Meet the Izards

The Mums Line (1x1)

: 20, 2013

Eddie Izzard – actor, comedian, transvestite and marathon-runner extraordinaire – is about to embark on a remarkable journey using his own DNA as the road map. Locked within each of us is a genetic history book that reveals not only our deep ancestry, but also the migration of mankind across the globe. Using recent scientific breakthroughs and the help of geneticists, Eddie will unlock the secrets of where he – and we – came from. It will make Eddie the first person in Britain to use his own DNA to retrace his ancestors’ journey across thousands of miles and nearly 200,000 years of history. A two-part special screening on consecutive days, this is the epic story of humanity’s journey from our shared origins in Africa 10,000 generations ago all the way to Eddie Izzard. In episode one, Eddie will explore his maternal ancestral journey – a trip that will be close to his heart, as Eddie’s mum died when he was a young boy. It’s a voyage that will take him from Southern Africa to the Red Sea, on to Turkey, and up through Italy and Scandinavia before finally reaching Britain on a journey he hopes will make him feel more connected to his mum as he bridges the gap between his genetic and own life history. En route, he’ll meet local communities with whom he shares geneticmarkers – distant cousins separated by thousands of years of history. Eddie begins on the outskirts of Namibia’s Kalahari Desert where he meets the San Bushmen and learns to make fire. He might set tongues wagging with his painted nails, but Eddie is also moved to discover how at home he feels with his most distant ancestral cousins. He travels to Djibouti and goes fishing with a local fisherwoman at the point where the Red Sea narrows and where modern humans probably first left Africa about 60,000 years ago. Here he’s just 35kms from the Arabian country of Yemen, where it’s thought modern humans first stepped outside Africa and where Eddie himself was born. In T