Who Do You Think You Are? - Nick Hewer - 9:00 pm Tuesday, April 21 on Really

About this Broadcast

Nick Hewer
Season 10, Episode 6

Nick Hewer, host of Countdown and Alan Sugar's former adviser on The Apprentice, tries to find out how his mother's Catholic father Oswald Jamieson managed to reach the prestigious office of High Sheriff in Protestant-dominated 1920s Belfast. On his father's side, he researches the life of his nine times great-grandfather and discovers how his family's fortunes were shaped by the English Civil War. Narrated by Cherie Lunghi

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Education/Science/Factual Topics Family And Friends History

Did You Know..

Nick Hewer (Contributor)

Born: February 17, 1944 in Swindon

Best Known For: Being Alan Sugar's right-hand man.

Early-life: Hewer was born in Swindon on 17 February, 1944. He lived in Old Town, and was educated at Clongowes Wood College, an exclusive Jesuit boarding school, located in County Kildare, Ireland. He moved to London in the 1960s. He started his own PR company in 1966. He spent 21 years in the Amstrad management group. His PR company was hired by Amstrad to represent them in 1983.

Career: Hewer and ex-Amstrad owner Alan Sugar became friends through their working relationship; and Hewer agreed to become one of Sugar's advisers in The Apprentice TV show in 2004. He stayed with the show for 10 years. Hewer's fame, generated by the series, has led to appearances on such panel shows Would I Lie to You?, Ask Rhod Gilbert, Have I Got News for You and Room 101. He is the current host of Channel 4 show Countdown, having replaced Jeff Stelling in 2012 and was the subject of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2013.

Quote: On agreeing to be in The Apprentice: 'He said to me 'Look, I'll sort out the money.' I thought it rather droll that he'd organise a fee for me, when for 25 years I'd been fighting to get my fee out of him…'

Trivia: In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Kingston University.

Cherie Lunghi (Narrator)

Born: April 04, 1952 in London

Best Known For: The Manageress and a series of coffee adverts.

Early-life: Cherie Mary Lunghi was born on April 4, 1952, in Nottingham, the daughter of an Italian and his English wife. She was raised in London by her mother and her aunts after her father returned to Italy. Cherie began acting as a child on radio and in TV and eventually studied at Homerton College, Cambridge. Her acting training came at the Arts Educational School and the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has also been keen on dancing, aerobics, horse-riding, painting and playing the piano from an early age.

Career: Lunghi started out on stage, but made her TV debut in a 1968 episode of the BBC's classic Sherlock Holmes series. She's worked steadily ever since on the small and big screens, cropping up in the likes of Edward & Mrs Simpson, Excalibur, Tales of the Unexpected, The Monocled Mutineer, The Mission, and Ellis Island. However, it was popular footballing drama The Manageress which made her a major TV star in 1989. Since then, Lunghi has appeared in the likes of The Buccaneers, A Question of Guilt, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jack and Sarah, EastEnders, Cutting It, Midsomer Murders and Casualty 1906. She was a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2008.

Quote: 'It's intriguing to get your head around people who have evil intent. It's pretty complicated.'

Trivia: Lunghi has narrated Who Do You Think You Are?

Alex Graham (Executive producer)

Jonathan Hewes (Executive producer)

Colette Flight (Series producer)

Sarah Feltes (Director)