The People Remember - Getting to Know Our Presenters' Family Histories

As an assistant producer on The People Remember I researched interesting or surprising things about our celebrity guests. This research meant we would reveal something unknown to them about their families' service during their interview. In the cases of Anneka Rice and Helen Skelton, both women knew little of the subject previously and were grateful for the insight into their family histories.

Applying for service records can be a long process and we didn't have much time until our filming dates (about four weeks) so the race was on to find out as much as possible, as quickly as possible!

The MOD service records showed Helen's grandfather had worked for the RAF regiment during the Second World War. The RAF Regiment historian provided a lot of detail about where he served and what he would have done during that time. He was a ground gunner and served in Italy, Africa and the UK. He was also present at the Battle of El Alamein, one of the most important battles of the North African campaign.

Anneka's father was in the Royal Artillery and rose up the ranks to become an officer during the Second World War. At the beginning of the war he served in Hull to provide crucial defence against the German bombing of the docks there.

Another part of my job was to direct five short films that gave voice to five farewell letters from the front line. I asked relatives of the letter writers to come to the Imperial War Museum and read the final letters to camera. These were compelling and emotional. Filming them was an honour. We had letters from the Battle of Waterloo, a First World War pilot, the battle of the Somme, the Falklands and Afghanistan. The last of these, a letter from Military Police Officer Ben Hyde (killed in Iraq), was read by his father.

Working on the People Remember was a pleasure. It is both inspiring and moving to tell the many stories of military service which have made our country what it is today.

The third series of The People Remember, produced by the BBC Studios Popular Factual team in Wales, returns on Monday, 7th November at 9.15am, BBC One