CLUES from the PAST

Crime writer RICHARD OSMAN on finding unlikely detectives in his ancestry

- HANNAH DAVIES

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

THURSDAY, 9 PM (TIMES VARY), BBC1 FACTUAL

Richard Osman has stormed into the bestseller lists with his popular Thursday Murder Club series of books about a team of elderly amateur sleuths.

And while exploring his ancestry for this week's episode of BBCI's celebrity genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?, it came as a surprise to the former Pointless host to discover that some of his forebears were involved in solving a notorious 19th-century murder case!

Here, Richard, 51, tells TV Times about his journey into the past, how he misses his Pointless partner Alexander Armstrong, and why he never wants to take part in I'm a Celebrity or Strictly Come Dancing...

Have you always wanted to delve into your family history for this show?

Yeah, I mean what a gift! I've always wanted to find out where I come from. I'm not from the sort of family that has a lot of family records or has been able to trace its ancestry. But now we've got huge bundles of documents of relatives we'd never heard of before!

You grew up near Brighton. Were you surprised by just how far back your ties to the area go?

It was funny because I didn't think I'd have time to do this show, and then the team said, 'Would it help if almost every bit of filming is in Brighton?"

I've always felt connected to Brighton, but I didn't know quite how deep our roots went, and to discover that we're descended from one of Brighton's very first fishing families is lovely. It certainly makes you feel embedded in an area.

Was there anything you were particularly hoping to discover?