Bury actor and West End star Layton Williams traces a deeply moving and inspiring family history in tonight’s episode of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Layton, who grew up on Bury’s Dicky Bird estate and attended Broad Oak High School and the Carol Godby Theatre Workshop, returned to his hometown during filming to reconnect with his roots.
The actor, known for his role as Stephen Carmichael in Bad Education, recently won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance in Titanique at London’s Criterion Theatre. He was also a finalist on Strictly Come Dancing in 2023.
Layton previously wowed West End audiences as the title character in Everybody's Talking About Jamie.
In tonight’s programme, Layton reveals how his father was also born in Bury but has Jamaican heritage.
He catches up with his mum and her cousin Tracy in Bury.
They tell him that his great-grandma Josie and her parents William and Matilda Downing came from London, but moved to Bury during the Second World War. They show Layton a postcard that Layton’s great-great-grandfather William sent to his daughter Josie from France during the war.
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Waiting to find out more about William and what he was doing in France, Layton heads back to London, where he meets historian Glyn Prysor who tells him that William joined up when he was just 17, a year after the First World War ended, and was a remount rider, training horses for the battlefield.
William later left the Army but was in the reserves. Layton knows that, during this time, William married and had Layton’s great-grandmother Josie, but then, when he only had two weeks left in the reserves, the Second World War broke out.
Next, Layton meets military historian Sarah-Louise Miller to see if she can tell him about the French postcard.
Sarah explains that William was posted to northern France and saw no fighting during the early months of the war.
But just a month after he sent the postcard home, Germany invaded France, and the Allied troops were forced to evacuate. William found himself at Dunkirk with hundreds of thousands of other terrified men, as they waded through the water to reach the ships to take them home.
After returning to the UK, William ended up in Bury working at a PoW camp there, which is how Layton’s family came to Bury.
Further research traces Layton’s family connection to London before Layton returns to Bury to find out more about his Jamaican heritage.
He visits his grandmother in Bury, and they reminisce about his grandfather Clarence. Layton regrets never having spoken to his grandfather about his family in Jamaica.
A trip to Jamaica follows and although Layton knows it is inevitable, he is shocked to see his likely three-times great-grandfather listed as a slave.
He ends the film reflecting on how incredibly strong his family must have been to survive the horrors of slavery, and says he feels proud and grateful to his ancestors.
The episode is on BBC iPlayer and airs tonight at 9pm.
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