Who Do You Think You Are? - Series 5 - David Suchet

Series in which celebrities trace their ancestry. David Suchet embarks on a journey round Europe in an effort to unravel the riddle of his family history. Some relations think his father's father was German, others Russian, others Estonian. When and why was their name changed from Suchedowitz to Suchet? His mother's side of the family is equally confusing. Was her grandfather called Jarché or Jarchy? He claimed to be a French photographer, but was he? First he explores the one English branch of his family: the ancestors of his maternal grandmother Elsie Jezzard. David has always loved boats, and his investigations reveal that Elsie's grandfather was a master mariner. Further digging at the National Maritime Museum leads him to the coast of Suffolk and the story of a terrible storm, a shipwreck, tragedy and heroism. Next he heads to London and Paris on the trail of his great-grandfather, Monsieur Arnold Jarché, a 19th century photographer. Was he really the proprietor of the Eiffel Tower Studio, and was he really French? Finally, he journeys across Eastern Europe in search of the birthplace of his grandfather and the roots of his unusual surname.