Viewers were left emotional on Tuesday night as Zoe Ball uncovered heartbreaking details about her family history on Who Do You Think You Are?
The BBC presenter, 55, traced her family tree on the latest episode of the genealogy series, discovering the difficult life of her grandmother, Margaret “Peggy” Minto, the mother of her late mum Julia, who was committed to hospital with acute mania after being put on trial for shoplifting.
Fighting back tears, Ball learned how starkly different her own life had been from Peggy’s.
The coal miner’s daughter left school at 15 to work as a domestic servant for wealthy families before later struggling with her mental health.
The programme revealed Peggy became deeply depressed after her eldest daughter, her son-in-law and their child moved to Lancashire.
She began fabricating stories about herself and became, according to records, “excessively extravagant with money”, running up large bills.
After being arrested for shoplifting in 1963 at the age of 50, doctors committed her when she began expressing “grandiose ideas” during her trial.
Peggy died in 1979, aged 66, when Ball was just nine. Her death certificate listed pneumonia, liver failure and manic-depressive psychosis.
Despite the painful revelations, there was also a moment of comfort for Ball when she was shown a second letter Peggy had written, mentioning knitting jumpers for Julia, who died from cancer in April 2024.
“I am really happy just to see she is doing well,” Ball said through tears. “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.”
The emotional episode struck a chord with viewers, many of whom shared their reactions online.
“It’s so emotional studying family history,” one wrote on Instagram.
Another added: “Just watched your episode. Very moving and fascinating.”
A third commented: “A really brilliant episode… 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.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Ball uncovered more stories of hardship in her family tree. One ancestor, Cornish miner-turned-Northumberland greengrocer James Temby, was unable to write his own name, signing legal documents with “the mark of James Temby”.
Born outside marriage, he grew up in severe poverty, while his mother Julia — who worked in the copper mines around Redruth — once appeared before magistrates after a fight with another woman.
Another branch of Ball’s family, living in Glasgow, endured similarly grim conditions, with around 50 people reportedly crammed into a four-storey tenement with just a single toilet in the yard.
Death certificates revealed ancestors who died from illnesses including tuberculosis and laryngitis, while several children did not survive infancy.
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