He was an alcoholic... it's not what I was expecting. It isn't sweet or romantic

LIKE his soap alter ego Grant Mitchell, Ross Kemp's great-great-uncle spent a lot of time in pubs.

- BY NICOLA METHVEN TV Editor

But the former EastEnders star says there is no sugar-coating his ancestor's life, as he is shocked to learn that Albert Chalmers was a violent alcoholic who was blacklisted from boozers and never spoken about by his family.

Ross, 60, digs into his family history on BBC1's Who Do You Think You Are? and discovers his great-grandad Arthur was nicknamed Pop, after Popeye, due to his life at sea.

His brother Albert, one of 10 siblings who grew up in a Portsmouth pub, also served in the Navy, but was discharged and spent years gathering court charges for being drunk and violent.

Reading a newspaper report, Ross says: "It was alleged he threatened to cut his mother's head off, and everyone else in the house, at the same time chasing after her with a table knife."