Ashley Walters calls out BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are for rejecting him after ‘year of research’

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Ashley Walters has called out BBC show Who Do You Think You Are? for not allowing him on the series.

The British actor and rapper, 42, appeared on The One Show this evening alongside singer Will Young and Olympian Tom Daley, the former of which was sharing his experience on the BBC ancestry show.

When asked by host Roman Kemp if he’d ever want to take part in Who Do You Think You Are?, Adolescence star Ashley let out a knowing chuckle and responded: ‘I would love to, if they’d let me.’

He continued: ‘It’s an interesting story. They approached me about doing the show, went and did like a year’s worth of research and then said, “No, we’re not going to do it.”‘

Presenter Clara Amfo asked: ‘Any further feedback?’

Ashley responded: ‘Nope. They did give me all the documents. But I haven’t read them. I haven’t gone into the box yet, so I don’t know why. But I nearly got there, I was on the cusp.’

Ashley Walters would love to go on Who Do You Think You Are? – but they rejected him (Picture: BBC) Ashley said the BBC show researched him for a year before he was rejected (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

Since its inception in 2004, hordes of celebrities have gone on emotional journeys into the family history, and viewers have seen everything from graveside sobs from Andrew Garfield to Danny Dyer famously finding out he’s royalty.

However, there are celebrity stories that don’t make the cut, some of which were said to be too dull to make compelling TV.

The late Michael Parkinson revealed in a 2009 Radio Times interview that his ancestors were too ‘boring’ for the show – something he warned producers ahead of their six weeks of research, in which the chat show host was proven correct.

Ashley was most recently on hit TV series Adolesence (Picture: Netflix) He used to be part of UK garage group So Solid Crew (Picture: Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

‘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 recalled.

‘”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,’ he explained.

Meanwhile Dermot O’Leary told podcast Sweat, Snot And Tears: ‘They actually researched my family for about three months. They came back and said: “There’s just not enough interesting stuff about your family”.’

While Sir Michael and Dermot got a polite phone call rejection, Steph’s Packed Lunch star Steph McGovern said she never heard from producers again after an initial meeting with them.