Danny Dyer on WDYTYA

Danny Dyer hopes that he will “freak a few people out” with his family history – and he certainly does that in the opening episode of the new run of BBC One’s genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are?

Danny sets out to discover the history of his tough working class family in the East End of London but in the process unearths an ancestral brush with royalty: his 15 x great grandfather was Henry VIII’s right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell. Tracing even further back, Danny discovers his direct connection to royalty. His 22 x great grandfather was King Edward III, the great medieval king, and this ties him to all the British monarchs right back to his 30 x great grandfather, William the Conqueror.

Danny Dyer says: “A kid from Canning Town, Custom House, and this is my bloodline. It’s ridiculous to think that somebody of my stature, somebody from absolutely nothing, is actually…my blood is his blood. I cannot compute it in my brain that this man is related to me - this wonderful powerful man.”

Who Do You Think You Are? returns to BBC One 8pm on November 24.

Who Do You Think You Are? is a Wall To Wall production (a Warner Bros Television Production UK Ltd company)

RC