A LOCAL version of the hit British series, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?, a six-parter tracking the ancestry of South African personalities, is set to start on SABC2 at 9pm on Sunday.
Personalities who will be going in search of their family history, bringing them face to face with the hidden stories of their ancestors, include actress Nthati Moshesh, television personality Candice Moodley, recording star and former SABC2 Strictly Come Dancing winner HHP (Jabulani Tsambo), longtime TV newsreader Riaan Cruywagen, Isidingo star Meshack Mavuso and Cape comedian Kurt Schoonraad.
These personalities will have a pivotal role in the series. Their stories will be used as emblems of the historical trends that have created modern South Africa and their experiences are likely to encourage viewers to think about exploring their own family ancestry.
Each episode is presented as a highly personalised film, yet the wider historical themes they reveal situates the audience in the broader South African historical context, says a spokesman for SABC2.
South Africas most comprehensive ancestral and genealogical service, Ancestry24, assisted producers and researchers of Who Do You Think You Are?
Ancestry24s channel manager, Heather MacAlister, spent many hours in the archives and at various other repositories to assist with the research of the individual celebrities.
Join us as we effectively travel back in time to meet the featured celebrities extended family and those that knew them, and walk where their ancestors lived and worked.
The international series format has triggered a general interest in family history and a return to libraries, museums and domestic travel as people go back to the small towns from which they or their families came.
The first episode of this groundbreaking series features actress Moshesh, who is best known for her leading roles in the drama series Home Affairs and the soapie 7de Laan.
She also happens to be the great, great grand-daughter of King Moshoeshoe, the first king of Basotho.
Moshesh will cross the border into Lesotho to speak to historians and family members, and travel to understand her ancestry.
Will she decide to change her name back to Moshoeshoe or will she remain Moshesh? But why is her surname now different? What happened along the annals of history? The new series answers all these questions.
Cruywagen will feature on June 7, Mavuso on June 14, Moodley on June 21, HHP on June 28 and Schoonraad on July 5.
Moving to news from SABC3 TOP BILLING at 7.30 tonight will focus on the Cannes Film Festival, where Top Billings Nico Panagio will interview Paris Hilton about her new reality show.
A documentary titled Paris, Not France, Hiltons new show, is about her life and something she has been wanting to do for a long time.
Word is the documentary reveals a not-so-simple life in which the blonde of television infamy is scarcely to be found.
Panagio asks Hilton about the style of the film and about being in the spotlight.
Moving on to DStv note that John Malkovich is set to be the guest of Irish imp Graham Norton in tonights episode of THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW, on BBC Entertainment at 10.30pm. Malkovich admits to Graham that he hated doing the film Con Air.
He says: Occasionally I have to do a film people may want to see. I never read the script or saw the movie. Nicolas Cage was very serious about it. Im by far the most normal person in it, the most likely to be able to count to 20.
