Who Do You Think You Are ?

[Dave the OAP]

I didn't watch the programme tonight, and I don't doubt it was very sad, but that woman is a bloody NIGHTMARE. Get her off our screens!

you really are something!

 

[Man of Harveys]

So an emotional response from a woman made the programme less attractive to you? Maybe a man can handle these things differently?

But she barely stopped sniffling during the 2h of the programme - should a former newsreader really be quite that shocked at the revelation that the Holocaust would prove to be an upsetting subject? It, plus the fact that, bizarrely, the BBC had widely trailed the fact that she cried in the show in advance, smacked rather of Spielbergian emotional manipulation to me.

Kerplunk: "Y'know like, it's really sad, like, just to think, it's just so awful, can you imagine what they went through. Oh sorry, I'm going to cry again"
Fry: "It's just that f***ing word Auschwitz, over and over again".

Anyway - no-one seemed to have noticed the Steven Fry one before; I'd recommend it, best piece of television I've seen in years. And it's still a great show - a superb way of conveying the grimmest of history in prime time. Of course, not that long ago, you had The World At War doing the same thing without pretty and heavily-lipsticked presenters. To think that was on ITV...

 

[Yorkie]

But she barely stopped sniffling during the 2h of the programme - should a former newsreader really be quite that shocked at the revelation that the Holocaust would prove to be an upsetting subject? It, plus the fact that, bizarrely, the BBC had widely trailed the fact that she cried in the show in advance, smacked rather of Spielbergian emotional manipulation to me.

Kerplunk: "Y'know like, it's really sad, like, just to think, it's just so awful, can you imagine what they went through. Oh sorry, I'm going to cry again"
Fry: "It's just that f***ing word Auschwitz, over and over again".

Anyway - no-one seemed to have noticed the Steven Fry one before; I'd recommend it, best piece of television I've seen in years. And it's still a great show - a superb way of conveying the grimmest of history in prime time. Of course, not that long ago, you had The World At War doing the same thing without pretty and heavily-lipsticked presenters. To think that was on ITV...

So your criticism isn't the subject matter but the way in which she responded. You don't like her and allowed that to cloud your judgement of the programme.

 

[Man of Harveys]

So your criticism isn't the subject matter but the way in which she responded. You don't like her and allowed that to cloud your judgement of the programme.

No, I just don't like emotional manipulation, esp. where it's unnecessary. I'd never before thought or realised at all that I didn't like her. Who else on the telly don't I like? Please tell me that I also don't like Jeremy Clarkson...

 

[Yorkie]

How do you know that was manipulation? It could have been her genuine reaction. I think I would have reacted like that especially finding out that the 2 year old baby would have died by the hands of the soldiers rather than the Nazi's wasting a bullet on a child.

 

[e77]

It is healthy to reminded about the Holocaust from time to time. That way we might not forget!

 

[Gwylan]

I agree with MoH. I found something very false about the whole programme. It wasn't so much her reaction but the way that the BBC marketed it - the Guardian called the image of her crying "the money shot" and that struck me as right, there was something almost pornographic about it.

I love this series normally but I thought this edition completely unsatisfying: I think it was mainly because it focused two generations, the appeal of it to me is delving deep into the past. The best bits were when Kaplinsky found her apothecary (a word that, rather worryingly for a newsreader, she had difficulty saying) forebear and learned about his stint with royalty. But then the programme switched away to cover the holocaust. Yes, the cousin singing in the synogogue was deeply moving (what was the prayer BTW? Anyone know?) but I thought it was a cheap shot.

The programme I remember best was Paxman stifling a tear as he came to terms with the hard life that his ancestors had. That was great TV, not just because it was unexpected but because it was in response to their banality of their lives rather than a single event like the Holocaust.

 

[Gazwag]

Oh and check out Gazwag's post on this thread too. Is he "really something" too?

Wow we agree on something

Ever since she won that dancing thing she always comes across like that awful Claire Sweeney women IMO (In my opinion which we all have and are allowed different ones) big headed and full of herself

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

I agree with Gwylan and MoH, and while there have been some great programmes in this series I feel that it is formulaic in the way that Supernanny / Honey We're Killing The Kids and so on are, and that grates a little with me There is almost always the "reaction to senseless death in the family let's see them blub" shot. Paxman got really annoyed with the prompting from the producer / director and I think that he felt that he was being led into a script or formula that they have for the programme and tried to resist it. And the Stephen Fry one was very very good television.

I'm caught here thinking on the one hand that anything that makes the holocaust more personal and real must be good, and yet feeling slightly manipulated by this programme / Schindler's List and productions of that ilk.

 

[Dandyman]

I agree with MoH. I found something very false about the whole programme. It wasn't so much her reaction but the way that the BBC marketed it - the Guardian called the image of her crying "the money shot" and that struck me as right, there was something almost pornographic about it.

I love this series normally but I thought this edition completely unsatisfying: I think it was mainly because it focused two generations, the appeal of it to me is delving deep into the past. The best bits were when Kaplinsky found her apothecary (a word that, rather worryingly for a newsreader, she had difficulty saying) forebear and learned about his stint with royalty. But then the programme switched away to cover the holocaust. Yes, the cousin singing in the synogogue was deeply moving (what was the prayer BTW? Anyone know?) but I thought it was a cheap shot.

The programme I remember best was Paxman stifling a tear as he came to terms with the hard life that his ancestors had. That was great TV, not just because it was unexpected but because it was in response to their banality of their lives rather than a single event like the Holocaust.

I think the prayer may have been The Shema - Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One (translations vary). I'm not sure if the guy was a Cantor (ritual singer) or not but he had a beautiful voice.

I have to disagree with those who found the programme manipulative. I am biased in that I have a similar background (South African/Ashkenazi) to Kaplinsky and therefore some of the aspects of the film had a particualr resonance for me but I thought her response was genuine and recognisable. Whether or not the BBC exploited her (as it can be argued it may do to the relatives of murder victims, people killed in accidents, etc) is IMO a slightly different issue.

 

[Heffle Gull]

Missed it, is it repeated anytime?

 

[Trufflehound]

I thought it was all right. The only bit that really annoyed me was when she went to have the silver telephone cosy valued - it started to look for a moment as if the BBC were sneakily slipping in an extra edition of Antiques F*****g Roadshow.

"Oooh, so how much is it worth then?"
(Disappointed) "Oh, is that all..."

 

[webbyson]

Seemed to me her response to her horrific findings genuine.............i think you have to be a very hardenned person not to have reacted like that. And i think NK has a soft caring nature..........not a big fan of her but she has a personality outside of reading the news with such profesionalism. And when her relation sang in the synagogue..........very moving and a fantastic voice..........good t.v IMO

 

[Man of Harveys]

the Guardian called the image of her crying "the money shot" and that struck me as right, there was something almost pornographic about it.

That says it all. And anyone with a brain would have to ask why the BBC ran a story about the fact that the show would feature Kerplunk crying on Breakfast a few weeks back.

The real point is - and please, no-one tell Keplunk or Yorkie this or they'll be drowning their PC keyboards in their crocodile tears - that WORSE things than she "discussed" in the programme actually happened in real life during the Holocaust, and on a mass scale. They're mentioned even in fairly mainstream history books like Norman Davies' brilliant Europe, say. Or here: http://www.yadvashem.org/

Anyway. If one more person knows about the Holocaust, the tragic history of Jewish people in the 20th century, and what can happen when minorities get rounded on as scapegoats (a lesson for the BNP pricks there), then more good than bad came out of it.

 

[Blackadder]

I thought it was all right. The only bit that really annoyed me was when she went to have the silver telephone cosy valued - it started to look for a moment as if the BBC were sneakily slipping in an extra edition of Antiques F*****g Roadshow.

"Oooh, so how much is it worth then?"
(Disappointed) "Oh, is that all..."

I know what you are saying but to fair I was wondering what it was worth (Just out of curiosity) I thought it would be worth a few grand, as I suspect did NK - shows what I know about antiques.

I didn't intend to watch the whole program but ended up watching it. It's always difficult to know whether emotion is turned on or not. However I thing the prog was worth watching.

 

[NS Herald]

Strangely I didn't find her reactions emotional but the subject matter - well it is simply awesome how humans treated humans.

Some people on here should quit their bickering over what she said, did or reacted and concentrate on how people were murdered by the Nazis and this planet should not forget so that it doesn't happen again although sadly in many parts of the world it does.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The bit that I found most interesting about the Kaplinsky family history was the South African experience of her family.

As a social anthropology student in the School of African & Asian Studies at Sussex University, back in the late sixties, I knew a lot of South African dissidents, including several who came from the South African Jewish community.

There was a common theme that ran through the families of South African Jews - all of the privileges of being on the right side of that sorry country's racial divide, combined with real family experiences of being on the wrong side in holocaust Europe. They all dealt with the contradictions differently.

There were hints of this in the programme. But much more was left unexplored.