Coming Home - Olivia Newton-John

Summary and screen grabs by Eddie Orzechowski

As part of an occasional series by BBC Wales featuring Welsh celebrities returning to their roots, the BBC broadcast a TV special on 1st March 2008 entitled "Coming Home - Olivia Newton-John".

Olivia and her sister Rona made a brief visit to Wales in December 2007 to trace the roots and origins of her Welsh father, with the help of local
historians and genealogists.

The first stop on their investigative journey was in Cardiff, to find the New Market Tavern. Olivia and Rona were surprised and amused to find that their very strict and straight-laced grandmother (the Newton family) had been a barmaid at her fathers pub in the notoriious Cardiff Bay area.

They managed to trace the pub (which still exists) and found that it was managed today by a distant relative - a fifth cousin!! They even managed to
re-create a photograph in the likeness of their grandmother outside the pub, maybe 100 years earlier.

From here, they travelled to a small village (St Mary Hill) some 20 miles away to find their great-grandfathers (the John family) house and a memorial plaque dated 1784 in the parish church. Next they returned to Cardiff to fine the remains of the Chapel where their great-grandparents (the Newtons) were married - the façade of the chapel still remains built into the local Department Store. Next, a local historian showed Olivia around the school which her father attended and found pictures of him as a student in the school play. Olivia went on to hear about his time in the Air-Force working at the top-secret, wartime, code-breaking establishment at Bletchley Park.

Finally, Olivia and Rona visit the former family home (where Rona lived for a short time as a girl) and were re-united with their aunt, who had
travelled to Cardiff from Yorkshire, where she now lives, for the re-union.