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Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC1: Maharajahs, slaves, war heroes... Mishal's was quite the family tree
Rating: They don't do big emotions on BBC Radio 4's morning news magazine, the Today programme. No screaming matches, no blubbing. Veteran news anchor James Naughtie did choke back a tear on his final appearance, in 2015. Otherwise, the aura of civilised calm is not broken by anything more dramatic than a flash of sarcasm. But Mishal Husain, who co-presented Today from 2013 until last December, was promising to turn on the waterworks as she explored her family history on Who Do You Think You Are? 'I already feel quite emotional about this journey,' she said at the outset, 'because it's going to show me a part of the world where my father was born and where I've never been.' Her father, Imtiaz, was born in India but grew up in Pakistan before moving to Britain. He died in 2016. Gotham gag of the night Exploring caves in Philadelphia on his United States Of Birmingham (Sky Max), Joe Lycett met bat expert Robyn Graboski . . . and couldn't resist pointing out the irony of a Batwoman being called Robyn. Holy lame punchlines, Joe. For the next hour, Mishal didn't so much as dab her eye. Not once, even when she learned of the tragic death of a four-times-great grandparent or met a distant cousin for the first time, did she fan her face and ask the camera crew to 'give her space'. It's that Today programme training. Radio 4 is the last place in Britain where they still keep a stiff upper lip. There was no lack of excitement in the Husain family tree, mind you. Her great-great grandfather Thomas Quinn was a brilliant medical man, who in 1850 scooped all the prizes at the Madras medical school and went on to become the Maharajah of Vizianagaram's personal surgeon. Visiting the crumbling fort of the Maharajahs, Mishal discovered Thomas was such a royal favourite that he was introduced to Queen Victoria's oldest son, heir to the throne Prince Albert Victor. I was expecting Phil Davis's voiceover to point out that Mishal has commentated on the wedding of another heir, Prince William, as well as interviewing Prince Harry. Unusually, though, this episode seemed determined to avoid playing up such obvious parallels between past and present. Another ancestor appeared less of a paragon at first. Joseph Farley owned a sugar plantation in Java 200 years ago, where he used 'indentured labour' — native workers treated little better than slaves. Mishal looked suitably disapproving and embarrassed. Farley's story unfurled backwards. We discovered he was lost at sea when his ship failed to return to India. But the paper trail led back to America's east coast, where, one intercontinental flight later, Mishal arrived too — ditching her Indian kurti tunic for a puffa jacket and big hat, for filming in the snow. She forgave wicked Joseph Farley everything when she learned he'd been educated at Harvard . . . even though he was briefly kicked out for complaining about the food. Better still, his father, grandfather and three uncles were heroes of the American War of Independence, with a plaque in their honour on display at the library in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Telegraph
29-04-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Who Do You Think You Are? review: Mishal Husain uncovers a history of surgeons, scholars and soldiers
I don't like to make sweeping generalisations, but all Indian parents want their children to be doctors with an Oxbridge or Harvard degree. A lawyer, if the kid is a bit dim. The really rogue ones become dentists. So doctor's daughter Mishal Husain was delighted, in the latest episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One), when she discovered that her ancestors had excelled in both areas. Her great-great-grandfather turned out to have been surgeon to a maharajah despite being of mixed race, which meant that his job opportunities were supposed to be limited. The maharajah even took him for an audience with Prince Albert, grandson of Queen Victoria. Going back further, she learnt that a distant forefather had attended Harvard. Records showed that, at one point, Joseph Farley was thrown out of college for staging a protest about the food, but was later allowed to complete his studies. This came as a great relief to Husain, who said: 'I'm an Asian parent, so I'm very worried about a student not getting their degree.' Joseph graduated with honours and won a prize for his dissertation. 'This could be something that my boys try and emulate,' she mused. Husain had already delved into her family tree to write a book about her grandparents, but information about earlier generations had been harder to come by. The link to a maharajah had been bandied around but dismissed as a tall tale. Husain had assumed that one side of the family had roots in Ireland, because her grandmother was an Anglo-Indian named Mary Quinn, but instead she was able to trace them back to the United States. To its very founding, in fact. Her six times great-grandfather, Michael Farley, was an ally of George Washington and 'pretty much in the room where it happened'. One of Farley's sons, Jabez, fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston. There was an extraordinary moment at the end where Husain travelled to Ipswich, Massachusetts, and found a plaque in the library commemorating Farley and his four sons as 'soldiers of the Revolution'. Who Do You Think You Are? can be frustrating when the subject's ancestors come from peasant stock, because the historical records often don't go much further than certificates of births, deaths and marriages, with the occasional newspaper report thrown in about a great-uncle going to jail. Husain's distinguished family history came with ample documentation – Harvard has an extensive archive – and also some uncomfortable information: Joseph Farley left America to seek his fortune as a planter, on a sugar plantation which would have used indentured labour. 'That's not a very happy thing to find out,' Husain said. The programme began with the always-elegant Husain in the BBC newsroom – now rather out of date, because she quit in December for a new job at Bloomberg. On the Today programme, She was known for her sharp intellect and a coolness when approaching even the most incendiary topics. Here she was warmer, intrigued by every new discovery and bursting with pride by the end. She was only sad that her father, who died nine years ago, was not around to share the experience.
