Dermot O'Leary's family history too drab for Who Do You Think You Are?

3 March 2021

Dermot O'Leary was told his family history was not "interesting enough" for 'Who Do You Think You Are?'.

Dermot O'Leary

Despite the 47-year-old TV and radio presenter having "good authority" that his ancestors, a police officer and a judge, were allegedly "killed by the Mafia in the 30s", the BBC genealogy series failed to find any evidence of this.And producers decided that, ultimately, there was nothing juicy enough to make a whole episode based on Dermot's "seafaring" family, who hail from Wexford, Ireland.

He told the 'Snot, Sweat & Tears' podcast: “They actually researched my family for about three months. They came back and said, ‘There’s just not enough interesting stuff about your family’.

“Wexford is a port town, and my family are all seafaring folk. I have it on good authority that two of them went to America. One of them was a police officer and the other was a judge and they both got killed by the Mafia in the 30s. They couldn’t find any record of this. I was like, ‘What are you on about?’ We’ve been everywhere, we’re a family of sailors.’

“I just don’t think they were trying hard enough. It’s awful isn’t it? Absolutely awful.”

Dermot's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' rejection comes after Richard Osman revealed his family history was also deemed to be too boring for the programme.

The 'Pointless' co-host had bosses of the show look into his family tree to see if there was anything in his past that could make an episode, but they didn't find anything "exciting".

He wrote on Twitter: "I was researched for 'Who Do You Think They Are?' but they found nothing exciting."

Richard - who was born in Billericay, Essex, and grew up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex - admitted he didn't have high expectations about what might be uncovered, but joked he was hoping he may be related to a pirate.

He tweeted: "I wasn't expecting royalty but I was hoping there might at least be a pirate or two."

'EastEnders' actor Danny Dyer discovered he was related to King Edward III and William The Conqueror in a 2016 appearance on 'Who Do You Think You Are?'.