The history boys

Sports stars Freddie Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp join forces to explore their family trees

- IAN MACEWAN, JOHNATHON HUGHES

NEW FACTUAL

DNA Journey

Wednesday, ITV HD, 9pm

As team captains of Sky One’s sports-themed comedy panel show A League of Their Own, former cricketer Freddie Flintoff and ex-footballer Jamie Redknapp have taken a few crazy trips together across Europe and the USA.

This week, the two friends are off on their travels again – this time on a whistle-stop tour of northern and southern England, to explore their respective family trees in the first episode of a new series of ITV’s genealogy show, DNA Journey.

There’s lots of banter, a fair bit of one-upmanship and more than a few surprises in store as the duo find out about the exploits of some of their ancestors, good and bad.

Here, Redknapp, 47, and Flintoff, 43, give us a taster of what’s in store…

Why were you interested in making this programme?

Redknapp We’re very proud dads, and family is so key to us both, so that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to go on this journey.

Flintoff I’ve spoken about depression and some of the other battles I’ve had in my life. So I thought it would be interesting to see if there’s any family history that explains these things. I’ve spent hours and a lot of money trying to find out.