Viewers were moved on Tuesday evening as Zoe Ball explored her ancestry in the latest episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?”
The BBC host, aged 55, delved into her family history and uncovered the poignant story of her grandmother, Margaret ‘Peggy’ Minto, who was institutionalized for acute mania following a trial for shoplifting. Peggy was the mother of Zoe’s late mother, Julia.
Emotional yet composed, Zoe discovered the stark differences between her life and that of her grandmother, a coal miner’s daughter who, from the age of 15, worked as a domestic servant for affluent families.
Residing in the North East of England, Peggy faced depression when her eldest daughter, along with her husband and child, relocated to Lancashire.
Struggling with her mental health, Peggy began to create fictitious stories about her life and became ‘excessively extravagant with money,’ accumulating significant debts. Her arrest for shoplifting at the age of 50 in 1963 led to her being committed by doctors when she started expressing ‘grandiose ideas’ during her court proceedings.
Peggy passed away at 66 in 1979, when Zoe was just nine years old. Her death certificate cites pneumonia, liver failure, and manic-depressive psychosis as causes of death.
Fans were left emotional on Tuesday night after Zoe Ball took a deep dive into her family history on Who Do You Think You Are?
Although Peggy spent her life in and out of hospital after the committal, Zoe was moved to be shown a second letter she wrote about knitting jumpers for Julia, who died of cancer in April 2024.
‘I am really happy just to see she is doing well,’ Zoe said. ‘Bless her heart. I am so relieved that she was OK again. Seeing my mum’s name in there as well. Thank you for showing me that.’
‘I am so glad she managed to get the right treatment. She was able to be a mother and a grandma.’
Viewers were brought to tears as they watched Zoe learn about her grandmother’s history.
Fans penned on Instagram: ‘It’s so emotional studying family history’,
‘Just watched your episode. Very moving and fascinating ❤️’, ‘Love this show, tissues ready i think xx’,
‘A really brilliant episode so far as I’m watching it. Thanks for sharing it. The letters from your grandma are so insightful about mental health issues. I’m sure they will be helpful for so many people to see’,
Tracing back her family tree, the presenter discovered that Margaret ‘Peggy’ Minto, the mother of her late mum Julia, was committed for acute mania after being put on trial for shoplifting
Viewers were brought to tears as they watched Zoe learn about her grandmother’s history
Elsewhere in the episode, Zoe learned that one of her forebears, a Cornish miner turned Northumberland greengrocer, couldn’t even write his name: legal documents were signed with ‘the mark of James Temby’.
Born illegitimate, James grew up in unimaginable hardship. His mother, Julia, who worked with her sisters in the copper mines around Redruth, was hauled up before the magistrates, for getting into a fight with another woman.
Another branch of the family, 400 miles to the north, suffered brutal poverty, too — sharing a four-storey tenement building in Glasgow with about 50 people crammed into a dozen rooms. Disease was rife, with a single toilet in the yard.
Death certificates showed Zoe’s ancestors died of everything from tuberculosis to laryngitis, while many children didn’t survive beyond their first few months.
