Presenter Emma Willis grew up in Birmingham and loves the city and her fellow Brummies. She wants to find out how deep her roots are there. Further afield, an interfaith marriage in Ireland leads Emma down two very different paths. Violent events force her to confront disturbing truths about one ancestor, while the hard graft and determination of another lead Emma to draw parallels with her own life.

Fearne Cotton is intrigued by her Welsh great-grandfather Evan Meredith who, despite working down a coal mine from the age of 13, ended up as a chemist in the home counties. Evan never talked about what he did during World War I, and Fearne decides to investigate. She is shocked to discover that Evan risked both his freedom and his reputation by following his conscience, caught up in a catch-22 situation with the authorities which was only broken when Evan took dramatic action. On her mother's side, Fearne finds an ancestor whose extraordinary professional ambition led to an encounter with Queen Victoria but ended in career disaster.