Keeping it in the family - acting secrets revealed

Have you spotted all the family partnerships appearing on your TV screen lately?

Philip Glenister

Copeland Crack is in no danger of turning into a Celebrity gossip magazine but I can't help but notice the number of family acts appearing on my TV screen of late. On Sunday I was watching A Passionate Woman on ITV and spotted that the young husband looked and sounded like the great actor Alun Armstrong -  who'd be playing the husband in later life in episode two. Sure enough, when the credits came up it showed it was actor Joe Armstrong, son of Alun. The previous Friday, Ashes to Ashes had featured the wife of actor Philip Glenister (playing Gene Hunt). Mrs Glenister (aka actress Beth Goddard) played the manageress of a dating agency. There was a lovely bit of fun when she turned to the bar owner at one point and asked if Gene Hunt had ever been married. The bar owner said he thought he'd been married once to which she replied "Poor woman!" And of course the first episode of the new Doctor Who series featured his companion Amy Pond (actress Karen Gillan) who was portrayed as a young girl by her real-life cousin Caitlin Blackwood.