Felicity Kendal researching family connections after TV expose

Veteran British actress Felicity Kendal is digging deep into her family history after discovering a long lost branch of relatives during a TV show. The Good Life star delved into her past for small screen documentary show Secrets from the Workhouse, which explores the dark history of Britain’s poorest in Victorian times.
During the show, Kendal discovers her great-grandmother, Mary Liddell, had nine children and ended her days in a workhouse after her husband John threw her out, and the actress is convinced she has more unknown relatives.
She tells Britain’s Daily Express, “It was a time where everything was covered up in society. Anything that didn’t conform had to be erased. She was rubbed out of history like she didn’t exist at all… Because Mary had nine children with John and he has descendants alive, my family must now be all over the place. So now I’m trying to find where the other children’s children are. I’ve got someone helping me to do that detective work.”
Actor Brian Cox is also among the famous faces who have taken part in Secrets from the Workhouse, which begins airing in the U.K. this week (beg24Jun13).