Who Do You Think You Are - Harriet Walter 30th Jul

[kiterunner]

On BBC1 at 9 p.m. and repeated on Sunday night / Monday morning at 12:10 a.m.

[ElizabethHerts]

I hope this is a good episode. Harriet Walter is a great actress.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Dame Harriet Walter knew that her paternal ancestors, the Walter family, founded the Times newspaper and owned it through the 19th century, but she didn't know much about the rest of her family tree, although she knew that her maternal grandmother, Estella Maria Carandini, was descended from Italian noblemen and that her (Harriet's) mother Xandra Carandini Lee, worked for Admiralty Naval Intelligence in WW2. Harriet knew that her parents got married in Dec 1946 so she looked online for newspaper and magazine mentions of Xandra before that date, and found a photo of her at the Debutantes' Ball in Tatler dated Jul 1935. She then looked at the 1939 Register where Xandra was a secretary, aged 22. Then Harriet looked through the family papers that she had, and found a letter from the Admiralty offering Xandra a job as temporary section assistant in Naval Intelligence in 1943.

Harriet went to the old Admiralty building in London and met an historian who showed her the name Miss X C Lee on a staff list of the Operational Intelligence Centre, also a declassified file, formerly top secret, written by Xandra's boss Margaret Stewart, which said that Miss Lee was added to the staff because of Operation Neptune. A map showed that Operation Neptune was in fact the planning stage of the D-Day landings. Xandra was in charge of the intelligence relating to this. The historian showed her a sample of two intercepted German messages which were decoded at Bletchley Park and sent on to Xandra on D-Day and said that there would have been many more such messages.

Harriet then started to look at the Carandini family, starting with some old photos that her mother had left her. There were photos of Estella, who had always said that she was a good singer but that her father had not allowed her to to on the stage. Estella was also fond of ballet. Harriet had later found out that Estella's paternal grandmother was an opera singer. There were also photos of Estella's father, Francesco Carandini, known as Frank. Harriet had heard that Frank's father was a dispossessed Marquis who went to Tasmania and married an opera singer.

Harriet had a video call with her cousin Matteo who said she should go to Modena in Italy, where the Carandini family used to own a palazzo. Harriet went there and found a road called Via Bartolomeo Carandini, and also the Palazzo Carandini, which now belongs to a bank. Harriet met a researcher there, who told her that the Carandini family lived there from 1493 onwards and showed her a family tree and the family crest. Francesco's father was called Girolamo Carandini, and his father was another Francesco Carandini, who supposedly lost part of his inheritance including the palazzo.

Harriet went to the College of Nobles and met the college archivist who showed her Girolamo's name on a list of students admitted in 1813, when he was 9, and two playbills from his time at the school where he was listed as performing as a dancer. Harriet met up with the previous researcher again, who showed her a record from the State Archives which said that Girolamo joined the army at the age of about 19. There were many family letters between his uncles and his father about his time in the army, since he lived with his uncles in Rome until his unit was transferred to Naples in 1822. One of the letters after the move to Naples said that he had written to his uncle asking for money. He later became an officer but was then dismissed for bad conduct and returned to Modena. In 1831 he took part in an uprising there against the Austrian rulers. Harriet met an historian who told her that the uprising failed and that the rebels fled, Girolamo escaping with one of the rebel leaders and sailing to Marseille. There was a letter from his uncle to his father saying that Girolamo had written from Marseille asking for his possessions to be sent there. Another letter said that after spending time in France and Great Britain, Girolamo had disappeared.

Harriet went to Hobart, Tasmania, and met an historian who showed her a printed list of arrivals from London in 1842 which included Mr and Mrs Clarke and J Carandini (many of the Australian records refer to him as Jerome.) Mrs Clarke was a local theatre manager who had gone to London to recruit some performers for the theatre. Harriet was shown an advert for one of the concerts, and another one which said that Signor Carandini was opening a dancing establishment. A marriage record dated 11 Mar 1843 showed that he married Maria Burgess, aged about 17 or 18, who had travelled to Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) in 1832 with her father James Burgess, a baker, and the rest of the family under the assisted migration scheme. An advert for the Royal Victoria Theatre dated Aug 1843 listed Girolamo as dancing and Maria as singing. Harriet went to look at the theatre (nowadays the Theatre Royal, Hobart) and met with an historian who showed her a review which was full of praise for Maria's singing. Maria used the stage name Madame Carandini and performed all over Australia. Harriet was shown some pictures of her, and sheet music for a song which was written for her, called "I Cannot Sing Tonight". By the 1860's, Maria was Australia's leading operatic singer and had had several children, including Francesco.

A newspaper report showed that Girolamo was declared insolvent in 1843. Harriet went to Hobart Penitentiary and met an historian who gave her more information about this. Girolamo had held a subscription ball for his dancing students but lost money on it. After his discharge from insolvency, the family moved to Sydney, where Francesco was born in 1847. Girolamo was declared insolvent four more times after that, even though Maria was making good money as a singer. An Italian researcher found out that Girolamo returned to Italy alone in 1869 to visit his family there, and Harriet was shown a letter written by Maria to Girolamo's brother thanking him for helping her "poor misguided" husband in his last moments. Harriet then went to Sydney and met a researcher who told her that Maria's daughters were also singers and that they toured the world performing as a family. Maria finally moved back to England after some final shows in Australia in 1892.

[kiterunner]

No mention of Xandra's brother Christopher Lee!

[kiterunner]

Here is a link to Marie Carandini's Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Carandini

[Ann from Sussex]

Originally Posted by ElizabethHerts

I hope this is a good episode. Harriet Walter is a great actress.

It was Elizabeth.....extremely good, and the best this season I thought. I have thought before that it must be so wonderful for a very talented person like Harriet Walter, to discover from where and from whom, your talent comes. It was noticeable how much more excited and animated she became as the revelations about Maria came out.
I was surprised there was no mention of her famous uncle, Christopher Lee.

[Olde Crone]

My mind always skips to irrelevancies - I wanted to know WHY her mother was selected by the Admiralty for this work.

I think this has been a very good series, much improved from the last few years.

OC

[ElizabethHerts]

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and Harriet Walter was just as I imagined her.

Lucky her, all that Italian ancestry! Maria, Girolamo's wife, seems to have been a strong, capable lady with great talent.

It was sad that Xandra was so belittled by her husbands. She was obviously very capable and intelligent.

[Ann from Sussex]

I think it isn't too far fetched to say that without Maria Carandini there may well not have been a Sydney Opera House. How amazing to think that your relative prepared the way for one of the world's most iconic buildings!

[Sue from Southend]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

No mention of Xandra's brother Christopher Lee!

There was a suggestion in the Sunday Times that he was one of the men in Xandra's life that belittled her... No proof of course