Strictly’s Dev Griffin says Who Do You Think You Are ‘showed me I’m a spoilt brat’

Dev Griffin wanted to find out about his past when he travelled to Jamaica for Who Do You Think You Are? But the Heart DJ, TV presenter and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant ended up leaving a legacy for the future as well. And the experience has also helped Dev, 38, get to know his father a bit better.

Rodney was raised in the parish of Mount Moriah in the Jamaican countryside and moved to London when he was 18, during the Swinging Sixties, but has rarely talked about his life to his son. “My dad is not somebody who I know that well, explains Dev.

"I know him to call up and we have a little chat. I don’t know him as a person that well. But there’s something about going to where your parents are from, that stretch of road that they grew up on, then you understand them more than anything they could tell you about themselves.”

The trip also led to some revelations about his great-grandparents on his father’s side, Joshua and Annie Riley. Members of the local Baptist church, they were both excluded from the congregation in January 1901 for fornication [sex outside marriage], with their first child being born a month later.

Their story does have a happy ending, however, as they married in 1907 and were allowed back into the church, with Joshua later becoming church deacon. And Dev was able to visit the graveyard where the couple were buried side by side.

“It’s really sweet, like a cheesy 90s romcom,” says Dev. “I’m glad it had a happy ending and my great-grandad was able to come back and get a little bit of redemption as well. It did make me think a lot about the time they had to live through and how much the church would have influenced your life.”

Dev’s visit to Jamaica has clearly changed him. “I’d be very interested in retiring there at some point,” he says. And filming the episode has also inspired him to get involved in the local community by funding a private bus service for schoolchildren in the area.

“As part of the fee I received for doing this [the show], I set up a charity bus service,” he explains. “I bought a bus that this charity can use for school trips, and also to train up some people in the local community to be drivers. A lot of times a school can be two hours away, so I wanted to create a way to transport these kids and a lot of the more vulnerable people in the community.

“It’s been an absolute pain to set up, but seeing the pictures of the first trip they made – they took a bunch of elders to a church service – made it worth it," he adds. "It’s nice to have done this process [filming WDYTYA?] and to set up something pretty cool off the back of it."

Dev also visited Ireland to find out more about his mum Maggie’s family. He says, “For me, it’s really comforting to know that you’re not just on your own, you’re part of a huge line of people who have existed before you, and are very much part of you as well – whether you like it or not!”

Dev, who grew up in north London with his mum and four siblings, travelled to Dublin for the first time and discovered that his great-grandfather, Francis Weafer, and great-great-uncle, Patrick Weafer, were involved in the Irish revolution in the early 20th century. Patrick took part in the Easter Rising against the British, and Frank risked his life as a dispatch rider, delivering secret messages for the Irish Republican Army – the military arm of the new independent Irish government – that would become known as the IRA.

“A lot of that was really shocking to me,” says Dev, “and it made me think about a lot of the British history that I’ve not been taught about. I’m a very proud British person but when I think about any of the history that I read about or found out about in school, it was all stuff that framed us as heroes or made us look really good. There’s a lot that I still have to read up on Irish history, and as fascinating as it is, it’s also quite sad and tragic.”

Dev admits the Irish leg of his journey made him contemplate some of his ancestors fighting for what they believed in, and whether he would be able to act in the same way. “Would I walk into what is almost certain death for something that I believe in? I’ll be 100% honest, when I came back from Ireland it spun me out a lot for a good few days. I was really questioning a lot of my life choices,” he says.

“In comparison to them, I’m a little spoiled brat. I’ve not lived on a council estate for a long time, I work in an air-conditioned studio, wherever I go, people are happy to see me. It’s difficult for me to imagine my life under those circumstances.” He continues, “I do like to believe that I do stand for something, I am somebody of integrity and morals. In my own way I feel like I contribute to be a positive part of history.”

Would I Lie To You airs on Thursday 13th July at 9pm on BBC One

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