Who Do You Think You Are? review: Andrew Lloyd Webber finds exactly what he is looking for

The creator of Cats is dying to find out what makes him so fab and the long-running BBC series obliges

Andrew Lloyd Webber an enthusiastic and chatty presenter — of himself, admittedly

Ann Marie Hourihane

You’d think that Andrew Lloyd Webber would know who he thinks he is by now, with his six London theatres, his millions of pounds and his South American dog, Mojito. You’d think Andrew Lloyd Webber would say: “Enough about me. Let’s talk about someone else for a change.”

But no. Turns out that Andrew Lloyd Webber is dying to find out what makes him so fab. Where is the genetic blueprint for “this drive”? Where is the DNA origin of “the music”?

This is the 19th series of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One). And it’s never faltered yet. Of course, the best parts are always the shocks. Like Danny Dyer finding out that he was royalty, and not just in Albert Square. Like Josh Widdicombe’s ancestor holding the enviable job (if that is indeed the term) of accompanying the monarch to the lavatory. Or Nigella Lawson discovering that one of her ancestors had been a criminal.

With Andrew Lloyd Webber, we were in slightly different territory. Because the man behind the music of Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats found exactly what he was looking for, to paraphrase one of the global hit songs that he didn’t write. All his questions were answered. Is it ungracious to feel slightly disappointed?

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It is a bit unfair, because Andrew was an enthusiastic and chatty presenter — of himself, admittedly. He sat down at a piano in a pub and played one of his own songs. But there were some good lower-grade surprises here, like the fact that his eldest daughter, Imogen, is absolutely beautiful. Imogen provided a healthy dose of irreverence for her father. If only we’d seen more of her.

Crucially, we never discovered when Andrew’s surname became double barrelled; that change wouldn’t have been his idea, would it? Come on, we all wanted to know. This was a rare slip-up from the team that makes Who Do You Think You Are?

Anyway, he turned out to be descended from a duchess. And a hero of the battle of Waterloo. And a working-class Christian missionary. And French people and Dutch people. There were strangely echoing events too, across the generations, as there are in many families. Two young people who drowned before they were 19, with the tragedies almost a century apart.

On the whole, though, he found ancestors who chimed perfectly with his own talents, and even with the talents of his brother, Julian, whose hair colour is unwise but who otherwise seems like a nice fellow.

Claire Foy is the subject of the next episode. She’s larky and emotional, as you would expect an actress to be. But she’s also charming and really curious about the tough lives led by her ancestors, who were mostly Irish immigrants in England. There are two tragic deaths in her family tree as well. And her mother is a complete stunner, although she is nearly 70.

I’m not saying that Claire Foy’s episode is a nice antidote to the narcissism of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s but… to hell with it, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

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