Posted by Ancestry Team on September 3, 2014 in Who Do You Think You Are?

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BAFTA award-winning actress Sheridan Smith is set to explore her musical roots on tomorrow night’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

 

The episode traces the rise and fall of her great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Doubleday. A music teacher, he went on to become one of the country’s best-known banjo players of the 1880s. He entertained upper-class audiences in sold-out shows and the future seemed bright for Benjamin Doubleday.

Sadly, his success did not last. Benjamin risked everything to put on his biggest show yet, but lost it all when the show flopped! Having lost all his money, his wife left him taking their four children with her. To compound the misery, he was jailed for arson shortly after-but was he really responsible?

Eventually reunited with two of his children, Harriet and May, they toured the north of England as a banjo trio.

Sheridan left home at sixteen to become an actress in London. She sang alongside her country music-playing parents for years, and is proud of her family’s musical heritage.
“The gene has been passed down through my great-great-grandfather,” said Sheridan. “It’s made me want to learn to play all sorts of instruments.”

Who Do You Think You Are? airs on  BBC1 this Thursday at 9pm. Join us on Twitter and Facebook to share your thoughts or questions.

 

Image courtesy of Karen Ellot. Flickr/creative commons

Comments

  1. Kapil

    A music knows the what student needs to learn in the music from the start and what time required for the music learning.so start with this musical journey. cleaning

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