The popular genealogy show returns for a 14th series this summer with a varied line-up of famous faces hoping to discover all about the unexplored branches of their family trees.
Viewers should look out for Dance discovering the father he never knew...
Who Do You Think You Are? on Thursday, July 6 at 9pm on BBC1.
......he discovered a tranche of family secrets – including two sisters he never knew existed who were born almost 50 years before he was.
The star came close to tears when told about the girls – one of whom died in tragic circumstances – but also that his father Walter was a Boer War hero and a full quarter of a century older than Dance always believed.
'It's rather extraordinary to know that here in my 70th year, I am only finding out about all of this now,' Dance said as he learned the truth while filming a forthcoming episode of the BBC's genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? 'There is something about this that I do find quite moving.'
The actor had previously known very little about his father, who died when Dance was a young child.
He had always thought that Walter, known as WD, was a divorcee when he married Dance's mother Eleanor, and was in his early 50s when he passed away in 1949.
There was only one photograph of Walter, which Dance had believed showed his father in First World War battle dress. But military historian Peter Donaldson told the actor that the uniform actually dated from the Boer War.
Military records show that Walter was 25 when he volunteered for military service on January 23, 1900 – making him 26 years older than Dance had believed, and aged 72 when the star was born.
Walter served with the Royal Fusiliers as the Boer War entered its most brutal guerrilla phase. He was involved in the 'physical and psychologically demanding' hunt for saboteurs and was awarded a campaign medal.
But more importantly, his military records also identified his next of kin as his wife Louie and a daughter Norah, who was born on December 11, 1898. The listing means Dance had a half-sister who was born 48 years before him.
'I have a sister, I see, right,' Dance said. Fighting back tears, he told Mr Donaldson: 'I have to say this is quite moving, because I know so little. So gradually, bit by bit, we are finding out about the life of a man who I just knew by his name, WD. You have been able to tell me an enormous amount, thank you.'
Dance, who is the father of two daughters, struggled to take in the news as he visited the West London home where she died. He said: 'It is overwhelmingly sad and I don't think, as a parent, that one would ever get over something like that.'
The Dance family tree took another unexpected twist when Norah married a South African in 1921. Three years later, Walter and Louie moved to South Africa, where he had once fought, so they could be close to their grandchildren
She wrote: 'My father had a great sense of humour… much too much sometimes when in a mischievous mood. Often amongst strangers this caused me considerable embarrassment. He was a strong swimmer, keen shot, fisherman, tennis and cricket player, and boxer. He was a loveable and a generous man and was slow to anger... and liked to be considered a ladies' man.'
Fighting back tears as he looked through the book, Dance said: 'I don't know why this is quite so overwhelming, but it is.'
He was particularly moved to recognise traits of his own character, saying: 'It takes a lot to wind me up… somebody has to really put my nose out of joint seriously before I lose my temper.'
He added of Walter being a ladies' man: 'I think that is a quality, not a fault. I think I have inherited quite a lot of that, really.'
Norah's records reveal that Walter worked as an electrical engineer, but in 1936 he was diagnosed with a serious illness and he and his wife returned to England. However, Louie died shortly afterwards.
Walter appears to have married Eleanor soon after Louie's death. That may have upset Norah and could explain why the two sides of the family on opposite sides of the world never knew of each other's existence.
But Dance said finding out about his relatives was 'wonderful' – and that discovering more about his father 'has given me more of an understanding about me'.
Dance features in the first episode of the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? to be screened on BBC1 at 9pm on July 6.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4636312/Charles-Dance-discovers-secret-sister-born-1898
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Charles Dance is one of our best-known actors – he made his name playing noble Guy Perron in ITV’s 1984 series The Jewel in the Crown, then became famous all over again among a new generation, playing baddy Tywin Lannister in HBO/Sky Atlantic’s Game of Thrones. So it’s hardly surprising that in person, in a Soho office munching on a pain au chocolat – “I shouldn’t really be eating this, but every now and again” – he’s the personification of thespianism, his conversation peppered with mimicry and “darlings”, far more given to anecdotes than introspection.Yet the jolly flamboyance still jolts, for – as Dance, 70, says when researching his family history for the latest series of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? – he’s “cornered the market for austere, villainous characters”. He’s...
