Alan Carr (14 September)

[mattelton]

The comedian and Chatty Man explores the world of genealogy in his own inimitable style in tonight's new episode (9pm on BBC One). But what do you think of his story? Share your thoughts here after the episode has aired – we're looking forward to hearing from you!

Matt

[jude_br]

What happened to the story about Alan's north east family killed in the Burradon pit disaster? As someone who lives in the village I was looking forward to seeing this episode but was disappointed to find that it had been cut out & that most of the episode was taken up with his wartime deserter relative.

[Wahian]

My own guess was thinking Henry changed his name to hide he'd been in prison; when he was awol for one day, it was clear what was coming up next----keeping out of prison. Was surprised the truth had been kept secret for so long in the family and such an apparent mystery.

And Gt aunt Doreen says Henry always signed/ used his correct first name of Richard; when he gets married in 1938 at long last, he states his name as Henry and on this occasion, Richard has been left off the record. It also makes you wonder about the two witnesses (Byrne/Chapman) on the marriage certificate; was his first or middle name really Richard? I'm beginning to think it wasn't with his birth, the 1911 Census,1915 army enlistment, and his marriage certificate omitting it, though his 1974 death record entry does read Richard Henry M. Carter. And what does his now initial M stand for? Presumably Mercer showing his real and alias names now combined? When his wife had died earlier, she too had Mercer added to her name on her death certificate.

[phsvm]

This is the first episode, I htink in all the series, which I really haven't enjoyed. I know nothing about Alan Carr but his voice and manner were so irritating that I nearly switched off after about 10 minutes. The whole programme seemed to be a mismash with gaps and inconistencies and Alan Carr's attitude which to me appeared to treat it all as a joke, I found inappropriate.

Come on programme makers, you can do better than this!

[Editor]

We are going to run something on the pit disaster that unfortunately got cut from his episode in our December issue. We are also hoping to put up some unseen footage on the website about it so watch this space!

Sarah

[suzywong]

As a fan of WDUTUA I was very dissapointed with this episode and was looking forward to the advertised slot set in Burradon about Alan's family in the north. Was this cut? and why. The rest of the episode was very boring and I lost intrest in the 'Carter' family. After such great past episodes this was a let down and didn't seem to gel.

[margaretabram]

This is the most disappointing episode this series by far. The football section had me almost nodding off (as anything to do with football does to me) although I understand that football fans out there may have found it interesting. The deserter story was given too much time. There may still be viewers out there who find the idea of a deserter offensive. I can see the point that if he had not deserted that Alan Carr would not be here today, but still an uncomfortable story for some. I see from other posts that there was another story that was cut, what a pity, it might have made this programme more interesting.

[callbrian]

Hi,
I agree with most of the comments. After the absorbing JK Rowling and Larry Lamb episodes, what a let down. I actually did 'nod off' and missed the last 25 minutes.
It would appear, I didn't miss very much.

Brian

[ColinB]

I thought they were never going to stop talking about football ! However I was very interested
in the deserter story and the change of name. It seems from Sarah's post that we are likely
to find out about the story that was cut from the programme so I shall look forward to that.
Are there really only 4 episodes left !!!!!

Colin

[AdrianB38]

Actually, given that there was a pit-disaster on Reel History the other day, it seemed a sensible decision to skip over that. And I found the deserter story fascinating, as they were trying to piece in the issue of the alleged different name. The "obvious" interpretation was he'd changed his name to avoid being tracked - yet that didn't match the certificates - and what followed was an object lesson in what to look for and where. And eventually, yes, the "obvious" story turned out to be true in the end, but there's many would have stopped with the certificates and declared it all a myth.

I really don't think we can censor stories of deserters just because some might find it offensive. They existed. We should accept it. And the only one in my extended family, ended up, a couple of months after his court martial, being awarded the Military Medal for saving lives in no-man's-land as the artillery shells came down.

And if you want a serious view from the subject - don't watch when a comedian's on.