Miles Jupp is not Belgian

The comedian thought he knew about his Flemish roots - but as he reveals in a new radio show, he couldn't have been more wrong...

Radio Times review

In Jonathan Coe's excellent 2013 novel Expo 58, 30-something protagonist Thomas accepts a work placement in Belgium, the country of his mother's birth. It's with heartfelt intensity that he looks forward to visiting the place where she grew up. Miles Jupp may well have been equally excited as he booked a passage across the North Sea to meet the relatives, convinced that his forebears were Huguenots no less.

But then his Belgian Who Do You Think You Are?-type crusade went awry. Family folklore is prone to increasing exaggeration. My grandmother was certain her ancestor was a former Bishop of Bath and Wells. As in Jupp's case, a little research and the illusion was shattered.