Stay Close co-stars and close friends Sarah Parish and James Nesbitt take part in DNA Journey with Ancestry

What differentiates this series from the more established BBC show Who Do You Think You Are? – asides from the two-for-one offer on featured celebrities – is the reliance on DNA technology over more traditional genealogical research techniques. This does result in a few corners being cut and so allows for more revelations per episode.

Only recently we had the actor John Simm who not only discovered that the man who raised him was not in fact his biological father as he had always thought, but also that he had a half-sibling whom he never even knew existed.

Imagine getting a shock like that at the best of times, let alone while being filmed for a national TV show alongside your friend and colleague (Philip Glenister).

Last week’s instalment, featuring Brookside and Royle Family stars Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston, was a slightly less melodramatic affair but still a delightfully cosy watch as Sue uncovered links to a baronet who was a champion trainer for the king’s horses, while Ricky learned of an ancestor who worked as a tailor alongside literary greats like Dickens and Wordsworth.

Back to today’s edition and Sarah discovers a potential source of one of her great passions in life – not acting, but education. This interest might date all the way back to the 1800s and her great-great-granduncle, who successfully campaigned to make education possible for every child in Scotland.

Inspiring and affirming stuff.

Similarly stirring is James’s family history, as he learns about one of his grandfathers and how he made an heroic last stand during the First World War, before finally being captured and eventually becoming a prisoner of war to the Germans.

It’s an emotional journey for both of them, as Coleraine native James lost his dad, primary school headmaster Jim, in 2020, while Sarah lost her mother in 2017.

James says: “In a way, I wish my mum and dad were here to see me go on the journey, but I suppose, in a way, they will be with me… but also they’re never that far away. If I look into the album of my memory, they’re there pretty bright”.

The image gets brighter still for James as he discovers his father had actually donated letters and items detailing his own dad’s exploits to the Linen Hall Library in Belfast. Along with them, there is a letter written by Jim, which James never knew existed.

He says: “It’s an extraordinary thing to look at. I saw his writing every day at school. I saw that writing everyday on the chalkboard at school. I would know it from a mile away.

“I said at the beginning that it would be lovely to be reconnected with him, and there it is. I’m very grateful. I’m overwhelmed”.