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Series 20: 6. Emily Atack

Comedian and actor Emily Atack knows she is from a long line of larger-than-life entertainers. Her mum is singer, actor and comedian Kate Robbins and Paul McCartney is Emily’s grandmother’s cousin, making him Emily’s first cousin twice removed. Recalling fun days out with the McCartney family when she was little and how Grandad Mike turned every opportunity into a comedy show, Emily sets out to find out more about her showbiz genes.\n \nOn her mum’s side, Emily discovers how her grandparents Mike and Betty both worked at Butlin’s in the 50s – where Betty won a beauty contest. Both became Redcoats, entertaining thousands of guests every summer with music and comedy – the perfect outlet for Emily’s talented grandparents.\n \nEmily is astonished to read a family letter to her grandad from a teenage Paul McCartney, telling him about his new band and looking for showbiz advice. A visit to Uncle Mike, Paul’s brother, reveals even more entertaining stories about the McCartney family.\n\nInspired by the amazing McCartney musical tales, there’s only one place it makes sense to visit – Liverpool. While there, Emily discovers that her family’s musical roots go all the way back to the brass bands of industrial Britain. \n \nFollowing on from her musical discoveries in Liverpool, Emily then heads to Wrexham to find out more about her great-grandfather Ted Robbins’s involvement in the town’s football club. She soon learns he played a greater part in Welsh football than she had originally anticipated, and that he was considered a hero to Welsh football fans.\n\nEmily’s dad’s family line reveals even more showbiz glamour – her glamorous great-aunt Doreen Atack commanded huge audiences as a theatrical whistler. But before Emily’s ancestors developed their skills as entertainers, like so many living in northern towns, they worked in the mines.\n \nBy following the family line up to Wakefield, Emily uncovers why her great-grandfather Bill fought so hard to get his family away from the pits. At Nostell in Yorkshire, Emily discovers a story of hardship, dangerous working conditions and struggles with mental health. The lives of her great-great-grandparents Joseph and Emily Atack still resonate with Emily over 130 years later.

Source: BBC 1