Supermodel and TV presenter Jodie Kidd – who features in the new series of the BBC’s smash-hit entertainment series Strictly Come Dancing – investigates her titled ancestors as the series in which famous names venture on a journey of discovery into their family’s past continues.

Great-grandparents on both sides of Jodie Kidd’s family were awarded titles. Her father’s grandfather was Lord Beaverbrook, the legendary newspaper magnate who served in the British cabinet during both World Wars. Her mother’s grandfather was the mysterious Sir Rowland Hodge, a Newcastle shipbuilder.

Knowing next to nothing about Sir Rowland, Jodie first heads to Newcastle. She discovers he made a fortune building ships during the First World War, but later fled the city following a terrible scandal. Puzzlingly, despite the scandal, Rowland was still awarded a title a few years later. Two astonishing letters in the Houses of Parliament archives, one from Sir Winston Churchill and the other from King George V, solve the riddle.

Jodie’s other great-grandfather, Lord Beaverbrook, was Canadian and Jodie is keen to discover how deep her roots go on the other side of the Atlantic. Her investigations in Canada reveal that her family was embroiled in an infamous 19th-century murder. She manages to trace her family back much further than she ever imagined, and discovers that she descends from some of the earliest European settlers to arrive in 17th-century America.

Wednesday 24 September
9.00-10.00pm BBC ONE