Cherie Blair’s family too boring for Who Do You Think You Are show: ‘My ancestors weren’t very interesting’

The QC says the programme was scrapped after researchers couldn’t find enough material

Cherie Blair says she is determined to achieve equality for women in the 21st century (Getty Images)

Cherie Blair’s family was deemed too boring to feature on BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?

The QC and wife of the former Prime Minister was approached by the genealogy documentary programme, but after a bit of investigating researchers decided her background wasn’t stimulating enough.

"I love the programme, so I was thrilled when I was approached to take part," Blair told the Daily Mail.

"But after some investigation, they decided not to go ahead because my ancestors weren’t very interesting.

"I guess I’ll just have to do the research myself one day.”

Blair was born in Liverpool to actor Tony Booth and actress Gale Booth. Her father left her mother when she was eight years old and he went onto marry four times and having eight daughters in total.

She was consequently brought up by her mother and paternal grandmother.

"Cherie Blair was desperate to do the series," said producer Alex Graham. "Entirely unconnected with the fact that she had a book coming out - I think she just watched the show.

"We spent hours locked in rooms with Cherie’s publicist, secretary, manager, personal assistant… eventually we had to say: ‘You are very interesting, but we don’t have a show.’"

However, it’s not quite the blow it would seem – veteran interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson also had his Who Do You Think You Are? dreams dashed after his family tree was considered too dull for television.

"When Who Do You Think You Are? called and asked if I was interested, I said I would be delighted, but warned that my own research had unearthed nothing of note," he said in a 2009 interview.

"'Oh, they all say that, but we always find something,' they said. Six weeks later, they phoned to apologise. My story was so boring they had to cancel the entire project. I was gutted."