Olivia Colman is moved to tears in her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman (born 30 January 1974) first came to prominence for her supporting role as Sophie Chapman in the Channel 4 comedy series Peep Show. Her other TV comedy roles include Green Wing, Beautiful People, Rev and Twenty Twelve. She also played various roles in That Mitchell and Webb Look. Her other film roles include PC Doris Thatcher in Hot Fuzz, Carol Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Queen Elizabeth in Hyde Park on Hudson, Bethan Maguire in Locke, Margaret Lea in The Thirteenth Tale, and the Hotel Manager in The Lobster.
In the latest episode which will been shown on BBC One, Monday 9th July from 9:00pm Olivia discovers some surprises in her ancestral history.
A belief that most of those in her family tree emanate from Norfolk turns out to be far from the truth.
Olivia is amazed to discover that she needs to travel to India to find out more about her great-great-great grandmother Harriot, who was an orphan in 1811 on a ship bound for England from Calcutta. As at the age of just three or four, Harriot was sent to live in England from her native India - making the six-month journey alone – after her father a British Army Captain died.
Harriot’s father William Slessor was an Englishman employed by the East India Company, but the identity of her mother, who gave birth to her in a remote Indian village, is a mystery Olivia delights in solving.
“I’m interested in the people that have gone before,” Olivia explains in WDYTYA. “There’s a fragility to life, and also when you go, will you be forgotten?
Olivia Colman’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? is on BBC One on Monday July 9th, 9pm (except Wales)
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