WDYTYA - 9 June - Richard Osman

[phsvm]

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter, well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games, He's also worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats and is a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.

If this wasn't enough he's the author of the Thursday Murder Club series of novels which, as we see from this episode of WDYTYA must be 'in the genes' when he discovers his four-times great grandfather turned amateur sleuth and ended up entangled in one of Brighton's most notorious murder trials.

Richard also investigates his grandfather's army career and learns why it gave him a profound belief in the power of education, which he passed on to his grandson. There is, of course, the oft discovered stories of poverty, hardship and the workhouse.

[Thunder]

An interesting episode. The comment of 'very good' service in Army (and I assume also in Naval) records not being as good as stated puts a different slate on family history, I wasn't aware of this before. As an ex-archivist I was somewhat taken aback the the marriage register for St Nicholas' Church in Brighton was still held by the church, 'The Keep' (East Sussex Record Office) says an electronic version is available but the Church Measures Act of 1978 was brought in to endure the safe custody of records and I believe an archive office is much better than a church. I was surprised the Assizes records were not used for the programme (albeit that they are at TNA)..

[Mick Loney]

Thunder,
You are making the assumption that the Parish Registers were actually being held at the church! Although it may have been implied, because he was in the church when he looked at them, I think that was done purely for dramatic effect. They just needed an excuse for Richard to visit the church to look at the registers.
I must admit though, that I was shocked that he was allowed to browse the registers without wearing gloves to protect what, when all said and done, were 200 year old documents!

[AdrianBruce]

Yes - I also was intrigued that "Very Good" (or whatever it was) actually meant "Average". I could well understand the explanation, though, having been in similar situations where the terms used are working from a different baseline from what an outsider might think.

Brighton - to this Northerner - turned out to have a different story than I expected. I hadn't associated fishing with the town before.

As for the marriage register, it would indeed seem a little odd if the register was still held by the church, but I've also learned never to take WDYTYA stuff at face value, and I wonder if they'd just shipped the marriage register out of the RO for the occasion, while imaging the baptismal registers? Only one marriage register to take out but possibly several baptismal registers so not practical?

[AdrianBruce]

... I must admit though, that I was shocked that he was allowed to browse the registers without wearing gloves to protect what, when all said and done, were 200 year old documents!

Old argument - I've seen loads of archivists say that for paper documents, it's riskier for people to wear gloves because then they don't have the same motor control, so they're actually more likely to rip the paper while wearing gloves than not.

And if it's parchment, I've an idea that the oils on a person's fingers benefit the parchment (which, IIRC, is a lot stiffer than you'd imagine).

Just do as the record office asks is the answer, I suggest.

[paulr1949]

I agree, it was an interesting episode. But am I the only one who spotted Edward Gillam one entry below Gabriel in the long-term workhouse records? He had been there a year longer than Gabriel and I would be quite surpised if they were not related.

Workhouse Gillam.png (279.6 KiB) Viewed 554 times

[meekhcs]

We noted the Edward Gillam entry too.

Last time I enquired the parish registers for Wonston Parish Church in Hampshire were still held by the Church so it does happen, but why I have no idea.

The saying "what goes around, comes around" came to mind with the discovery of the body by Gabriel Gillam et al, and Richard Osman's penchant for crime fiction today.

Another thoroughly enjoyable episode, and quite rightly a story that deserved to be told.