Jason Donovan Traces His Showbiz Roots | Who Do You Think You Are

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Jason Donovan was born in Australia and catapulted to fame in the soap opera Neighbours. He's had four UK number one singles and is a star of West End musicals.

Jason comes from showbiz parents who divorced when he was five. His British born father won custody and brought him up alone, but its Jason's mother's family line that holds the key to Jason's Australian heritage - up to now a complete mystery to him.

Starting in his hometown of Melbourne, Jason goes to meet his mother's cousin Judy and discovers that the showbusiness roots in his family go deeper than he thinks. As Jason unravels this mystery, he also tries to understand why his mother went missing from his life as a child.

Digging deeper into history, Jason uncovers a possible convict connection. He sets off to Tasmania to see how his ancestors ended up there - and uncovers a British miscarriage of justice. Returning to Sydney, Jason traces his family back to one of the earliest Australian settlers - a pioneer who opened up the entire continent to settlement. At the end of his journey, Jason feels reconnected to his Australian roots and realises his family story is no less than the story of the birth of a nation.

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In each episode one of Britain's best-loved celebrities traces their family tree to reveal the surprising, extraordinary and often moving stories of their ancestors. We publish new videos twice a week with the most memorable moments from the show. Subscribe now and click on the bell 🔔 to get notifications every time we upload a new video!

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Although he was born in Melbourne, actor and singer Jason Donovan has strong connections with the UK. His father, wife and two children were all born in England and he lives in West London.

But what about his Australian ancestry? While Jason has long heard stories about his father’s forebears from Notting Hill and Kensington, he knows little about his mother’s side of the family. “Maybe this is the opportunity in my life to go back a bit to my roots,” he says at the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, “but I’m going to this pretty blind and that’s maybe one of the reasons why I’m doing it.

First, Jason flies to Melbourne and a meeting with his father, actor Terence Donovan. Although Jason is estranged from his mother, actor turned TV presenter Sue McIntosh, Sue’s mother Joan was an important figure in Jason’s life and helped look after him when he was growing up. Joan put together a file of information on her family history for Jason, which Terence now keeps.

For a man from a showbiz family, the first figure that captures Jason’s imagination is his great grandmother, Eileen Lyons, “Australia’s charming soprano”. Visiting his mother’s cousin, Judy, he sees an early contract. In the early 1900s, she earned £2 a week with impresario JC Williamson, performing in musical theatre, and she also trod the boards in vaudeville. Her career ended with her marriage in 1913. She curtailed a comeback in 1941 because her eldest daughter’s marriage failed and Eileen stepped in to raise her granddaughter, Judy.

Going back further, Jason learns that, like many in Australia, he’s partly descended from convicts sent to the continent when it was first being colonised. Eileen’s grandfather, Joseph, was an East End scrap metal and junk dealer transported to Tasmania, an island off mainland Australia, for handling stolen goods.

Unusually, at a time when transportation often signalled the end of relationships, Joseph was eventually joined by his wife, Rosetta. Jewish, he was helped out by a Jewish family and eventually earned a pardon in 1849. Joseph and Rosetta eventually returned to London. Jason is both pleased to confirm family stories of Jewish roots and moved by the “camaraderie of the community” that helped Joseph re-build his life.

Next, Jason turns his attention to the family of his maternal grandfather. Going back seven generations, Jason’s forebear William Cox, who was born in Dorset in 1764, came out to Australia on a convict ship. The scene seems set for another tale of bad behaviour harshly punished.

But that’s not how things turn out. William, records show, was a military man who volunteered to go to Australia. On the ship Minerva, he was responsible for guarding and looking after the convicts. When he arrived in New South Wales, William became an important man, a landowner, property developer and magistrate.