Who do you think you are

I don't watch Eastenders so DD was new to me. It seems his character is identical to his own, a Londoner, a Cockney. Diamond geezer, so he's not really acting, he is just being himself?
Maybe they will change the name of the pub from Queen Vic to King Henry now??

If you go back 22 generations the person at the top will have about millions of descendants. It doubles with each generation. We are probably all descended from Henry II.
Sorry I didn't like the episode. DD now believes he has Royal blood in his veins which is hogwash. He has been conned. He wanted posh relatives and that's what they gave him.
The more recent parts of his tree were much more real and interesting.

There is a similar tale about a blacksmith charging a farthing for the first nail in a horseshoe and doubling it for every on of the 32 nails. It works out at approx £4.5 million.

According to my calculation I would have 8388608 GGp's after 22 generations, double that for a couple.

Some of them must be doubled up on more than one line, as there weren't that many people around that far back.

There is a legend about Lord Krishna playing chess with a local king, and winning. The king offered his choice of reward. Krishna asked for one grain of rice to be placed on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the next, and so on, doubling each time. The rest of the story is at www.singularitysymposium.com/exponential-growth.html

The greats double in every generation you work back

Lay in bed not counting sheep but counting ancestors, and fathomed out the maths, at least got into the millions! Mind blowing!

Me neither, Bobbysgirl19, but I'm just going to accept it's correct. Trying to check the figure could tip me over the edge.

Am I missing something here, as I for one cannot compute how I could possibly have 8.5 million 22nd great grandfathers

Indiana, that was exactly the point I was trying to make. WOW 8.5 million, that is mind blowing, but I can see how it computes.

I think some statistician has demonstrated that we are ALL descended from Edward III.
I calculated that we each have something like 8.5 million 22nd great grandfathers, so that wouldn't surprise me!

Sideways was only my description, don't read too much into it's accuracy.

Print out a fan for your own tree. www.familytreetemplates.net/category/fan

It wouldn't be sideways on my chart. Each parent has equal billing, so it is a fan-shape. Without the female line beyond immediate mothers, it would have just a cake-slice-shaped segment with blanks in an increasing number of slots in each generation.

As it is, there a slice-of-cake-shaped hole at one point, where a father was conspicuous by his absence so none of his ancestors are known either. Fathers can be anonymous.

There again some trace their maternal line as there is less chance of any duplicity.......

Because people tend to concentrate on tracing their family name which goes through the male line. I say sideways because that is the way it would appear on a chart if you follow successive maternal lines.

Wobbly, why is the maternal line sideways?

Ruby, but how far sideways do you go ?

Wobbly ,I traced my dads tree through his maternal side back to the early 1700's ,his paternal side was Irish and a lot of the records were lost during the rebellion so I cant get any further then my great grandparents on that side .Had he lived he would have been thrilled that I managed to get so far back as he knew very little about his ancestors .

We said that DD sounded just like some of our inlaws, who are proper Cockneys born and bred. They have such a distinctive way of talking I could have thought they were exaggerating, if I didn't know better.

If never heard of him but I enjoyed the programme. Wobbly I'm a bit surprised at what you said regarding maternal lines. I am interested in all parts of my family tree.

Not a particularly versatile actor then?! Oh well I don't suppose he minds being typecast. Last night he was playing himself ++

Oops, meant demonstrated in respect of particular individual....

ninathenana is right. DD does sound and look just like that. SiL sees him at the gym. Lots of the East London/Essex boys sound like that round here!

I think some statistician has demonstrated that we are ALL descended from Edward III. It's seeing it demonstrated that makes it fascinating.

Danny Dyer might be an actor but he only ever plays himself. In films he is the cockney hard guy, in Eastenders he is the lovable Cockney landlord. Some of the phrases he uses are not even real East end but are Dyerisms. Even his walk is exaggerated. Last night's WDYTYA was very interesting and entertaining though.