Family Tree

- Season 1

(2013)

Brought up in Ireland by his mother Tom Chadwick returns to England when he and sister Bea - who communicates through a puppet monkey - visit their father Keith and are told of a box left them by a great aunt. Its contents include the photo of a distinguished looking old gentleman in military garb, Tom's great grandfather. Through antique dealer Mr Pfister Tom and best friend Pete meet genealogist Neville St Aubrey, who tells them that the man in the photo is Prince George. However he is not their relative, who was actually the man who took the picture and was an ...

Tom sees a photo of his great grandfather Harry in costume for 'The Mikado' and travels with Pete to Hove to meet the very elderly Sybil, who used to live next door to Harry. She directs them to the Regents Theatre, whose archivist Rex Mottram reveals that not only did Harry have a - very tiny - part in a play starring Laurence Olivier but was also one half of a celebrated pantomime horse. Rex gives Tom the horse costume and he and Pete wear it in a charity race, where they come last.

After Bea and Tom have visited their grandparents' graves Tom notices, from an old clipping, that grandfather William competed in the 'Austerity Games, the London Olympics of 1948. They also discover that great aunt Vera left her flat to Mildred Budgens, who, despite Pete's innocent surmise, was more than a friend. Tom and Pete visit Mildred, who gives them souvenirs of the Austerity Games before Tom meets William's contemporaries, who tell him that William was not a very good athlete, any more than Pete when he tries his hand at boxing. Meanwhile Bea and her dummy ...

Tom traces his American ancestry to Charles and Rebecca Chadwick, who came to England and had three children, Tom's great grandfather Harry, Victoria and Brian. Tom, Bea, Keith and Keith's Moldovan wife Luba head to a farm in Derbyshire to meet Tom's great uncle's son Graham, his boy Ronnie and Ronnie's wife Emma, who explain why their strand of the family are redheads. Graham and Keith instantly bond over their shared delight in the sitcom 'Move Along Please' but Tom is perturbed by Ronnie's odd sense of humour such as pretending to castrate a lamb. He is relieved to...

Tom arrives in California to stay with Al and Kitty, who make him very welcome - although he is inexplicably scared of their cat. In the middle of the night he is woken by a Skype from Monkey to tell him that Bea has lost her job. At the weekend Al and Kitty hold a barbecue inviting other cousins, the married Rick and Julie, and the rather strange Dave - whose Peruvian wife has gone missing and who claims to have a vestigial tail. He also tells Tom that Charles Chadwick fled to England in the aftermath of the American Civil War, possibly because he was an accomplice ...

Pete rings Tom to tell him he has a job interview on return to England but Tom and his cousins are more intrigued by photographs showing Charles in uniforms of soldiers of both the North and South, suggesting he changed sides at the end of the Civil war. Tom attends a battle re-enactment but it gives no further clues and he is told off by the organizer for not playing dead. After Bea has phoned to say she and Pete will be flying out to join him Tom meets writer Ally Keele, whose side he takes after a traffic accident. Tom then learns that Charles changed uniforms to ...

After going on a date with Ally Tom finds out that Rebecca was apparently a Mojave Indian so he meets Bea and Pete in his expensive hire car and they head off for the reservation at Barstow. They spend the day pretending to be natives but get no further clues as to Rebecca's background until Tom is pointed towards local man Marty Schmellf. Tom is perplexed when Marty matches his photo of Rebecca with one showing her to be part of the Jewish Schmellf family, one of whom, Ezra, was a leading actor in silent Western films. As if to confirm this Mr Pfister rings Tom from ...

Ally and Tom visit Melvin to see evidence of his grandfather, Jewish cowboy star Tumbleweed Tim, whose silent film career was ended by scandal. Meanwhile Bea goes ape when Monkey goes missing, though Tom discovers he has been donated to a charity worker, from whom he has to steal him. The Chadwicks regroup at Al's house to toast friends and family and Tom, looking for the toilet, discovers Al's office, where he has built a model to show that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy and the moon landings were faked. On the eve of his return home Tom sleeps with ...