Kris Hicks

Tuesday

Kris Hicks

The reason we’re all anxious about our ancestors

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? premieres tonight on BBC One. The first episode is about the ancestors of the television presenter Zoe Ball. I adore the schadenfreude of witnessing a wincing luvvie discover their ancestor was an irredeemable scumbag. My family are not free of moral stain. Court records attest that my great-great-grandfather, a publican from South Wales, once furnished a pint of beer to a punter outside licensed hours. The devil! My late grandparents, straightforward Welsh Methodists, never told me about lawbreakers in the family. News that one of us might have been a bit dodgy back in the day shook me. I told the story to an acquaintance, which prompted some drastic perspective: 'At least you haven’t got Hitler in your family.' Indeed, some people do.

Thursday

Kris Hicks

The death of cinéma vérité

Oh, how we lived. Or, how we thought we lived. Despite the numerous criticisms levelled at the BBC on a daily basis, the BBC Archive YouTube channel is one aspect of its work that cannot be faulted. It is a fascinating collection of broadcast material going back many decades, a portal into Britain’s past presented in film grain-soaked HD. A sobering reminder of what the BBC once was – and what it no longer dares to be. Much of it is made up of documentaries, many aspects of which will be peculiar to millennials and Gen Z. The form is strange: long, single-camera shots of people talking in living environments. Bathrooms, kitchens, workplaces, streets. Living spaces are as they would be on any day of the week. Workplace neon, living-room lamps. Light and shade.