Stuck for documentary inspiration? CharleneWhite's EmpiresChild hit viewers hard when it aired this week on ITV – here's why:
, traces her family history from some unlikely places and discovers surprising anecdotes in the process.
. Like the reunion between her aunt and Albert Johnson, an elderly man who helped Charlene’s family financially through managing aThe hour-long special, has been likened to BBC’sand while they are similar, Charlene’s explorations are a little more specific. She purposefully traces her family history through the lens of the British Empire and how it shaped her history.
In the documentary, Charlene explains that because of slavery, tracing her own family history can be difficult. She says, “Jamaica as a genetic sequence in itself, isn’t a thing.” “I’m lucky to have found that out but is it a nice history? No. But I still feel like it’s something I needed to know.”Eventually finding out that her four-times-great-grandparents were born into slavery but were among the first Jamaicans to be freed was an especially pivotal moment in the documentary. Breaking down at the end, Charlene describes how it was clear that they “wanted more for their children,” much like her grandparents and herself today.