Michelle Keegan discovers she has connections to the Suffragettes after signing up for BBC1 show Who Do You Think You Are?
FROM Corporal Georgie Lane in Our Girl to Tina McIntyre on Corrie, MICHELLE KEEGAN is known for playing strong women.
But I can reveal that powerful females are also in the actress’s genes, after she signed up to the new BBC1 series of Who Do You Think You Are?
Michelle, who is married to former Towie star and presenter MARK WRIGHT, learns that she has connections to the Suffragettes while tracing her ancestry on the programme’s 15th series.
A source close to the show said: “Michelle is a huge signing and, given her incredible family history, producers were thrilled.
“Her episode promises to be one of the most exciting in the programme’s history as filming took her to the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester, where she discovered some Suffragette connections.
“It got quite emotional and it was particularly timely given all the attention there has been on girl power this year with the #MeToo movement.
"Michelle also jetted over to Gibraltar where her grandmother is from.
“She is really excited about the project and it makes such a difference to her day-to-day drama roles.”
Michelle’s surprising discovery comes two years after East- Enders hardman DANNY DYER learned on the show that he is descended from two English kings — William the Conqueror and Edward III.
For all I know, I could be related to Henry VIII.
READ ON FOR MORE OF DAN WOOTTON'S BIZARRE TV COLUMN
Meghan us laugh
PRINCE HARRY and MEGHAN MARKLE’s forth-coming nuptials have been given the comedy treatment in a royal wedding special of The Windsors.
My exclusive photo shows actors RICHARD GOULDING and KATHRYN DRYSDALE in the roles of the senior Royal and his actress fiancee.
The one-off episode will air on C4 in May to coincide with the real marriage.
It will see Harry organise a stag do and take Meghan and PRINCE CHARLES – played by HARRY ENFIELD – off to the States to see her mum Doria.
Banned Banter
THE Chase is renowned for its innuendos, but star ANNE HEGERTY has revealed that some of her jokes are so X-rated they have to be edited out.
The ITV quiz show’s Governess recalled how host BRADLEY WALSH once dissolved into fits of giggles over a question about Trafalgar Square’s “giant blue cock”.
Anne said: “The next question was to do with zombie movies and I said, ‘I wish I knew about zombie movies, I’d know a lot more about blue cocks’. And they cut that out. Dreadful, isn’t it?”
The fearsome general- knowledge whizz also admitted she struggles to stay in character.
Anne said: “Off camera I laugh at everything."
Watch Anne relive Bradley Walsh’s laughing fits on The Chase at
Heather fury at race dig
FILMING of new reality TV show The Road to Santiago was marred when M PEOPLE singer HEATHER SMALL was the victim of a racist slur.
Heather was tackling northern Spain’s Camino pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, when filming in a monastery had to be cut short as a volunteer there questioned her Britishness.
She revealed: “They said, ‘The people who I know from that country are blonde and blue-eyed.’ So what’s he trying to say? ‘Where are you really from?’
“It was a definite diss as I saw him being nice to someone else. He was trying to make me uncomfortable.”
Heather was accompanied by Strictly Come Dancing star DEBBIE McGEE, actor NEIL MORRISSEY, comic ED BYRNE, Gogglebox priest KATE BOTTLEY and TV host JJ CHALMERS on the hike, which airs on BBC2 this Friday. All the stars walked out of the monastery in support of Heather.
She said: “I think it was Ed who said, ‘Look, we’ve been with Heather for days and she hasn’t got a chip on her shoulder, she’s fun-loving and if she says she’s been offended I know she’s been offended’.
"They trusted my judgment and my word.
“I didn’t take offence in the way the volunteer thought I would – I just called him out. That’s what the Camino showed me, a sense of freedom and of self.”
Good for her.
MOST READ IN BIZARRE
must watch?
WHAT? Being Blacker, BBC2, 9pm.
WHY? Explores what it’s like to be black in Britain today through the story of South London record-shop owner Blacker Dread. Molly Dineen’s docu has had rave reviews.
soapbox
BIG trouble is heading to Albert Square for tonight’s EASTENDERS – in the form of Keegan’s scheming dad Mitch.
Karen’s former partner leaves Keegan stunned when he turns up at the Arches on his first day of work, asking for his car to be worked on.
Keegan does his best not to let on where his mum and her family are living but Mitch manages to track them down, leading Keanu to let his fists do to the talking.
On NEIGHBOURS, Karl and Susan are horrified to learn that Izzy has stolen his sperm sample from the hospital and used it.
Susan insists that Karl has it out with his former lover but he has other ideas when he discovers a positive pregnancy test and assumes it belongs to Izzy.