My word. We all know that the BBC are really good at making Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, Wednesday, 15 July, 9pm) but last night's show was a real stonker. Davina McCall starred and to be honest, I thought it was going to be a good 'un. Her personal life alone would make an excellent show in itself and, regardless of what you think of her professionally, there's no hiding from the fact that she seems like a really likeable gal. Delving beyond her life, things got more interesting that I could've ever imagined!

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Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, Wednesday, 15 July, 9pm) is the kind of show that only the BBC could make. At least, it feels that way when you're watching. Treading the tricky line of saccharine and investigative perfectly, it's little wonder that it's always been a ratings heavyweight when aired. This week, it returns with Davina McCall looking through her back pages and beyond. Intriguingly, she's off in search of an ancestor that her family has long believed to be the illegitimate son of King George IV. Are we going to see some kind of coronation?

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The week before last I posted up the list of celebrities taking part in this year's Who Do You Think You Are? Call me quite sad and dull if you will but I actually look forward to this announcement every year, because I think WDYTYA? is quite an important show. It serves a dual purpose - it has the drama of a personal detective story, as well as massive chunks of 'living history', stuff that's really interesting and what people can still identify with. Anyway, I'm wittering. More WDYTYA? news today... Davina McCall will be the first sleb in the spotlight. Read on for more...

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I'm not sure but the last series of Who Do You Think You Are? didn't rate as highly as series before, despite featuring some terrific and moving family stories from the likes of Ainsley Harriott (first time I've watched an hour of him the telly without wanting to throw myself out of the window) and Rock Stein. There was also Fiona Bruce, Rory Bremner and Kevin Whately, so they had some proper TV personalities in there. Maybe the show has lost its lustre, so it's not surprising the next series has pulled out some big names. Read on for more...

Our WDYTYA? section

Last night's Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, Monday, 16 February, 9pm) followed Rick Stein as he mooched through is family tree. As ever, this show managed to find someone with a family tree worth looking at. As acknowledged by Stein himself, "history doesn't account for happy families", but jeepers, Stein's family had it tough. Really tough. Through dead children, affairs, disease and manic depression, Stein burrowed deep into a gloomy place and came away from it understanding himself that little bit better.

Related: Who Do You Think You Are? Jerry Sprringer | Who Do You Think You Are? Natasha Kaplinsky

We all know Jerry Springer from his schlocky TV show. (I had the dubious pleasure of travelling to Chicago to be an audience member for one of his shows some years back. It still ranks as one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Chicago itself was lovely, I must stress.) But Jerry has had quite a life - born in a tube station in England, he emigrated to America, embarked on a political career becoming both a presidential aide to Robert Kennedy and then, himself, mayor of Cincinnati (we won't mention the sex scandal). So Jerry is quite a guy, and from last night's extraordinary episode, he seemed like a nice guy too (even if he did have this habit of balancing his glassed above his eyebrows a bit too often). It was clear though, that Jerry had been carrying huge amounts of family pain for most of his life. If you missed the show and you're intending to catch up on your PVRs or the iPlayer, be warned... there was a lot of crying.

What do I think of Boris Johnson? My personal opinion is that as a politician he sucks. I was outraged and ashamed that such a person was voted in as London Mayor. As a person who appears on TV from time-to-time, he's good to watch. He's very clever, very posh and, sometimes, very stupid (although I'm pretty sure he just puts that on). As a subject for WDYTYA? I wondered what there was to tell. But, of course, every family has a story to tell, and it turns out the Johnsons have many, many stories to tell. They were told last night, and they were extraordinary.

It's one of my favourite programmes, I make no bones about that. I love Who Do You think You Are? and to me it's just really interesting, entertaining and enlightening. Surely a perfect combo for a successful TV show. Anyway, it's back this summer and the lastest batch of slebs that will be taking part have been announced. Last series we saw John Hurt unimpressed with his actual roots (he had lived a life dining out on his perceived Irish ancestry), Graham Norton turn out to be a Yorkshireman and, perhaps most movingly, Carol Vorderman find out new and amazing things about her estranged father while he was part of the resistance in World War II Holland (he sadly died a few weeks after filming). Now that really was an incredible episode. But onto this year. Over the jump is the list of celebrities, but as you can see a great big picture of Patsy Kensit starring at you, it's safe to say that she will be one of them.

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One my favourite shows, Who Do You Think You Are?, has already been busy booking for names for next year's new series. And reading The Medium Is Not Enough this morning, there's a link on there that takes us to a story saying that Jerry Springer has already been signed up, and that his trawl through his family history will include a trip to Auschwitz.

In the interview, Jerry says: "I show up in England with my passport and they take me around the world. They've already arranged it, but I don't know where they're taking me. I know I'm going to Germany... because that's where my parents are from, and that's where the rest of my family was killed. That'll be tough. Yeah, going to Auschwitz, that'll be horrible."

Story: ET Online

It's with a heavy heart that I advise you to watch Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1, Thursday, 9pm) as at the same time on BBC2 is Mock The Week and Saxondale. If you're not a fan of alt.comedy, then BBC1 is the only place to be. Of course, WDYTYA? is a show that pokes around the history of a celebrity and their family tree. It's always interesting stuff. I recall Jeremy Clarkson getting a revelation about a distant relative of his inventing the Kilner Jar but essentially drinking and gambling the profits up the wall.

This week we get to follow Griff Rhys Jones (is there are name more Welsh than his?) which sees his eternal chipperness taking a bit of a kicking. In the show, we get to watch one of the nicest blokes in TV (as we've seen countless times in his Restoration shows) going from being "unutterably" bored by the prospect of his family history to the revelation of a deeply buried family secret emerging about the death of his grandparents. "Now I've got to tell my poor mother. Thanks very much, Who Do You Think You Are?". A fascinating and sad story unfolds and gently grabs the viewer and Rhys-Jones into the past to make for a fabulous TV show.

A lot of reviews of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, Thursdays 9pm) tend to be filled with references to the fact that the experiences these celebrities have of trying to learn about their family history is rather different to the experiences we would have. World experts and ancient documents are always to hand, nothing is off limits or out of reach.

But to concentrate on this side of the programme, especially considering last night's show which featured Natasha Kaplinsky, seems churlish and rather misses the point. What was important last night was the story. Well, three stories, in fact - Natasha's father in apartheid South Africa, royal connections in her mother's family, and, most heart-breakingly, the experiences of her Jewish ancestors in Nazi-occupied Belarus.

Thursdays are already busy enough, what with Mock The Week and Saxondale (and Mitchell and Webb Look repeats!) on BBC Two, but at least My Name Is Earl has regained its rightful Friday slot, so maybe we can squeeze in something else - you'll still have to use that video, though (I'm sure I'll get round to Sky+ eventually!).

Who Do You Think You Are? is one of those stunningly researched, fabulously interesting documentary series that the BBC does so well (ITV had a go at something similar - ok, exactly the same - and it just didn't work). The opening episode of this series follows TV anchor Natasha Kaplinsky, and it doesn't seem that there'll be time for much filler. On one side of her family, she discovers that she has Jewish ancestors who were living in Belarus when the Nazis invaded, and the other side takes her to South Africa, from where her father was exiled during apartheid.

Hey, did you know that David Tennant's grandparents were the original Posh n' Becks? No, neither did he. He does now, though, courtesy of Who Do You Think You Are? - the BBC history series which takes one celebrity each week and helps them trace their family tree.

This week it's the turn of Doctor Who's David Tennant, whose search takes him from Scotland to Ireland as he discovers that his grandfather, Archie McLeod, was a star footballer who married a beauty queen. Barbara Windsor and Colin Jackson have already traced their roots, but David Dickinson, Nigella Lawson and Jeremy Irons are all still to come.