The Sunderland blooper on Kate Winslet episode of BBC's Who do you think you are?

TV bosses have admitted to a cock-up on a documentary about Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet.
Kate Winslet's Who Do You Think You Are? programme wrongly included 1896 footage of Sunderland.Kate Winslet's Who Do You Think You Are? programme wrongly included 1896 footage of Sunderland.
Kate Winslet's Who Do You Think You Are? programme wrongly included 1896 footage of Sunderland.

Although not exactly a Titanic error, it came on BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?, a hugely popular show which details the family trees of various famous people.

On Monday, August 12 the show examined the genealogy of A-lister Kate Winslet. Eight minutes into the show, the commentary referred to “Kate's two-times great-grandfather, Alfred Lidman, married in London in 1884."

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However, the first part of the accompanying Pathé footage did not show London. It showed 1896 film of what was clearly the old Wearmouth Bridge, with the Monkwearmouth Railway Bridge in the background and Victorian Sunderland residents going about their business.

Instead of showing London, the programme mistakenly showed footage of the old Wearmouth Bridge, seen here in 1927.Instead of showing London, the programme mistakenly showed footage of the old Wearmouth Bridge, seen here in 1927.
Instead of showing London, the programme mistakenly showed footage of the old Wearmouth Bridge, seen here in 1927.

The error was spotted by sharp-eyed Echo reader Trevor Lyons-Davis, who drew it to our attention in an email.

The production company behind the show is Wall to Wall Media, who are behind many other shows including The Voice UK and Long Lost Family.

They have explained their mistake and thanked Mr Lyons-Davis for flagging it up.

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They told the Echo: “We’re grateful to your reader for pointing out that we mistakenly included an archival shot of Sunderland rather than London. We take accuracy very seriously, so have looked into this carefully.

“The archive ‘reel’ from which we sourced this particular shot included shots of London, Sunderland and other urban locations. While we aim to include only shots that accurately match each specific story, in this instance we mis-identified the shot.

“We’re waiting to see if we can change the shot in time for the repeat. But we will certainly revise the cut for future broadcasts and continue to scrutinise our archive footage with great care.”

The Wearmouth Bridge, as shown in the 123 year-old footage, was opened in 1859 and constructed by the legendary engineer Robert Stephenson. It was replaced by the current bridge, which opened in 1929.

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The Monkwearmouth Railway Bridge, which still serves rail and Metro passengers today, was opened in 1879.

Who Do You Think You Are? – Kate Winslet, will be repeated on BBC1 at 11.40pm on Thursday, August 15.