000 British forces,
landed by sea three miles from Maida.
Now, battles in them days was fought with armies lining up
in long lines and marching towards each other.
Charles and his regiment, the 27th,
were charged with manning the left flank.
The flanks were vulnerable on the battlefield.
And they were probably given that because of their stellar reputation
and the fighting Irish spirit that they had.
Yeah. And the key to this was to give the order
to fire your weapon at the right time.
These weapons were very, very inaccurate.
And if you fired too early,
you probably would've lost the battle and been killed.
So, Charles is a captain, he was in charge of this unit. Wow.
So this was his decision, on his flank, when to open fire.
How do you know all this? This is mad! Were you there?
Like, this is nuts! Do I look like I was there?
Mate, I just don't understand.
You're telling this story, I'm so engrossed!
And this is Charles. Yep.
So, the French are marching towards Charles and his soldiers.
They keep coming...
and before you know it, they're 50 yards away,
and Charles could see the white of their eyes.
And the lives of his soldiers depended on him giving this order
at the right time, but he gets it right.
Yes. He gets it right.
He orders the word, "Fire!"
And the Battle of Maida started.
So now we have the French infanteers
and the British infanteers shooting at each other,
reloading, firing at each other.
We have cavalry charging each other.
We have artillery bursting all over the battlefield. Wow.
And it got worse for Charles... Oh, God.
..because the French made a decision
that they thought would give them a quick victory.
They decided to realign their forces and attack the left flank.
SAM GASPS Wow.
So Charles had a lot of responsibility.
If they had have lost that flank,
then the game's over for the British.
Is he also, you know,
getting fully involved in the fighting or is he, like, directing?
Oh, yes, yes, he's heavily involved.
He's guiding his men and they're fighting, they're firing...
Of course, he's a Thompson, mate, it's what we do.
And things got worse again. Oh, mate! Just do us a favour.
Would you like to read that?
"The 27th were posted in a field of high corn or stubble.
"They were shelled by the French.
"The shells bursting set the stubble on fire." Oh, my God!
The artillery shells when they landed were burning the soldiers,
burning them in the fields. Oh, my God.
It just couldn't get any worse for them.
Now, an officer from another regiment looked across...
at the 27th, engulfed in fire,
and this is what he asked.
"A nearby officer shouted, 'Are the 27th about to run?'
"Private Scott, indignant at the idea replied,
" 'Hell to your soul.
" 'You or any other ruffian shall never see that day.' "
Hell to your soul! That's a great line.
I'm nicking that. Hell to your soul.
That is a Thompson line if ever I've heard one.
That's a new tattoo for you. That's a tattoo.
I tell you what, the next time someone says...
I'll be like, "Hell to your soul, kind sir."
BOTH: "You or any other ruffian shall never see that day!"
That's sick! That's brilliant. That's powerful, man.
Oh, mate!
That spirit came from the top down.
That was the fighting Irish spirit of the soldiers. What next?
The British broke through the French line.
So, it was the end game.
They thought they was being smart by going on the left,
but they didn't know they were dealing with...
They thought they'd break us. BOTH: Charles Thompson!
That's what I'm saying! We held the line, man!
Absolutely. We held the line!
Saved the day... Saved the day.
And that then caused the French to start retreating.
So, guys, that was the end of the Battle of Maida.
Oh, my God. That's major history.
That is major. Here's something for you.
Without the Batlle of Maida being as successful as it was,
the Battle of Waterloo would never have taken place. What?
That's huge.
Now, your four-times great-grandfather Charles
was rewarded for his actions.
He was promoted to Major and then eventually to Lieutenant Colonel.
And he in fact ended up the commanding officer of the 27th.
Wow! He's an absolute leader.
What is crazy, and listen, we're very fortunate and very lucky
that we haven't had to experience any of these battles
or any of these wars, right?
But the time I spent with you,
especially in that Australian Jungle,
you were an absolute leader, do you know what I'm saying?
No, it's true! Mate, when you did...
No, no, no, listen, listen!
When you did that trial,
when you got electrocuted, you had to go through the water,
you just got on with it, you got 12 stars,
like, you're... No, listen, it's in your blood.
But you're quite right about in what you said about the Jungle.
Absolutely quite right. I agree with that.
Do you know what? It's wild, though. It's... It is a huge...
And I think you probably had the same thing...
I know you did - I saw your face.
It's a great sense of pride you have,
like, hearing these things and being like, "Oh, man."
That's not that long ago. It's only four generations.
And it's like... you can be really proud
of so much of that, you know? Yes, absolutely, yeah.
So, we've had the man, the soldier.
The legend. The legend.
Don't ruin this for me. What I'd like you to do...
Don't ruin this for me! I'll read it. I'll read it.
Marvin, I'll let you read it.
Please be positive.
"Sir, the present distressed situation
"of the poor and labouring classes of the people in Ireland
"having been communicated to the first battalion of the 27th,
"or Inniskilling regiment,
"the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates
"have unanimously agreed to subscribe a day's pay
"towards relieving the poor of the native town of the regiment."
And in quotes, "I have the honour to be, sir,
"your obedient servant, C Thompson,
"Lieutenant Colonel commanding first battalion."
Not only has he created history and done all the things
that he'd done militarily, this town was suffering badly
because of the famine in Ireland,
and he took a collection from his soldiers,
which was unheard of in the military.
They collected about £70,
which in today's money would be about £5,000,
and he donated that money to the people of Enniskillen,
where his regiment was raised. Yes!
He's a philan-philan... What's the word? Philan...
He's a philanthropist.
I've even got a tear in me eye myself. Oh, mate!
Oh, mate! So good. What a guy! What guy!
Yes. Ah, Rocky, you have no idea how nervous I was.
Wow.
I'm so proud.
I'm so proud. Mate!
God, it's just so nice to have something to look up to.
So, there you have... Lieutenant Colonel Charles Thompson.
What a guy. What a guy, yeah, one hundred percent.
I've got that blood. I've got that blood.
That's you! I've got the blood.
Cheers, Sam. Look at us with the Guinness!
Can I just raise a toast to Lieutenant Colonel...
BOTH: Charles Thompson. Cheers!
He was an absolute hero.
PHONE CHIMES Ah, DNA Alert!
"Sam, we've analysed your DNA on your paternal line.
"It's concentrated here in Northern Ireland
"in the small town of Limavady, where your family have deep roots.
"You have a DNA COUSIN MATCH!" MARVIN LAUGHS
"It's time to meet the newest member of your family."
I've got a cous... LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES
Oh, my God! I've got a cousin.
Oh, mate! Oh, I'm nervous.
Mate, we're gonna meet a Thompson. Wait, what?
What if they don't like me?
I mean, it's possible.
THEY LAUGH
NARRATOR: 'Sam and Marvin
'are heading for Limavady in Northern Ireland
'to meet a DNA cousin Sam never knew he had.'
Today's the day!
We're meeting a Thompson.
Bro, I'm going to be honest with you, man, I slept terribly.
Did you, really? I slept terribly.
Just sweating out in bed. Rolling round in my own sweat, Marv.
Here we go. Limavady.
Oh, my God. This it. This is it. Limavady!
Right, let me just feel. Let me see if I can feel it.
Limavady, I wonder what...
Do you remember, you felt your place?
Yes, Giblatore. Giblatore.
Let me see if I can feel this place.
It's a nice little town, mate.
Do you know what I mean? It's got everything you need.
Jobs and benefit office. Yep. You know what I'm saying.
I wonder where we're going. Are we going to their house, or...?
Are we going to their gaff? Are we going to their gaff?
PRODUCER: We're popping round their house for a cup of tea.
No, we're not!
See, I already know that they're a good person.
Yeah, so do I, letting us into their home.
To let all of us... Yeah, yeah, it's a really good point.
It's a good person.
Oh, oh... The brakes have been applied.
No, we've got years, years.
Mate.
Oh, we're going in! Oh, 'ello!
Gardens and orangery...? What the fudge brownies?!
Are we in an estate? Oh, my God.
Sorry, what? THEY LAUGH
Where are we going?
Who is this family member? How much land do they own?
We're arriving at a castle, Sam. Like, what the hell? No, bro!
No! Who is this cousin?
I thought we were popping round for a cup of tea and biccy.
How have you never met them before? I don't know, but I'm never leaving!
MARVIN LAUGHS
Mate, look at the Thompson house. That's not their gaff...
That's not their... That's not their house.
PRODUCER: It is. Oh, my God.
This is mental.
Sam, this is your family estate.
Wow! Trust... Trust you...
I know! This is mad.
Oh, wow.
I'm a bit nervous. I don't know if we should go in.
I feel like we've turned up to Buckingham Palace, mate. Same.
The Irish version. What are the odds?
Well, the odds are pretty high, I think, know what I mean?
They're not. What do you mean they're high?
Mate, your four-times great-grandad was a Lieutenant Colonel.
Like, he was very well respected. We haven't got, like, tons of money.
Like, we're not... Our side aren't caked.
Well... This is where it all went.
Who knows what happened back in the day, mate.
Like, you're gonna get on the phone to Mikey boy and say,
"Mikey, where's the money gone?" SAM LAUGHS
You know what I mean? Like, "Dad!"
"Dad, what the hell's happened here?"
"Where's the coin gone, Dad?"
Like, "My cousin in Ireland is living like a fucking king.
"What the fuck, Dad?" "What the fuck's going on with me?"
"Where's the money gone, Pops?"
THEY LAUGH
Do you ring a doorbell? Oh, the door, the door!
Hi! How lovely to see you! Hello, sir.
All right, guys, come on in. Lovely to see you, sir!
Welcome to Drenagh. THEY LAUGH
What the heck?! Oh, my...
What do you think of that?!
It was so cool as a kid,
just coming down those bannisters, tea trays coming down the stairs.
Just such a laugh. LAUGHING: Oh, my!
Come on in.
We'll go into the dining room. We'll have a cup of char.
I didn't introduce myself. I'm Conolly, by the way.
Sam. All right, Sam?
Marvin. Lovely to meet you. Marvin. All right.
Wow! This is insane.
You've got my eyes! He does.
Yeah, and my bum chin! THEY LAUGH
Conolly what? Conolly Patrick McCausland.
Patrick McCausland. Wow. OK, OK.
So, I'm a De Courcy Thompson.
No idea where that came from, either.
De Courcy's very old.
There was a very naughty De Courcy who came over here
and did all sorts of awful things.
Let's just... Let's just guess that's not us.
Yeah, let's wash over that bit. CONOLLY LAUGHS
So, where did we? I mean, there's so much to discuss.
Well, our common ancestor is Robert McCausland.
Wow. Wow, OK.
Robert is Sam's seven-times
and Conolly's six-times great-grandfather.
His great granddaughter Harriet
then goes on to marry the soldier, Charles Thompson.
So, so, every portrait here is a great-grandad?
You probably wanna know which one Robert is, do you?
Is Robert in here? Robert's in here.
My sixth... My seventh great-grandfather? He is.
There he is, up there.
The big portrait?
Yeah. Wow.
That's Robert. Wow! Oh, my God, look at him.
I love this portrait because it's so full of symbolism.
The letters under his right elbow... Yeah?
You can see who they've been sent to. No way!
So, there's aristocracy, and he's just showing off, it's great.
Really? Yeah.
Wow. Wow.
And he was quite a dude. Was he a dude?
A hard worker. Course.
Amassed an enormous amount of wealth in his life.
Where the hell did that go? THEY LAUGH
Well... Well, in here!
You're looking at it. What the hell has happened with my family?
The interesting thing is that he was not landed himself. Yeah.
William Conolly was a self-made man,
and became the richest man in Ireland
and Robert was his property agent, land agent,
and was obviously bloody good at what he did. Yeah.
Cos otherwise, he wouldn't have held the job down.
And he got this land here in William Conolly's will
and then became landed himself.
Sort of what you might call nouveau riche of the time.
So, Conolly, do you own this property? Yeah, yeah.
In the same way as all these others, I inherited it from my dad, in...
Well, he died sadly when I was quite young. Condolences.
And I suppose I spent my whole life expecting to take this place on.
And it's not easy. It's not easy at all.
I mean, every penny that I made has come into here,
into the decor, the roof, the windows, the heating.
Running a house of this size, it's a complete money pit.
I can see that cos then you're just like,
"This is what my life is going to be."
And you can't let these guys down, you know?
There's so many people here who've done the same thing before you.
How big is the site?
Well, it's been whittled down. So, the original...
So, I suppose the largest it ever was,
was 18,000 acres at that time. Oh, my days. Wow.
I feel like that's a lot of acres. Yeah, it's a lot.
It's a lot of land. Yeah.
So, I read in a document about some land we sold -
I think it must've been a will -
it was cited that this land was to be sold.
It was 110 acres of Woolwich.
Woolwich? Yeah.
In southeast London? No way. Yeah.
That's where I grew up. No way!
Are you serious?
I'm absolutely serious. Wait, what does that mean?
I'm confused. Help me. I'm absolutely serious.
So, your family owned a large...
well, pretty much the whole of Woolwich?
A large lump of it, yeah. Wow.
Woolwich. That's mental. Mate, I grew up in Woolwich.
That was my stomping ground till I was about 20.
Ah, this is mad. This is crazy.
And you've gone back to Marv! It's gone full circle!
Literally, like... It's everywhere.
It's all over the place. Mate, we're so connected, man.
We're connected. Come on, touch me. Yes!
Yes! That's so cool.
I... I feel like I've watched so many things
about these huge stately homes,
and it's almost sad because, as you say,
it's so hard to keep it going... It's so big.
It's so big, and you can imagine the history in places like this.
Well, we now basically run this place as a wedding venue. Yeah.
If I ever get married, I'm getting married here. Do, Sam.
He'll give you a discount. Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Little discount!
He's got a business to run, man, you know what I'm saying?
This is not cheap!
Can we get up and have a look?
Yeah, let's go and have a look. Oh, my God.
So, I've got one more thing for you. OK, yeah?
You know how much you wanted to find out about your De Courcys?
Yeah. Well, we've got someone in the library waiting for you.
No! This is mad. MARVIN LAUGHS
Are we gonna see a De Courcy? LAUGHING: Oh, my God.
It's Brad! Ah! Hey, it's Brad!
Hello, lads. Hello, mate.
He's got some news for us, mate. Why are you standing like that?
Last time we saw you, you were in a Hawaiian shirt.
Well, look, why don't you sit down?
And I can tell you a bit about De Courcy.
Brad, let me just tell you something quick.
I'm tired. Brad, I'm tired, mate. THEY LAUGH
However... we always wondered
about this "De Courcy" part of his surname.
Where does it come from?
Don't finish it on a bad note, Brad, please.
Is this where it turns left and gets a bit dark?
Why do you really want this to be dark?
Well...
..a lot of that depends on your perspective.
Oh, for God's... No! THEY LAUGH
So, let me tell you what we know. Right.
A guy called John De Courcy.
Now...
..John's a very interesting character. Oh, God.
He becomes a knight, and he's this sort of...
Anglo-Norman knight, comes from Kent.
And he came to Ireland in 1177,
and he essentially conquers the north of Ireland for England.
Well, that's not good.
And he builds castles.
And he built a castle called Carrickfergus.
Well, we were just there. That's where we were yesterday.
Yeah.
Who built that? BOTH: John De Courcy.
So, there is a very famous De Courcy.
But your family has nothing to do with him.
Great news, Brad! MARVIN LAUGHS
Where did it come from? Mm.
So, by now, you know the full story of Charles Thompson.
Yeah, what a guy. What a guy. What a guy.
Let's hold on to that. Yeah.
And he had a son called Leslie.
Now, Leslie was just like his dad -
he was a soldier, warrior, adventurer,
swashbuckling around the world.
And, you know, the Thompsons
had the fame and the glory from the battlefield,
but what they didn't have... was they didn't have a name.
So, when his third son, Sydney, was born...
..he gave him the name De Courcy. Oh!
It was made up. Oh! OK.
They wanted to be...
Maybe they wanted to be a little posh.
And so he bestows that upon Sydney.
Now, this is happening a lot in this period of history.
People were, you know, affecting more prominent names
to give their family some social standing.
All I'm hearing is we faked it, and I'm over the moon.
THEY LAUGH I'm gonna be honest with you.
Do you know, I've got a signet ring, right?
Doesn't mean anything!
We just gave ourselves a signet.
You know those people who now have rings where they,
like, give themselves a coat of arms? Yeah, yeah.
You know there's people who can buy a knightship
so they can call themselves "sir", or like a "lady", that's just us.
Yeah, that's what Leslie did, you know what I mean.
Mate, at the start of this journey, I was so scared of...
..this.
And although I am related to it,
I'm so happy with where I've gone. Mm.
Like, I don't want this, if I'm honest,
as beautiful as it is.
I like who I am, and I like where we're at,
and I love the way it breaks off and you've got Charles Thompson.
That's like... That's mine. That's mine. Yeah.
And, like, he's just some dude in Ireland,
who just covered the left flank.
And that is a pretty cool thing.
It is. I hear you, I hear you.
I'm very, very... This couldn't have been better.
It's not us. Yeah.
But, you know, I could probably come here for Christmas.
THEY LAUGH
# Oh, the moon belongs to everyone
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