Actor Hugh Bonneville, comedian Johnny Vegas and Line Of Duty actor Adrian Dunbar will discover their ancestry in a new series of DNA Journey later this year.
The fourth series on STV will see four celebrity pairings unearth their past and make life-changing discoveries in South Africa, Ireland and Norwich and St Helens, in England.
Bonneville, 59, who lives in West Sussex, is best known for playing Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham in the Downton Abbey films and series, and for starring in the Paddington movie and the sequel Paddington 2.
He will be paired with Liverpool-born comedian John Bishop, 56.
Northern Ireland-born actor Adrian Dunbar, 64, best known for playing Superintendent Ted Hastings in hit BBC police drama Line Of Duty and for starring in The Crying Game, and ex-Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey, 60, who has Irish ancestry, form another pair.
Croydon-born comedian Alex Brooker, a co-host on The Last Leg, and Merseyside-born comic Vegas, who also appeared as an actor in Benidorm, will also explore their ancestry together.
In the final pairing, Oti Mabuse and her older sister Motsi Mabuse, both known for Strictly Come Dancing, will uncover the truth behind their bloodlines using the show’s DNA technology and genealogy expertise.
The two ballroom dancers, who are from South Africa, moved to Germany and appeared on the country’s version of Strictly Let’s Dance before joining the celebrity dancing series on the BBC.
Oti Mabuse, 32, announced she would leave the BBC show in 2022 and became a judge on STV’s Dancing On Ice and a panellist on The Masked Dancer, while Motsi Mabuse, 41, is a Strictly judge.
Kathleen Larkin, executive producer at Voltage TV, said: “This emotional series has some jaw-dropping revelations showing that some of our celebrity pairings are more connected to each other than they ever dreamed of.”
The third series of DNA Journey featured the ice-skating duo, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, alongside Coronation Street stars Maureen Lipman and Rula Lenska, and The Chase stars Anne Hegerty and Shaun Wallace.
Comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, Gavin and Stacey on-screen spouses Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb, comedians Joel Dommett and Tom Allen, and presenters Alison Hammond and Kate Garraway also featured.
Speaking about the fourth series, Katie Rawcliffe, head of entertainment commissioning at ITV, said: “DNA Journey delves deep into the celebrity’s family history and has unearthed some astonishing revelations over the last few years.
“It’s great to see these famous faces sharing their journey with each other and we’ve got another great line-up with some more fascinating surprises.”
DNA Journey returns on STV, ITV1 and ITVX in 2023.
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