Actor and presenter Joe Swash has delved into his family history for the documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, uncovering emotional revelations about his late father Ricky's side of the family.
At 44, Joe is now older than his father was when he died at age 39. Joe was just 12 when he lost Ricky, and he recalls the profound grief that lingered in their Islington home. 'For a long time it was a house full of sadness and grief – a lot of the time I was trying to get through that period,' he says.
Joe had already begun his acting career as a child, appearing in an Andrex commercial at age seven, followed by roles in You Rang, M'Lord?, Casualty, The Bill, and London's Burning. Ricky never saw him star as Mickey Miller in EastEnders in 2003, win I'm A Celebrity… in 2008, or Dancing On Ice in 2020. He also never met Joe's partner Stacey Solomon or their blended family, which includes Harry (19), Zachary (18), Leighton (14), Rex (7), Rose (4), and Belle (3).
On Father's Day two years ago, Stacey posted on Instagram: 'I never got to meet your dad. But he must have been the best dad in the world to have created you. Honestly Joe, you do your dad proud every single minute of the day. You're the most incredible father. We are the luckiest.'
Exploring his father's family tree for the show has given Joe a long-missing connection. 'It did make me feel closer to him. It was something I knew my dad would have loved to have known about, and a journey he'd have loved to have gone on himself,' he says.
Joe knew Ricky was part English and part Italian, joking, 'I might not look Italian, but inside I feel Italian.' But he was unprepared for a journey from North London's Islington and Clerkenwell – once known as Little Italy – to a remote mountain village near Naples.
He discovered his paternal family name was originally Raimo. His great-great grandfather, Giuseppe Raimo, left Italy as a peasant farmer and settled in London, working as a street piano player. Records show he attended meetings organised by suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
'I've always felt a connection to my Italian side, it's in my DNA. So it was lovely to find out that where I grew up – where my mum still lives, and my sister still lives, in Islington – is literally a stone's throw away from where my Italian relatives first settled in London,' Joe says.
'I had so much pride when I found out about Giuseppe. The journey he went on, the morals and the things he stood up for, the people he rubbed shoulders with, and the way he got out and worked through poverty to make himself and make his family's life better, just shows real tenacity.'
Learning about Giuseppe and other Raimo family members allowed Joe to honour his father. 'If he was watching, he would have loved the journey I went on, and he would have loved to know everything about our history, too.'
'I think what I'll carry with me from this experience is the importance of where you come from and knowing who you are,' Joe adds. 'It just made me feel a lot more attached to my heritage, which I've never really felt attached to. After this journey, I feel like I'm part of something.'
Joe also visited Senerchia, a mountain village 75 miles from Naples, where the Raimo family originated. The village was destroyed by an earthquake in 1980, but a bar still bears the family name. Visibly moved, he retraced the steps of his ancestors. 'It's quite a bizarre feeling to go to the place where part of me is from,' he says. 'I really want to go back to Senerchia with my kids and with Stacey... It's just the most amazing place.'
Who Do You Think You Are? airs at 9pm on BBC One on June 9.
