Vicky McClure breaks down on Who Do You Think You Are
BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? viewers were brought to tears as an emotional Vicky McClure discovered ‘horrific’ details about what her great-grandfather endured in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Taiwan.
The Line of Duty star, 41, travelled 17 hours to Asia so she could get a better insight on just how bad her mother Carol's grandfather Harry Millership was mistreated after his capture in Singapore with 130,000 others in 1942.
Before being conscripted, Harry had been a coal miner in Yorkshire since he was 14. He spent 18 years underground and was responsible for moving the supports that secured the tunnels.
Vicky was moved to tears as she later discovered that Harry spent 70 days travelling to Singapore by sea in 1942, only to be involved in one of the Allies' greatest defeats of the Second World War,
After eight months he was transported to Taiwan on a so-called "hell ship", surrounded by men suffering from starvation and dysentery.
An emotional Vicky, went on to say: “The reason I’m an actor, it’s because I’ve got a very vivid imagination and sometimes I battle with that and I think I’m battling with it here. My head is all over the shop and I’m learning information that is just horrific. He is my great-grandad, it’s my mum’s grandad.”
She added: "I want my family with me, I feel really on my own in this. It's so much to take in but I feel terrible because he was alone and he didn't make it home. I just weirdly feel connected, which is bonkers because I never met him."
Vicky is later shown an account, by Arthur Titherington, who worked in the same copper mine as Harry, on what the camp would have been like.
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The actress couldn’t control her emotions as she burst into tears and said: “It’s horrible, horrible, horrible.” She added: "God, it's horrible, It's like a horror movie."
Viewers watching at home went straight to X and shared their reaction. One wrote: “Tears shed for the poor prisoners of war held in Japanese camps in WWII - an emotional watch #whodoyouthinkyouare.”
Another commented: “Wow, what a man Harry Millership was Rest easy, Harry. #whodoyouthinkyouare @Vicky_McClure.”
“One of the saddest episodes I’ve ever watched but how proud is Vicky McClure of her Great Grandad. RIP Harry Millership. #whodoyouthinkyouare,” One said.
Who Do You Think You Are? is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
